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

[keely emerinemix]

Yes, and amen.

This isn't about taking down the bully and antagonizing a few fighting 
fundamentalists, and Lord knows it isn't about the joys of theological 
debate.  (I've experienced joy.  It didn't look like this, that's for sure).

It's about people.  Bad theology and bad practice may dishonor God, but not 
because the ideas are funny and the behavior questionable.  They dishonor 
God because they cast doubts on the goodness of the Divine and then, in 
doing so, hurt people.  Real people.  Real, hurting, devastated, 
weeping-on-your-couch-even-though-you're-the-"enemy"-people who get caught 
up, ground down, and spit out.  Believe me -- there's plenty of 
objectionable stuff that really doesn't hurt anyone going around.  This 
stuff does, and to the extent that it tears apart people Jesus loves and 
died for, it's shameful, wrong, and worthy of condemnation.

Excellent post, Joan.  It made my day.

keely


From: Joan Opyr <joanopyr at moscow.com>
To: Vision2020 Moscow <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] The Trouble With Doug, or Theocratic Park III
Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 13:00:53 -0800

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?

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