[Vision2020] A Sabbath Contemplation for Mr. Schwaller ? Let Us Prey

Sun Jun 3 18:00:52 PDT 2007

Dr. Schwaller,

I remain AMAZED at the amount that both do and do not know about Moscow issues. You know everything about Sitler, apparently nothing about the origin of NSA, but quite a bit about Pooh’s Think – “Poohs Blog or Poohs Speak” as you call it. I also find it interesting that you don’t know what it is called but you know that it is down. Which search engine did you use to find that out?

Anyway, did you also know the reason that Michael Metzler, the creator of Pooh’s think, was kicked out of Christ Church? Here is the story that I heard and I'd like to know what you thought about it.

Metzler went to a talk given by Doug Wilson. Wilson was presenting his views on epistemology – the theory of knowledge – to a group of Black Fryers, or whatever they are called. Anyway, Metzler had the nerve to criticize Doug’s philosophical views in front of other people and that was pretty much it.

Do you think that that was a good way for an educator to act, if Wilson did act this way? Maybe you heard something different. Metzler told me this story himself and he was a former student of mine but I'd be interested to know what you know about it.

Best, Joe

---------------------

Dear Mr Herodotus

Thank you for the information.  Since Poohs Blog or Poohs Speak (I don't
remember what it's called) seems to be down at the present time, I have no
way of reading all the information that is available.

As I understand it, imprecatory prayer asks for God to destroy His enemies.
To me, the "His" indicates enemies of God, not the enemies of some poor guy
who thinks he's being persecuted.  An enemy of Doug Wilson (or you, or me,
or anyone) is not necessarily an enemy of God.  Even if you or I or Doug
Wilson THINK someone is an enemy of God, doesn't make it so.  So I guess
it's up to God to determine if  the enemies against whom the imprecatory
prayers were offered were enemies worthy of being punished in His name.

It sounds to me as if you are saying Christ Church is an enemy of God,
offered an imprecatroy prayer to God improperly, and as punishment for that,
God sent Steven Sitler to abuse their children.  Did I get that right?  Is
that how the God you believe in functions??   Did God send us Jason Hamilton
for some unknown slight to Him or some other poor soul?  If so, you may keep
your God; mine would never be so evil and callous.

There was what I felt to be a divinely inspired service at the Presbyterian
Church this morning.  At no time this morning did I feel the presence of an
cruel, insensitive God.  When I do, it's time to find another God.

Schwaller

As far as Douglas Wilson's thoughts on rape, I find them to be abhorrent.

On 6/3/07, Bob Herodotus <bherodotus at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Mr. Schwaller,
>
> Continuing our education in the ABCs of Doug Wilson, you recall that I
> told you that a local blogger broke the story about Steven Sitler and Pastor
> Wilson's failure to warn his flock. Well, exactly one year ago today, that
> blogger posted the following essay on his website, which I lifted and
> archived for the benefit of folks like you. You will notice that I used this
> post as the template for my previous contemplation:
>
>
> Douglas Wilson has adopted a policy of affirming the consequent, which is
> the logical fallacy holding that the proposition "if A then B" necessitates
> the proposition "if B then A," even though "if B then A" is plainly false.
> For example, Scripture teaches that, as a rule, righteous people will suffer
> persecution for their righteousness; but Scripture does not teach that
> everyone who experiences opposition is living righteously, which is the
> position advanced by Wilson when he points to all of the Kirk's internal and
> external grief, saying, "We must be doing something right." And while it may
> be true that Christ Church and its affiliated ministries may be doing
> something right, it is certainly true that they are doing many things wrong
> ? very wrong ? such as prayer.
>
> Perhaps you could reflect upon the Kirk's imprecatory-prayer policy and
> its possible relation to Steven Sitler's serial predation of Kirk children.
> From June 2003 through July 2003, Christ Church conducted imprecatory-prayer
> meetings ? daily ? asking God to visit judgment upon their "enemies." Steven
> Sitler arrived in Moscow to attend New Saint Andrews College in August 2003.
> And if you believe that God answers prayer, then this fact deserves serious
> contemplation, especially in light of Douglas Wilson's thoughts on rape, in
> his book "Fidelity":
>
> "Violent rape is a judgment of God upon a people. . . This does not
> justify the perpetrators; it is simply the recognition that when disaster
> befalls a city, sexual disaster for the women is part of this. This does not
> mean that a woman who is raped should assume any personal responsibility for
> it; she is innocent. . . Violent rape is God's judgment on a culture, and
> individual women who are part of that culture are included in the judgment.
> But this does not mean that they as individuals "deserved" it. . . . We see
> the same judgment at work in disintegrating cultures: 'Because sentence
> against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the
> sons of men is fully set in them to do evil' (Eccl. 8:11). Here the rape is
> not being perpetrated by foreign soldiers, but is the result of citizens
> turning on one another. Every culture is a gathering of sinners, and so rape
> is always a possibility. But when God's hand of judgment is heavy upon a
> people, women are in
> far greater danger of sexual assault than at other times."  (Douglas
> Wilson, "Fidelity: What It Means To Be a One-Woman Man" [Moscow: Canon
> Press, 1999] 82, 83)
>
> If this serial pedophilia had taken place in the local government school
> system, Wilson would have wagged his finger at the disintegrating culture,
> and if a person against whom the Kirk utters their imprecatory prayers had
> suffered a similar hard providence, Wilson would fill the web with gloats
> and jeers. But now we see that God has visited the unspeakable upon Christ
> Church, and He did it at the exact time when they labored in prayer
> beseeching harm upon their neighbors. This should not go unnoticed.
>
> Douglas Wilson's enemy theology cultivates selfishness, implants acrimony,
> fosters revenge, and breeds hate. It is a culture of death. It is a culture
> under "God's hand of judgment." And the Kirk's enemy theology reached its
> zenith in the summer of 2003, when they asked for pain, calamity, torment,
> and affliction upon others; and God Almighty answered their imprecations
> with one of their own citizens. God sent them Steven Sitler to rape helpless
> and innocent children.
>
> But the point is not Sitler's abuse. These dear loved ones who suffered at
> Sitler's hands are not merely victims of child molestation; they are victims
> of profound spiritual abuse. They are victims of Doug Wilson's enemy
> theology. And if the Kirk wants relief, or even mercy, then they should seek
> it at the very place where they scorned it ? on their knees, in prayer.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
>
>
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