[Vision2020] Moscow has been blessed

[keely emerinemix]

Visionaires,

Moscow is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful places in the United States, especially in the summer.  We start off with Renaissance Faire, end with Rendezvous in the Park, and fill the days in between with the Farmer's Market, a bustling Main Street, beautiful weather and abundant outdoor activities.  There's no place even a cold weather-lover such as myself would rather be than on the Palouse in the summer.

The last few summers have also played host to Christ Church and its attendant ministries' gala of scholarship and celebration, Trinity Fest, which has brought with it considerable consternation to those of us who seek truth, goodness, and beauty in our faith and instead see deceit, malice, and ugliness pouring out from Christ Church, New St. Andrews's, Credenda/Agenda, Blog and Mablog, Logos School and other entities under the control of Doug Wilson and his elders, associates, and employees.  Trumpeted incongruously as both a celebration of Christian faith and fellowship and at the same time another reason for Moscow residents to dislike Wilson, it has been and an affront to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a nicely packaged stiff middle finger raised to our town -- remember Wilson and his pals in Friendship Square two years ago, gleefully belting out "Sweet Home, Alabama" during the controversy over "Southern Slavery 
as it Was" ? 

 And most of Moscow, save for a few Intoleristas, didn't much care.  That's unfortunate, but perhaps owing to ignorance of what it is we've been getting when we've gotten Trinity Fest.  But we won't play host to Trinity Fest this year.  Whether through the merciful and mighty power of God, the downturn in the economy, or attendees' sense of feeling unwelcome -- I personally  believe God's judgment works through the other two --  Trinity Fest 2008 was unable to attract enough participants to continue, and so has been canceled.  For this, I praise God, knowing that many of you will think I'm being churlish, unkind, gloating, and mean-spirited.

But let's explore what we won't be playing host to this year -- who and what will Moscow be missing out on?

The cancellation of Trinity Fest means that a few hundred paleo-Confederates who defend slavery -- from the Bible -- as a harmonious and beneficial institution and an uplifting mechanism for the discipleship of kidnapped African slaves and their families won't flood the streets of our diverse and harmonious community.

It means that hundreds of Confederate-flag revering folks sympathetic to the odious League of the South, whether members or not, will not congregate around Friendship Square, Moscow's symbol of community, believing that the their affiliation with the largest church in Moscow, Christ Church, is a blessing from God.  There won't be a large gathering of South-identified "believers" who cling to un-Biblical notions of necessary social hierarchies, supremacy of culture, and who long for the restoration of the near-Paradise of the 19th century American South. 

The "dominionist" Reconstructionists who inform the Kirk's teaching on economics, social policy, and Biblical law, and who have given us, against simple Scriptural exegesis and common sense, a theology of indifference, even contempt, for the poor, won't be lavishing money on a handful of Kirk businesses.  Nor will they be here to ignore the needs of the poor around them. Christ Church seems to have that covered.

We'll be left this summer without the vulgarity of a theology of worship-through-food-and-drink by erstwhile gluttons and "Christian hedonists," who had looked forward, as in past years, to feasting lavishly in honor of St. Bridget (presumably explaining
away the ascetism of St. John, who lots of Christians believe to be a
more significant figure than this hybridized Celtic-Norse symbol of
fertility and female fluids).  Nothing wrong with feasting and dancing, but there's everything wrong with Christianizing excess and frivolity.    I'm sorry I can't  lament the  likelihood that Nancy Wilson won't be able to use  the dozens and dozens of linen napkins she chirped  about having purchased down South last year.  I can lament the  skewed sense of priorities and celebrate the failure of an audience for such shameful silliness, though.  And I do.

No Trinity Fest 2008 means no celebration of the Federal Vision doctrine patched together by our neo-Medievalist pastors Wilson and Leithart and their pals, a doctrine that has divided churches in the south, churches whose leadership find it to be at best a peculiar rendering of the Gospel, and whose emphasis on Covenant membership over the saving of individual souls is foreign to those who understand and live out the testimony of Christ's work in the New Testament.  The Federal Vision does, however, lead to a remarkably effective mechanism for solidifying hierarchy and congregational control, if its proponents can survive the scorn and discipline of their peers.

In missing out on Trinity Fest this year, we've missed out on the chance to welcome a couple of hundred dyed-in-the-wool patriarchs, those men whose embrace of male privilege and power has resulted in enormous damage to women and children both in and out of the Christian Church.  For a few days in August, Moscow's patriarchs will be just a bit lonelier, longing for manly fellowship with those who couldn't afford to join them, or who didn't want to. 

And the streets of Moscow won't be flooded with hundreds of people who can't, or won't, or believe they shouldn't, repudiate teachings by their pastors and elders that suggest that homosexuals can, should, and will someday be subject to execution -- when the Christian dominion of the nations finally ushers in the Second Coming of the One who gave His life for sinners.

And, speaking of sinners like myself, our local Calvinists, who believe in a God who takes pleasure in damning people even before they're born, and who then provided for the salvation only of those he didn't damn through Christ's atonement and resurrection, will continue in their theological isolation.  While most Christians believe that salvation is available to all through Jesus Christ, through God's grace by faith, the chosen of  Moscow's version of  Geneva  persist in believing that no particular Christian witness to unbelievers, a witness by definition marked by love, truth, and service, is necessary.  Why bother?  But there won't be a new influx this summer of people who readily and fervently pray for harm to fall on their enemies, and maybe some semblance of love will rush in to fill the vacuum.  

Yeah, all in all, I think Moscow's not going to be missing much with the cancellation of Trinity Fest, and I consider it a great blessing of God that the numbers weren't there for Wilson's extravaganza of enmity.   I love my town, but I love my Lord even more, and the defeat of a forum for presenting a faith antithetical to the one He birthed is cause for celebration.  

Keely
 




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Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play chicktionary!
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