[Vision2020] Open Letter to Doug Wilson

[second plank]

Doug Wilson's pedophile scandal seems to be a story
that's caught the interest of some from outside of
Moscow, including even among some who've been his
"admirers." It looks like it's just not "Intoleristas"
who Doug "annoys." From:
http://rc-sproul-jr.blogspot.com/2006/06/open-letter-to-crec-pastor-doug-wilson.html

Dear Doug,

I've been an admirer of your writings (at least some
of them) for some time. I've read a number of your
books and found some merit in them, including:

    * Reforming Marriage
    * Future Men
    * Federal Husband
    * My Life For Yours: A Walk Through The Christian 
  Home
    * Standing On The Promises : A Handbook Of
Biblical Childrearing

In the past I've been blessed by your writing. Not
that you've really taught me much of anything. Much of
what you've said in these books are things that I've
practiced for years anyway. It's just a blessing to
find a writer who supports my own worldview (well, at
least I used to think that maybe we had similar
worldviews). I've been able to recommend your books to
others as a means of recommending a worldview which is
tragically lacking in the church today.

Sadly, I can no longer recommend your books. It's not
that some of your books aren't good and useful. The
big problem is one of "guilt by association."
Recommending your books is too easily misconstrued as
a recommendation of Doug Wilson himself, not just Doug
Wilson the author, but also Doug Wilson the Pastor.
>From what I've been learning about you, you're one of
the last men that I should be recommending as an
example of godly Christian character. I'm even less
able to recommend you as an example of a godly pastor.
It's the same problem I now have in being able to
recommend RC Sproul Jr's books. It's not that his
books aren't good, it's that the man who wrote them
isn't good. Like you he doesn't practice what he
preaches.

I used to regularly read Credenda Agenda, until the
"serrated edge" started slicing the wrong way.
Furthermore, your "enemy theology" is the last kind of
influence I need in my life when I sometimes already
struggle with forgiveness. It's the same problem all
over again with my not being able to continue
recommending RC Sproul Jr's Highlands Study Center
periodical, Every Thought Captive. RC Jr has tried to
imitate you in his writing. He long ago acknowledged
that he wanted ETC to emulate Credenda Agenda. Bad
choice. Reading ETC is every bit as tedious and
annoying as reading Credenda Agenda.

In some ways, Doug, you remind me of a man who enjoys
petting a cat's fur the wrong way -- the cat know's
she's being petted, and she knows she should enjoy
being petted. But this isn't nice petting, it's
malicious petting, so she doesn't enjoy it one bit.
It's annoying.

It's come to the point, Doug, where you've become far
less of a blessing and far more an annoyance. I can no
longer read Credenda Agenda, and I haven't for at
least two years. I've got the same problem with
reading RC Jr's ETC and RC Jr's blog. I can't read
your blog either, Doug. Your books I can understand
because they're written in such a way that the brains
of normal human beings can readily understand them.
You must have a good book editor because all your
other writing, especially your blog, causes me to
wonder if you were smoking pot. My neurons just aren't
wired in that Wilsonian alternate universe sort of
way, so trying to comprehend your blog is just a
further annoyance. Life is already so full of so much
annoyance and noise pollution. You shouldn't be just
further contributing to the insanity.

What little blessing that might come from reading your
books is more than offset by the curse of your
self-righteous, obnoxious, sarcastic, puerile Blog and
MaBlog and Credenda Agenda articles masquerading as
intellectual mysticism.

On the other hand, reading Blog and MaBlog (or as some
call it "Blah and MoreBlah") has provided some folks
(who must have better perception than me) with some
valuable insight into Dougsworld. For example,
Hammerman predicted an imminent sex scandal based on
reading between the lines of one of your recent blog
articles. Hammer's annoyance-tolerance must be a whole
lot higher than mine if he can stomach regularly
perusing your blog. Then Hammer's predictions were
confirmed when your Christ Church/New Saint Andrews
pedophilia scandal was outed by Pooh.

That's not one pedophile, but two, two pedophiles
molesting the children of your church members under
your pastoral care over virtually the same period of
time, and out of a tiny college with barely over 100
students. So what is it about your infrastructure,
what is it about what you and your college teaches
that serves as a magnet for perverts?

Has it happened in secular colleges? Probably, but we
expect secular Christ-denying institutions to attract
those sorts. Has it happened in other churches?
Occasionally, but I can't say as I've ever heard of it
happening twice at virtually the same time in the same
Christian college and the same church. One has to
wonder if you're actually teaching a biblical
worldview at all, or just Dougview. Parents would have
to be just plain ignorant or out of their minds to now
entrust their kids to you and send them to New Saint
Andrews College.

What kind of a shepherd are you, Doug? Shepherds
protect sheep, and if a predator, like a wolf, attacks
the sheep, the shepherd goes after the wolf and kills
it. This point bears repeating, so I'll come back to
it again later.

When I first heard about your pedophile scandal, Doug,
I felt sorry for you. What an awful terrible thing for
a pastor to have to deal with -- ministering to
families whose lives have been shattered and forever
changed by a pervert who preyed right in their church
upon their most vulnerable -- their dear little ones.
I'm not exactly sure what you've done to minister to
those families. Few will probably ever know that. No
one wants to know who those families are. They're
entitled to their privacy and no one should encroach
on that, and I seriously doubt anyone will.

But what we do know of is your "ministry" to NSA
student and child molester Steven Sitler, a predatory
pervert who molested multiple children over several
years in several states, including in your own church.
Your "ministry" to Steven Sitler included writing
Judge John Stegner and asking the judge for a light
sentence:

    "I would urge that the civil penalties applied
would be measured and limited. I have a good hope that
Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will
continue to deal with this to become a productive and
contributing member of society."

What kind of humanistic claptrap is this, Doug? Who
really cares if Sitler ever does "become a productive
and contributing member of society" through what you
have termed "secular therapy"? Show us where you got
that vernacular from. Is it biblical? Freudianism?
Skinnerism?

Oh, and let's not forget that you've equated Sitler's
crimes to a mere violation of the 7th Commandment!
Molesting 2-12 year old children is adultery? Are you
really that stupid Doug, or are you obstructing
justice by your perverse interpretation of Scripture?
Molesting children isn't adultery, it's rape, and as
you well know serial rapists warrant something a whole
lot more onerous than a one year slap on the wrist in
the Latah County Jail (commonly referred to as the
"Latah Hilton"), say like the death penalty. You have
in no way aided in the process of obtaining justice --
particularly biblical justice. All you've done is
derail and pervert justice.

As if pleading to the judge for a light sentence on
behalf of a confessed serial child molester weren't
bad enough, you obtained for Steven Sitler's legal
defense your NSA college's own attorney! What are you
thinking, Doug? What possible personal interest could
you have in defending Sitler and protecting him from
what he biblically deserves? Why are you using
Freudian psychobabble to get him off the hook?

What kind of a shepherd are you, Doug? Shepherds
protect sheep, and if a predator, like a wolf, attacks
the sheep, the shepherd goes after the wolf and kills
it. At the very least a real shepherd doesn't plead
for light jail sentences. Shepherds don't protect
wolves. That's what hirelings do:

    But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd,
whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming,
and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling
fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for
the sheep. John 10:12-13

You claim to be concerned for your sheep, Doug,
concerned for the victims. But all you're doing is
hiding behind them, using them as human shields, in a
vain effort to dissuade your critics from a thorough
examination of your dubious actions. Over and over
again you and your toadies have cried, "Stop talking
about it. Stop. Talking about it hurts the victims.
It's just dragging up the past. They don't want anyone
talking about it." I wish I could believe you, Doug,
but I've seen more than enough evidence of your life
to know how much you just use people for your own
agenda.

I realize Doug, everyone realizes, that you'd much
prefer it if everyone were to just stop talking about
the fact that you had two child molesters preying on
little children in your little college and church at
the same time. Ordinarily you'd enjoy being the center
of attention, but being under this kind of spotlight
isn't pleasant, and you don't like being held
accountable. This is a very volatile subject in Moscow
Idaho. It doesn't get any more volative than child
molestation. The only thing that could make it more
volatile is if there were some appearance of a cover
up (which there is). Whether you like it or not it
will be talked about, and all your sanctimonious
pontificating about how any talk will hurt the victims
lacks credibility.

What's even more absurd is how you and your followers
have claimed that any talk risks exposing the
identities of the victims. Please Doug! Can't you do
any better than that? Most of the court record is
sealed specifically to protect the identities of the
victims, and if anyone besides you were to know the
identities of the victims why would they be so foolish
as to disclose them? Tragically, if victim identities
are known they were disclosed by Steven Sitler himself
when he posted all those pictures of so many kids on
his family's web site. Thankfully now that site has
been password protected, but I have to wonder how many
people were able to see it, or maybe even download all
the pictures, before public access was blocked.

Doug, did you know that Sitler was operating a "trophy
site" of his victims? Did you know that he had
uploaded hundreds of photos of little children, many
of which were uploaded after he had been arrested,
after he had confessed to his crimes, and right before
he had been sentenced? You've vouched for Sitler's
character, Doug. You told the judge and you've told
all of us that Sitler "repented." Yet, he was still
uploading kiddie pictures to his trophy site after
he'd "repented." Still standing by your story, Doug?
Do you still "have a good hope that Steven has
genuinely repented"? Are you still willing to go on
the record that Silter will "become a productive and
contributing member of society"?

If you were genuinely concerned for your sheep you
wouldn't have concealed Sitler's actions for eight
months. You wouldn't have just expelled Sitler from
NSA for some unspecified "criminal" conduct. You would
have exposed Sitler publicly as a serial pedophile and
admonished parents to speak to their children. You
would have been forthright in taking steps to
determine if any other children had been molested, and
the fact is that it's a very real possibility that
others were molested. Instead, in true hireling
fashion, you kept it all a secret, no doubt hoping the
Sitler affair would never see the light of day.

Now your neighbors in the Moscow community in which
you reside are outraged, and justifiably so. They're
taking you to task, including on the community
listserve Vision 2020, and what has been your
response? You mock them as "Intoleristas" with you
"serrated edge" sarcasm. You ridicule their just
concerns over your negligence at best, or your cover
up at worst. They make reasonable inquiries about what
you knew and when you knew it and who you told when.
Rather than being forthright your smart aleck
responses only tend to confirm what appears to be a
cover up. I have never witnessed a pastor who is so
inept at community relations as you are Doug.

Your latest response is to justify your actions under
the guise of "I am a pastor. And I cover up sins for a
living." Unbelievable! And all the while you continue
justifying your actions with your self-righteous
Scripture-twisting subterfuge. You've just become too
predictable, Doug.

You're a liar, Doug Wilson, a very big liar. You lie
to your church members. You lie to the greater Moscow
community. You're a dishonest, contentious, lying
annoyance, and you're an embarrassment to those who
name the name of Jesus Christ.

It's all starting to make sense now why you'd be so
interested in "clearing the name" of a dishonest
tyrannical defrocked tax cheat like RC Sproul Jr. You
two are peas in a pod. Birds of a feather. You deserve
each other, and now I'm actually quite pleased that RC
Sproul Jr has found a home with you in your
fly-by-night CREC "confederation." Since RC Jr refuses
to take the hint of being defrocked and leave the
pastoral profession for which he so obviously lacks
any qualifications, let him be "considered ordained"
in the one and only phony denomination where being
defrocked means nothing. Let him carry the title
"pastor" in an organization that has no pastoral
standards and "considers" men to be "ordained" to the
ministry who shouldn't be in the ministry -- men such
as yourself, for example.

In spite of the few good and non-annoying books that
you've written, I've recently come to much more deeply
appreciate how a man's personal honesty and integrity,
or a lack thereof, has a profound impact on his
theology and doctrinal innovations, and thus, on what
he espouses and writes. It's caused me to take a
second and more critical look at your "Federal Vison."
Though you claim to be "Reformed," though you claim to
be a "Presbyterian," it's become all too apparent what
a hoax your claims really are. A dishonest man is
unlikely to expound honest theology.

For this I can thank you. Your dubious character has
compelled me to return to the Bible and to the faith
of my Reformed fathers. It's caused me to return to
the Westminster Confession and the five solas -- pure
and unadulterated by the perverse innovations of
dishonest men like yourself.

Doug Wilson, repent of your sins and beg forgiveness
of your congregation for having conducted yourself as
a self-serving hireling, rather than a sacrificial shepherd.

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