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

[Pat Kraut]

The truth is that you do not know or understand anything about me or how I
feel about CC or anything else and it is arrogant of you to think you do!! I
do not know Doug Wilson nor have I ever attended his services I have however
read one or two history books and this type of attack on ANY church or group
no matter how much we do not approve of them is a very slippery slope. 'Not
in my town' started because people were attacking Jews in Billings MT and
now it is used by (a much more enlightened group of course) against CC. You
don't see a problem here? I sure do and it has nothing to do with taxes or
parking. If you think I am embarrassed by your use of my name in this manner
your mistaken...I was also on a list that would not allow me to live in
Butlers 'whites only country' and I am very proud of being on that list. No,
I will not be a part of trying to destroy a religious group in the good ol
USA!

If we do discover a complete theory..of everything...we shall all,
philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people,
be able to take part in the discussion of why it is that we and the universe
exist if we find the answer to that,
it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason...for then we would know
the mind of God.
Stephen Hawking


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joan Opyr" <joanopyr at moscow.com>
To: "Vision2020 Moscow" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 1:00 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] The Trouble With Doug, or Theocratic Park III


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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