[Vision2020] Politics?

[Terry Morin]

Michael,

My wife and I remember your young and energetic painting crew. We were happy
with your work. I hope you haven’t shed any tears over spilled mineral
spirits. My lawn looks fine.

The topic, you say, is “just whether Christ Church is really all that
politically motivated.” Bill London says it is, and Dale Courtney says it
isn't.

First, although maybe not so for stocks, bonds and mutual funds, it is
generally true for you, me and Doug Wilson that past performance does
indicate future results. The shape of who and what we are is revealed over
time in consistent patterns, regardless of our verbal claims. You referred
to my opinions on what happened at Doug’s church a dozen years ago. If those
events, as I have described them, were simply a youthful anomaly on Doug’s
part then I would join you in questioning the relevance of my opinions where
the current state of Christ Church is concerned. But when other families at
Christ Church, ten years later, bring very similar charges of malfeasance
and false-dealing against Doug and his associates, then what are we to think
about the relevance of earlier “anomalies?”

Let me give you a current example of this pattern on the topic of
“politically motivated.” What follows is a transcript of an exchange between
Robin Eckmann(RE), Deputy Prosecutor of Latah County, and Doug Wilson(DW),
on November 25, 2002. Doug Wilson is under oath as he replies.

RE: “And then, does the church endorse or oppose political candidates in any
fashion?”

DW: “No—go back to—we never have. I can envision an election at some point
in the future where it would be, you know, ‘I love the devil’ candidate, and
I would never want to say that ‘that’s impossible.’ I—” [tape ends abruptly]

Side 2
[laughter]
LP: “Okay, we’re back on tape, we turned the tape over.”

RE: “Okay.”

DW: “As I said earlier, we make a great effort to stay out of what I would
call ‘partisan politics.’ At the same time there are certain issues that in
our culture-wars-divided society other people think are partisan issues that
we do not. So, for example, we are crawl-over-broken-glass pro-life in our
stand, so I could see from the pulpit, saying, ‘You have an obligation to
honor and respect human life as you vote.’ But we wouldn’t do something,
‘Vote for Smith,’ that—we would keep a detachment from a particular
campaign, particular individuals, and issues.”

RE: “Okay.”

DW: “So—”
RE: “And does the church publish, or has it ever published, any kind of a
‘voter’s guide’ kind of a thing analyzing the candidates under, you know,
the—”

DW: “No.”

RE: “—theories of the church?”

DW: “No, we have not.”

RE: “That’s all I have.”

The clear message from this exchange is that Doug and his church eschew
political involvement, consistent with your claims. Yet, in the weeks and
months prior to this hearing before the Idaho Board of Tax Appeals, the
email traffic from Christ Church was full of exhortations to the faithful,
to support John Guyer for City Council and Paul Kimmell for County
Commission through financial contributions, yard signs, and letters to the
editor of the major newspapers. (Check with me off-list if you'd like
copies.) And in our own recently concluded election, a "voter's guide" was
prepared with Doug's electronic fingerprints attached, with Doug himself
calling three of the candidates to urge their response to said scorecard.

Is Doug Wilson being a little disingenuous here? Why should we believe his
public claims, when they contradict his actual behavior? This gets back to
my point in a previous post that this lack of consistency between verbal
claims and actual behavior "doesn't look good, and it only serves to confirm
what many on the other side of your covenantal divide have come to believe
about the honesty of kirk-community spokesmen," even when under oath.

Terry
-- 
Terry and Linda Morin
1232 Tamarack Drive
Moscow, ID  83843
208.882.6251