[Vision2020] Evangelical Christianity vs. Wilsonian Christianity

[Nick Gier]

In a recent post Donovan Arnold could not find any differences between 
conservative evangelical Christians (CECs) and Doug Wilson, so he wonders 
why we single out Wilson and not the others.  In response I have listed 14 
ways that they differ.

Note: I draw the following from my evangelical friends and acquaintances as 
well as my in depth study of them in my book God, Reason, and the 
Evangelicals (www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/gre.htm.)

1.  No CEC minister I know has declared that he heads up a "New 
Reformation."  Read for yourself the arrogant and self-aggrandizing 
statements at http://www.credenda.org/issues/15-4presbyterion.php and 
http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID =1&BlogID=910

2.  No CEC pastor I know would sanction an April Fool's stunt, complete 
with stealing UI letterhead and using some else's FAX line, to announce an 
alleged UI sponsored lecture entitled "Topless and Proud."  He tells us how 
proud he was of his son-in-law's actions:

"By the time you receive this, our local police will probably have 
forgotten all about it, so a little bragging is now safe, and perhaps it is 
even in order. But first some background. Our local city council, through a 
series of ridiculous circumstances, decided to quit restricting female 
toplessness. The noble senior editor of this journal [Wilson's son-in-law], 
encouraged by some winks and nudges from me, not that he needed any, made 
up a flyer which announced a topless and proud lecture series by topless 
feminist scholars."  See the full text at 
http://www.credenda.org/issues/11-3meander.php and the police report at 
http://dougsplotch.com/looter.htm at the bottom of the page.

3.  While most CEC ministers believe that homosexuality is a sin, very few 
join Wilson & Co. in calling for their execution.  The Daily News caught 
Wilson in a generous moment when he admitted that the Bible would also 
sanction exile rather than death. Two articles in Wilson's Credenda Agenda 
(vol. 3: nos. 9, 11) supported capital punishment for "kidnapping, sorcery, 
bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one's parents."

4.  Very few CEC pastors lead their congregations in imprecatory prayers 
against their enemies.  According to a former church member, Wilson's 
favorite seems to be "Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths" (Ps. 58.6).

5.  Most CEC theologians, such as Stephen Davis, consistently reinterpret 
biblical passages that impugn Yahweh's moral integrity, but Wilson revels 
in pronouncing that every immoral act seemingly committed by Yahweh was 
indeed committed by him.  Commenting on the stories of Abraham and Job, 
Douglas Jones, Wilson's right hand man, actually admits that God is 
"morally insane" and "dangerous and unpredictable"("Playing with Knives: 
God the Dangerous," Credenda Agenda 16:3).  In his book Debate about the 
Bible, Davis wisely argues that it was sinful Israelites, not God, who 
carried out the genocide of the Canaanite peoples.

6. No CEC minister that I know has paid the gambling debts of errant 
college students out of church funds.  Even though the IRS requires that a 
1099 be filed for any payment over $600, no such document exists for this 
$1,000 transaction.  For the entire story, as yet to be covered by the 
local press and complete with letters, e-mails, affidavits, tape 
recordings, see http://dougsplotch.com/index.html.

7. Very few CEC ministers who run their own schools would openly deny that 
they have these schools, but Wilson, who accredits 157 schools, regularly 
speaks at their commencements, and requires that they read his textbook on 
Christian schools and buy his books, said the following:
"Do your schools support neo-Confederate and Christian nationalist views? 
Yes or No? MY SCHOOLS? I DON'T HAVE ANY SCHOOLS . . . . OKAY, OKAY. WE 
REPUDIATE ALL ICKY VIEWS. NEVER HEARD OF 'EM."  Wilson's full caps in his 
reply to my questions, posted on Vision2020 on December 9, 2003 at 
http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2003-December/005891.html.
One of Wilson's Moscow graduates is principal of Carey (NC) Christian 
School and he was forced to withdraw Wilson's booklet Southern Slavery as 
it Was, whose co-author is a founding director of the neo-Confederate 
League of the South.  For more see www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/slavepage.htm.

8.  Not many CEC churches, even in the South, support neo-Confederate 
views, but one of Wilson's best friends Steve Wilkins is a founding 
director of the neo-Confederate League of the South (LOS).  The LOS has 
been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the LOS 
is taking more control of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who just 
elected Kirk Lyons to its national executive board.  An outspoken racist, 
Lyons was married by neo-Nazi Richard Butler in 1990, when Butler still had 
his compound in Hayden Lake.

9. Most CEC ministers would support the international genocide treaty, but 
not Wilson. "Do you support the international conventions against genocide? 
Yes or No? THIS ISN'T A PRO-LIFE TRICK QUESTION, IS IT? IT IS? THEN NO" 
(http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2003-December/005891.html). 
Notice Wilson's flip style in this exchange: This is typical of the way he 
debates.  As I liked to say: those who live by the flip will die by the flip.

10.  All but a few CEC pastors would defer to CEC scholars in their 
congregations, but not Wilson. When Tracie McKenzie, a University of 
Washington civil war expert and a member of the Seattle Christ Church, 
dared to object to the errors in the slavery booklet, Wilson rejected his 
advice to withdraw the booklet.

11. Very few CECs would support Wilson's practice of infant baptism, an act 
that makes them, according to Wilson, Christians in more than just a 
nominal way. How much more nominal this state of grace is, is hard to 
determine in Wilson's writings. Personally, I believe Wilson has switched 
from adult baptism so that he has more control over these children and 
their parents.

12.  Not very many CEC ministers start their own denomination when their 
current sect criticizes them.  Conservative Presbyterian denominations are 
notorious for their strict discipline, but it appears as if rules are 
broken left and right in Wilson's Confederation of Reformed Evangelical 
Churches.  See http://dougsplotch.com/index.html.

13.  Most CEC pastors would respect other CEC colleges, but Wilson believes 
that very few of them meet his standards of true Christianity.  Wilson 
states that "evangelical establishment, particularly the evangelical 
establishment as now represented by its flagship colleges and publications, 
is completely adrift" (Credenda Agenda 17:1).  See also his "Classical 
Learning and the Christian College" at http://www.canonpress.org/pages/ 
pdf%20pgs/quest.pdf.  Finally, check out his article "Why Evangelical 
Colleges Are Not" in Chronicles (September, 1998).

14. Most CEC theologians would reject Wilson's "Federal Vision" in which 
the individual self is supplanted by a collective self and where women 
would lose their right to vote.

There's much more, folks, but I'm exhausted.

Nick Gier

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