[Vision2020] Evangelical Christianity vs. Wilsonian Christianity

Sun May 29 09:02:35 PDT 2005

>From the bottom of my evangelical heart, I thank my friend Nick Gier for 
what I truly think might be the most important contribution to Vision 2020 
I've ever read.

I am speechless, for once, at both the breadth of his commentary and at the 
horror taking place among us.

keely

From: Nick Gier <ngier at uidaho.edu>
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Evangelical Christianity vs. Wilsonian Christianity
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 23:17:13 -0700

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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