[Vision2020] Doug Wilson Interview

[Andreas Schou]

Chas --

There are an incredible number of subjects about which I think it is
possible to for reasonable people to have reasonable disagreements.
"Whether or not all homosexuals should be executed" is not one of
them; "whether or not slavery is morally acceptable" is also not one
of them. Simply because public disapproval of homosexuality is
somewhat more socially appropriate in America does not suddenly make
advocacy of genocide into a subject about which it is reasonable to
disagree -- which is why I think that attempts at this sort of
outreach are incredibly wrongheaded. Attempts to meet Christ Church
halfway only result in a halfway that is equally morally unacceptable.

Further, there is a certain choice to be made -- and it is one that
white dudes have that other people don't. Picking one set of our
neighbours, the calm, pipe-smoking ones, leaves another set -- gays,
lesbians, descendents of slaves, out in the cold. I happen not to
believe that calmly demanding public execution and religious
repression while defending the blackest mark on the American
conscience is somehow preferable to people loudly, aggressively
clamoring for their own right to live their lives in peace.

I share one belief with Christ Church: that what we hold to be true
has consequences. I can be friendly, individually, with the members of
Christ Church, and, frankly, I think people *should*. I also think
"Hitler Youth" is a bit of a stretch (though I might not if it were my
particular execution they were calling for). However, being personally
friendly doesn't make Doug's brand of Christian dominionism something
that doesn't demand to be exposed, and doesn't make his million-dollar
religious empire something that doesn't deserve to be financially
starved out of Moscow.

They feel unwelcome because, in a democracy that admits all creeds and
colors, they propose that other people's rights oppress them. They
feel a boundless entitlement to the lives of women and the reigns of
the state; they complain when the same rules that apply to us all
apply to them as well. And they have co-opted the language of the
oppressed to pretend that they are being needlessly persecuted.

I know all this fighting is tiring, and frequently stupid (see also:
several regular posters here). But the cause is intractably rooted in
the ideology that Christ Church spreads and their political goals,
local, regional, and national, however ineffective they might be in
actualizing them.

-- ACS