[Vision2020] Theocratic Park III

[Joan Opyr]

G. Crabtree wrote:

> I have no defense for Mr. Wilson.  I don't think he wants or (sic) 
> needs it. The point I have been trying to make is that he has the same 
> right to exist in our fair town as any other business man.  If you 
> don't care for his merchandise, shop elsewhere.   Those who do elect 
> to partake I assume do so with their eyes wide open.  Along the way 
> there will inevitably be dissatisfied customers.  This is unfortunate 
> but I suspect unavoidable especially in his line of work.  If he is 
> peddling shoddy product or providing poor customer service the market 
> will weed him out.  I don't think that this is a defense of a man.  It 
> is a defense of a world view.  Mind ones (sic) own business.

I'm willing to take this at face value, and I would agree with Gary 
completely and utterly IF:

1. It were possible to leave Christ Church without punishment, 
disciplinary action, and/or harsh penalty.  Wilson's Christ Church is 
not so much a church as it is a family business.  Gary has (perhaps 
inadvertently) hit the nail on the head with his analogy.  Doug is 
selling a certain set of wares.  However, unlike, say, WalMart, once 
you join at Doug's God Shop, you cannot simply walk out the door.  
You've signed a contract; you've promised to buy from Doug and only 
Doug until Kingdom come.  You break this contract at your peril.  The 
consequences of leaving?  Character assassination.  Firing.  Loss of 
friends.  Loss of income.  Loss (in covenantal theology) of your 
relationship with God.  Just because Donovan doesn't understand this 
doesn't mean it isn't so.

2. Doug Wilson, the man, hides his dubious business operations behind a 
religious facade.  I am not saying that Doug doesn't believe what he 
preaches; I don't know what he believes.  But when called to answer for 
his repeated zoning violations, or his avoidance of property taxes, or 
his "borrowing" of money from the church till to pay his own personal 
income taxes, Doug cries religious persecution.  I am willing to live 
and let live, to mind my own business, but only as long as the next man 
is not breaking the law, foisting his legitimate tax burden onto the 
rest of the town, or causing deliberate and malicious harm to others.  
Doug has repeated flunked the stink test.  His "septic system," shall 
we say, has too often flooded the neighbor's back yard.  Time to dig it 
out and clean it up.

3. I believe that Doug gets a free ride on his assorted violations 
because his church is ostensibly Christian.  If Doug were the Bhagwan 
Shree Rajneesh or that fellow who ran the self-castrating Heaven's Gate 
group, we wouldn't be having this debate.  We'd all be asking why Doug 
doesn't pay his fair share of property taxes; why the city has allowed 
him to get away with three clear zoning violations; why it's all right 
for County Commissioner Paul Kimmel to admit that he "submits" to 
Doug's authority in his role as an elected official.

4. I don't give a tinker's cuss about Doug's "world view."  I don't 
care what he believes.  That's not of interest to me until it begins to 
impact my life -- when he stands up at a Moscow City Council meeting 
and announces that he speaks for 850 people when he speaks in favor of 
our ridiculous breast ordinance, and -- here's the kicker -- when City 
Council member John Guyer sends Christ Church official updates on his 
efforts to forward Doug's political agenda.  I object to Doug's 
successful past efforts to block (via Paul Kimmel) domestic partnership 
benefits for Latah County employees.  I object to tax avoiders, zoning 
violators, and people who think they are above the law.  I'm not above 
the damned law.  I wish I were -- and since I'm an ordained minister in 
the Universal Life Church (www.ulc.org), perhaps I am!

Defend my world view, Gary, and my right to express it, but bear in 
mind that from now on, I intend to express that world view by setting 
fire to other people's shrubbery and waiting for the voice of God to 
speak to me from within.  I am listening, oh juniper bush!  But you 
smell a lot like flaming gin . . .

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com


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