[Vision2020] Anonymity Part II

[News of Christ Cult]

Friday, December 7, 2007  Anonymity Part
II<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/12/anonymity-part-ii.html>

Before I resume my defense of
anonymity<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/11/anonymity-part-i.html>,
I need to debunk the myth that Douglas Wilson is effectively accountable to
anyone, because he cannot get through a sentence with the words "anonymous
accuser" or "anonymous witness" without invoking *accountability.* And of
course, we all know that Douglas Wilson is accountable to someone — a
session of elders, a band of confederates, the civil magistrate —
*someone,*for his words and behavior. At least that's the impression
he leaves. But
impression isn't reality, except in the land of
DUMB<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/09/dumb.html>,
and accountability does not exist simply because someone implies it.

This brings us to the following article in the Christ Church Constitution,
which states:

*Removal of PASTORS, Elders, and Deacons*
If an elder believes himself to be fit for office, but two or three
believers hold that he is unfit, these two or three witnesses should request
a special session of the elder board where they would be allowed to present
their case (1 Tim. 5:19). If the elders unanimously decide that the case has
merit, that elder, depending on the gravity of the charges and his response
to the correction, will be rebuked in the presence of the heads of
households (1 Tim. 5:20), or will be removed from the office of elder (1
Tim. 3:1–7; Tit. 1:5–9), or both.

While Christ Church encourages her pastor(s) toward a long-term view of the
ministry, in the providence of God, changes in a pastor's call to a
particular church arise for both righteous and sinful reasons. In cases
involving moral failures requiring disciplinary proceedings, the
disciplinary process for the removal of a pastor is the same as for other
officers. For cases that do not involve moral failures or disciplinary
proceedings (e.g., Acts 15:33–41, Romans 15:22–33, 1 Corinthians 16:5–12),
the procedure for terminating the call of a pastor, thereby dismissing him
from service at Christ Church, is as follows: If a pastor desires to
terminate his call, he shall duly inform the session of his desire. In the
case of an involuntary termination of his call, a pastor may be recommended
for dismissal from service at Christ Church by a unanimous vote of the
session (excluding said pastor). In such a case, the pastor may have
recourse to the electors by calling for a vote to either sustain his call as
pastor or not (with an option to abstain). If the electors sustain his call
by a two-thirds majority vote, the other elders must afterwards either
concede to his call or refer the matter to the Confederation of Reformed
Evangelicals for binding arbitration. (Christ Church
Constitution<http://www.christkirk.com/Literature/Constitution.asp>
)


Please notice the twofold use of the word "unanimous" and the four layers of
insulation protecting Wilson. In the event of charges, the elders must vote
unanimously that "the case has merit" (also notice the built-in ambiguity —
"merit" does not equal "guilt," which gives him room to maneuver if the case
has merit). If the "merit" is sufficient for removal, then the elders must
vote unanimously to remove Wilson. If this vote passes, Wilson can lobby the
congregation to overturn the unanimous vote of their elders. Finally, if the
elders don't like it, they can take the matter to the CREC — just as Andrew
Sandlin and Church of the King–Santa Cruz <http://crec.wordpress.com/> did.
And these are only the constitutional hurdles. The Kirk constitution omits
the part about many of the Kirk elders' financial
dependence<http://cleaning-house.org/?p=225>on Wilson and his
institutions, such as Logos School, NSA, or Canon Press,
where Wilson sits on the boards with other Kirk elders, which creates a
hopeless conflict of interest for every one of them. Do the math. No one can
touch Wilson without a unanimous vote of the elders, the majority of whom
depend upon him for their livelihoods.

So let's say you're one of Wilson's 12–15 (I lost count) hand-picked elders
and you work at Logos School, where he is a lifetime board member sitting
next to three other hand-picked elders on the board. Furthermore, let's say
that your conscience (I know, it's a stretch) bears witness that you must
remove Douglas Wilson from the ministry because he is an offense to the
gospel. Moreover, you know that if you vote your conscience and at least one
other elder does not share your conviction, then Wilson will see to your
unemployment quicker than you can say, "Duck." Now, do you vote your
conscience or do you stick your finger in the wind?

Obviously this self-serving system of "accountability" does not constitute
any meaningful accountability. Wilson chose his hirelings to serve as elders
precisely because he knew they understood their role in life was to worship
the Lord their Doug — *not* to hold him accountable. This is why monkey boy
Mike Lawyer stuck a dagger in Bob Mattes' back in the "Attack From
Moscow"<http://reformedmusings.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/attack-from-moscow/>and
no Kirk officer peeped. He, like the rest of them, was serving the
Lord
his Doug — to whom they all give account.

<http://bp0.blogger.com/_f-dp6o9IOmo/RyH3E8bqaiI/AAAAAAAAAKk/NwIs5mShHFg/s1600-h/ML.jpg>Think
about it. Mike Lawyer makes $50,000 a year (plus or minus a few), has a few
children, a truck payment, and a mortgage. He's stretched to the max. And he
knows that if Wilson questioned his loyalty to the Lord his Doug, he would
terminate him in a heartbeat just as he did all the others (BG, CL, DS . . .
the list grows), and that's just the economic penalty. Aggravating this
conflict, Lawyer knows that no legitimate Christian church would ever call
him to the ministry after they see all the Doug scat on his resume. The man
is hopelessly conflicted.

In a sense, Wilson has trapped the Kirk elders in worse positions than
anyone else in the Kult. But don't feel sorry for them. They're the ones who
sat idly by and consented to his iniquity — the threats, the abuse, the
intimidation, the reviling, the treachery, the false witness, the blasphemy
— *you name it.* Indeed, they sanctioned this sewage, they can drink it to
the dregs.

But the point is that Douglas Wilson has rigged the system. The Christ
Church Constitution grants the Kirk elders no real authority to hold Wilson
accountable. It's merely the document establishing their castrated office,
which insures that he will never answer to anyone in any meaningful,
biblical way. *And they know it.* They know, just as he knows, that they
have no authority over him whatsoever.

So every time Wilson points to those black holes in the universe called
elders, saying, "They hold me accountable," just remind yourself that he's
fulfilling Scripture, which says, "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13).

Thank you.
 Posted by Mark T.  at 6:26
AM<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/12/anonymity-part-ii.html>

<http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=9097408555576085021&postID=4689641116869702129>

-- 


Juanita Flores
Advocate for the Truth from Jesus
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