[Vision2020] Brotherly Love

[News of Christ Cult]

http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/fact-check.html


Monday, October 1, 2007  Fact
Check<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/fact-check.html>

The New York Times
Magazine<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30Christian-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine&oref=slogin&oref=slogin>recently
reported,

Evan Wilson, 52, has been estranged from his older brother's church and
college ever since a theological quarrel in the late 1980s that he dubs "the
Great Unpleasantness." . . .


And Douglas Wilson writes on his
blog<http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=4552>
,

And just so you know, out of respect for my parents, I am not going to
answer any particular questions about Evan in this setting. To the extent
that something has been made obvious to the world (as happened with
the NYTarticle ) I am willing to acknowledge it and say what is
generally up. But I
am going to do whatever I can to keep the details from being hauled out on
the public stage. Whether that resolution will be successful remains to be
seen. Suffice it to say for now that I believe it is really sick that the
first notice that my father's extremely fruitful ministry got in the NYT was
notice of a conflict between his sons.


And Wilson enlarged upon this subject at Green
Baggins<http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/sarcasm/#comments>(after
misrepresenting Kevin Johnson and taking him to task for that
misrepresentation), writing,

I would characterize our relationship as personally cordial and doctrinally
and positionally strained. No hypocrisy there. When you are dealing with
such complicated issues in the future, and assuming it to be your business,
I would urge you to get the facts first.


Here are the facts, which are all well known and public in the
Moscow–Pullman region. Douglas Wilson has had a family feud with his brother
Evan for about 20 years, or roughly since Wilson embraced "Reformed"
theology. At that time, Evan served with his brother as a pastor of Faith
Evangelical Fellowship(?), which eventually changed its name to Community
Evangelical Fellowship and then Christ Church. 20 years ago or so, Faith
Evangelical Fellowship was an Arminian- and Baptist-oriented church, until
Douglas went "Reformed," which was when he delivered an ultimatum to his
brother Evan: "Embrace 'Reformed' theology or face a trial for heresy." Evan
saw the writing on the wall and left the church to plant another
church<http://allsoulschristian.org/>across town, with less than half
the congregation following him, feeling
more than a little disdain for Douglas.

Evan describes this event as "the Great Unpleasantness"; he talks freely
about it; and to this day the core membership of his congregation thinks
very little of Doug and his imperial ambitions. Evan, on the other hand,
does not have a bitter bone in his body and speaks with affection for his
brother, though he freely admits that

   1. Douglas has functionally excommunicated him from the faith;
   2. Douglas openly treats him as an unbeliever (they only speak when
   Doug needs something from Evan); and
   3. Douglas is drunk with power, arrogant, deceitful, and mentally
   disturbed.

He affirms these things without a trace of animosity.

I have spoken with Evan on more than one occasion and many of my friends
attend his church. Evan is an honest and godly man who is a theological
independent, just like his brother, and he attributes their mutual
independence to their father who calls himself "the Bishop of Moscow." All
three men are sophists (which I attribute to their father); however, Evan
lacks his brother's guile. Evan matches his brother's rhetorical skill word
for word and slam for slam, but he can't write worth a lick (to be fair,
Doug has been self-publishing since the late '80s, whereas Evan's first real
consistent effort began when he opened his blog<http://evantine.blogspot.com/>
).

Evan has a lovely wife who, when she speaks about the Great Unpleasantness,
has said to more than one person, "No one believes that Doug is capable of
doing it, until he does it to them." Leslie speaks from experience. She has
watched Doug blame Evan for scandal upon scandal that took place at Christ
Church — from the NSA drug ring to the Christ Church casino — Douglas found
a way to pin it on his brother. Indeed, Doug's contempt for his brother goes
much further. He regularly ridicules Evan in private conversations; he often
exhorts members of his congregation not to speak with Evan; he prohibits
officers' children from visiting Evan's home; and Christ Church has issued
at least two letters warning the congregation to avoid Evan. In other words,
Doug has made a deliberate effort to treat his brother as a leper and he has
intentional done this in public.

This is not gossip. These facts are all public knowledge, well known
throughout Moscow and Pullman, and Doug Wilson knows it. Even worse, his
father <http://rootsbytheriver.blogspot.com/> pled with him on several
occasions not to let his animosity for Evan go public with church censures
et al., but Doug ignored his father's pleas.

So if Douglas Wilson doesn't like reading this in public as he alleged when
he wrote, *"But I am going to do whatever I can to keep the details from
being hauled out on the public stage,"* then he should not have spent the
last 20 years creating the public record. In fact, if the man had any
decency at all, he would repent publicly for the horrible way he has treated
his brother (and many others).

Regardless, when Doug Wilson writes *"And just so you know, out of respect
for my parents, I am not going to answer any particular questions about Evan
in this setting,"* he is using mom and dad as human shields. He had the
opportunity to respect his parents long before the *NYT* got wind of the
family rift, but he refused. And when Doug Wilson writes, *"I would
characterize our relationship as personally cordial and doctrinally and
positionally strained,"* he is . . . well . . . he is lying through his
teeth.

Posted by Mark T.  at 9:26
AM<http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/fact-check.html>

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-- 


Juanita Flores
Advocate for the Truth from Jesus
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