[Vision2020] The Trouble With Doug, or Theocratic Park III

[Joan Opyr]

Would someone mind walking down a long, dark tunnel and turning on the 
generators?  There are dinosaurs out there, but you can take a shotgun 
with you.  Not that it will be much good against enormous man-eating 
raptors, but you're brave, aren't you?  Well, aren't you?

Pat Kraut, G. Crabtree, and Donovan Arnold all begin their defenses of 
Doug by insisting that he is the victim of mass religious persecution.  
In order to believe this, they must assume, without evidence, three 
things:

1. That opposition to Doug Wilson is completely and wholly 
theologically based.  Because his religious beliefs seem sexist, 
racist, and homophobic to Moscow's "liberals," some amorphous "we" are 
out to get him.  But "we" are not out to get the Pope, who speaks 
sexism and homophobia into power ex cathedra.  Funny, that.  Also, the 
Catholic Church has 300 million members; Doug has between 850 and 1200. 
  Are "we" starting small before "we" go global sometime in the future?  
(I don't know.  I've missed several Liberal Conspiracy meetings, but 
I'll have a word with Sinead O'Connor and get back to you.)

2. PK, GC, and DA assume that Christ Church is just another mainstream 
church; that it is no different in theology and practice than the 
aforementioned Catholics, or the Lutherans, the Methodists, the 
Mormons, or the Baptists (Southern, American, Independent, and Free 
Will).  G. Crabtree's line is, "If you don't like what Doug is 
preaching, then pack up your Bibles and leave."  Oddly enough, I used 
to say this myself.  I used to believe it, until I learned better.  The 
first time a shunned and spiritually-battered Kirker weeps on your 
sofa, you might dismiss it as an anomaly.  But what about the second, 
third, fourth or fifth?  I see that as a pattern.  And -- unlike PK, 
GC, and DA -- I've taken the time and trouble (oh, what a load of 
trouble) to actually read Doug's massive assortment of writings.  Log 
onto www.credenda.org, read all of it, and then get back to me.  We'll 
talk.

3. PK, GC, and DA either choose to ignore Doug's well-publicized 
political agenda or they don't believe it exists.  This, I fear, is 
willful ignorance.  They might pick up a copy of "My Town" from the 
Moscow Public Library -- a film Doug Wilson, Roy Atwood, Ben Merkle, 
etc., cooperated with wholeheartedly -- and spend the hour and five 
minutes watching it.  The film as made by WSU professor Michael Hayes.  
It was not made for profit but for educational purposes, and it is not 
a hatchet-job on Wilson and company.  They speak for themselves in the 
film without critical commentary.  (Donovan's assertion that someone, 
somewhere is making money off this film is false, and I suggest he 
knock it off before I go "Atwood" on him and threaten him with my 
"crack legal team."  Crack.  Legal.  Team.  Crack.  Legal.  Crack.  
Mostly crack.)

Three assumptions, all incorrect.  There is no Liberal Conspiracy.  I 
tried to get one together, but the Vegans wouldn't meet me at Mikey's.  
Go figure.  Someone must have told them that "Opyr" is Ukrainian for 
vampire.  (It is, you know.)  Here's how things stand, at least on 
Vision 2020.  Keely Emerine-Mix objects to Doug Wilson's use and abuse 
of the gospel.  So, too, I believe, does J. Ford.  Why?  Because they 
believe in the gospel; they believe in Jesus Christ.  It hurts them to 
see Doug swinging their savior about like a battle-axe.  Wayne Fox, 
Nick Gier, and Ralph Nielsen are not defending the gospel, as such, by 
objecting to Doug Wilson's actions and interpretations.  Ralph, I know, 
is an atheist in good standing.  He doesn't defend the gospel as the 
gospel; he defends ancient documents from mistranslation, 
misinterpretation, and sheer bloody-minded ignorance.  People who don't 
know the difference between a version and a translation get on Ralph's 
last nerve, as they do mine.

Second, Christ Church is not a church like any other, at least not on 
the Palouse.  In the wider world, it's not unique.  It has theocratic 
kinfolk across the United States -- a sister church in Monroe, 
Louisiana, run by Doug's good buddy and co-founder of the racist League 
of the South, Steve Wilkins.  Doug has plant churches in Cary, NC, 
Spokane, WA, and other places.  That's why he has a seminary, 
Grayfriars -- to spread his church far and wide via his very own 
trained ministry.  As Doug is not himself a trained minister, this 
strikes many as wild hubris, but you don't need to be ordained to 
pastor.  I believe that, as I know do Keely and Rose and Melynda (the 
latter two, as Quakers, don't believe in "hireling priests," period).

What's going on in Christ Church right now?  What about Michael 
Metzler's blog, Poohsthink.com, doesn't G. Crabtree understand?  Where 
to begin?  I expect that R. C. Sproul, Jr., a big wheel in the 
Christian Reformed world, will soon be joining Doug's presbytery.  
Sproul has been tossed from his own presbytery (and de-frocked) for 
admitting to shunning, spiritual abuse, using a fake tax i.d., my 
goodness how the list goes on.  (Doug has been defending R. C. Sproul 
on his blog, http://dougwils.com, by declaring that self-incrimination 
is not Biblical, ergo, R. C. is innocent?  Or at least not proven 
guilty?  It's so incredibly goofy, it's hard to follow.  I like to 
think of it as the "R. C. and a Moon Pie" defense.)  In the meantime, 
Doug continues his own practice of shunning, of threats, and of 
generally unkind and perhaps unGodly behavior.  There's nothing new 
there; nothing new at all.

Ever been shunned, Pat, Gary, Donovan?  Ever had friends of a decade 
stop speaking to you on pastor's orders?  Had those friends' wives stop 
speaking to your wife, or those friends' kids stop playing with your 
kids?  I understand it's very painful -- and, if the shunning doesn't 
work, the dramatic fall-off in your business often does.  Say you run a 
little home business, and you've been listed for years in the church 
directory.  You're now de-listed, and the calls for plumbing or 
house-painting or carpet-laying or computer repair stop coming.  You've 
lost your friends, your money, and your covenantal relationship with 
your God, all for asking a few inconvenient questions.  Many churches 
shun.  The Jehovah's Witnesses, for example.  It's cruel but effective; 
it keeps the doubters in line, long after they should have -- by all 
reason and Gary's lights -- packed up and moved on.

Doug chose to establish his church in Moscow because it was 
"strategic," and that's not my word; it's his.  As he extends his 
spiritual/business disciplinary techniques out into the broader 
community -- as we begin to see organized campaigns of shunning and 
threats to employment -- it'll be interesting to see who remains 
willfully blind and for how long.  As long as Doug and his flunkies are 
nice to them personally, it might be forever, eh, Donovan?  As long as 
they keep offering up those encouraging pats on the back?  As long as 
no one you know is personally targeted, G. Crabtree?  As long as all 
goes well for Pat in Pat's World?  (Pat's World is like Wayne's World, 
only instead of Garth and Tia Carerra, there's Dick Cheney with a 
mullet and George W. Bush in a thong.)

Now, I'll sit back and wait for the Crack Legal Team to come get me.  
That'll be Greg Dickison, right?  I won't even bother to go outside.  I 
believe my border collie, Fergus, can handle him.  Or I might send my 
Scottish terrier, Davey; he's only a little dog, but he whacks at the 
voles like no one's business.  Grrrrr.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

PS: For those of you who were speculating about where I am on the 
Political Compass, I'm sitting on the bushy beard of Peter Kropotkin.  
I'm to the right of Mahatma Gandhi, but very much to the left of Emma 
Goldman and Noam Chomsky.  Who knew?