[Vision2020] Appraise the Lord

[Joan Opyr]

Gary Crabtree asks (disingenuously because he already has his answer):

"What specifically is it about this group of people [Christ Church] that 
elicits the level of criticism displayed here . . . Why is Christ Church 
solely taken to task for philosophy's that could be laid equally at the 
doors of any number of other denominations? . . . I do feel a small need 
to challenge the blind assertions that this group is somehow evil . . . 
In your explanation, please include for us why any point that you care to 
make can be only said of C.C. and not leveled against the Roman 
Catholics, the Latter-Day Saints, the Christian Scientists, the Baptists 
or any other of a  number of other religious groups in the area. If you 
can't come up with something totally unique to Pastor Wilson and Co., 
please explain why you don't attack these other groups with the same 
fervor and ferocity that you reserve for them. I anxiously await your 
explanation."

Gary has long since decided that 1) Doug Wilson and the members of Christ 
Church are one and the same and, therefore, that 2) any criticism of Doug 
Wilson is of necessity a criticism of the Christ Church rank and file.  
Christ Church members who try to answer Gary are dismissed as 
disgruntled.  Non-church members are just dull-witted, feckless, 
hypocritical cranks.  In short, Gary is not asking his questions in good 
faith, and it would do us all well as we attempt to answer them to bear 
this in mind.  Nevertheless, perhaps we might further the conversation 
(such as it is) by asking Gary a few questions in return.  

To begin, which of the religious groups you name, Gary, apart from Christ 
Church, have launched concerted, organized, and frequently successful 
attacks against gays and lesbians, local historians and philosophers, the 
University of Idaho, the Moscow City Council, the Latah Economic 
Development Council, city and county zoning code and individual critics?  

Further, can you point to some instance in which Moscow’s Catholics have 
gone hammer and tongs after Moscow’s Protestants?  What about vice-
versa?  Do we have a hitherto hidden problem here with the Orange and the 
Green?  

Have any of our local Latter-Day Saints called for the exile or stoning 
of gays and lesbians?  Have any of our Baptists -- Southern, American, 
Freewill or Primitive --  insisted that our Central Business District be 
spot-zoned to accommodate an illegally-located downtown college?  Have 
any of our Lutheran brethren --  Wisconsin Synod, Missouri Synod, or 
mainline evangelical – ever espoused a "strategic vision" of Moscow as a 
Calvinist theocracy and then launched a visible effort to make that 
vision so?

During the great debate over Moscow's idiotic breast and butt crack 
ordinance, Doug Wilson stood before the city council and declared, "I 
speak for 850 people."  Is there any other pastor, minister, or priest in 
town who would or could make that sort of all-encompassing truth claim?  
Do any of Moscow's other religious leaders speak for their congregations 
in a single gathered "I contain multitudes" voice, or do they speak only 
for themselves and their own personal understandings of their respective 
church doctrines?  Remember, we are talking about individual ministers, 
here; we’re not talking about the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or 
the Dalai Lama.

If we want to talk about freedom of religion within Christ Church, then 
why don’t we look at we what has happened to those members who have 
openly sought to exercise it?  We might look at Michael Metzler, whom 
Gary dismisses as “disgruntled.”  We might look at Duck Schuler, or Terry 
Morin, or the two men named Charles who filed the charges against the 
Morton Street casino.  Can anyone out there name a single Christ Church 
member who has risen up and spoken out in contradictory fashion to Doug 
Wilson who has not been slapped down?  Any who have spoken up, not backed 
down, and succeeded in remaining within the flock?  If Christ Church does 
practice freedom of religion, it is not free for the individual.  The 
individual’s free religious thoughts are subject to the correction of 
Doug Wilson.  Is the freedom to keep your mouth, eyes, and ears shut 
really freedom?

I don't use the word cult lightly.  Like Joe Campbell, I have had qualms 
in the past about applying it to Christ Church, but Doug Wilson is bright 
and charismatic, and what we have here, I believe, is a powerful cult of 
personality.  Doug has a strategic vision for his church and for the 
Palouse.  His vision is not my vision, and I am therefore in the way.  If 
his vision is not your vision, then you are also in the way.  Perhaps 
you're asking right now, "Well, who cares?  He'll never succeed in 
imposing his vision on all of us annoying freethinkers."  What I say to 
that is look around you, and look damned carefully.

New St. Andrews College is located in the Central Business District.  
City zoning law expressly forbade this, but our last city council rewrote 
that law to suit Doug Wilson.  Planning and Zoning will soon be asked to 
rezone of the silo property south of town.  Why?  Ask Doug Wilson.  He 
has plans, big plans.  Anselm House and New St. Andrews are back off the 
tax rolls.  The tax-exempt coffee shop and bookstore in the NuArt is free 
to compete with the tax-paying coffee shops and bookstore directly across 
the street.  NSA students fill the Jackson Street parking lot, though 
that was specifically created for retail use.

Doug Wilson has been remarkably successful in implementing his "stratgic 
vision" for Moscow and the Palouse.  If you can name another church with 
such a vision; one that has the political will and means to achieve that 
vision (and if the vision does not, in my opinion, bode well for me or my 
family) then I will happily do my homework, begin my critique, and help 
to organize the loyal opposition.  Until then, tag: Doug's it.    

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com


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