<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>To suggest, as Alan Stout does, that Doug's critics all hate him is a foolish oversimplification.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some, I'm sure, do hate him, but I don't.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I love him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Love, love, love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I hate his ideas, but there's nothing I like more than an outrageous, colorful, galling character.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No fiction writer less than Dickens could have made Doug up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's over the top.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's unbelievable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don't approve of calling him "the Wolfman" or "the Cult-Master," but that's because these monikers are too pedestrian for such an enormously ambitious man.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Doug is an author; he's a pastor; he's a theologian, a historian, a teacher, a reformer, a philosopher and a classicist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's an expert on racism, sexism, homophobia and the Civil War.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He knows how we ought to live and whom we ought to marry.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He knows who's going to heaven; he knows who's damned to hell.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Doug is larger-than-life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's a huge figure, floating above the landscape like a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Surely he ought to be called something more euphonious and evocative than "Doug Wilson."<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He ought to have a name like Uriah Heap or Nasty Canasta.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He ought to dress in motley and wear a powdered wig.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Like Mr. Creosote, all it would take is one wafer-thin mint for Doug to blow sky high.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's on the intestinally explosive edge of greatness.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I can say with absolute sincerity that <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place>Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> would not be <st1:City><st1:place>Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> without Doug.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His critics don't all come from the left; they come from everywhere.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The middle, the right, the left of center.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In his writing and in his preaching, Doug has attacked atheists, feminists, gays and lesbians, but he hasn't limited himself to these usual suspects.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's also attacked Catholics, Mormons, Evangelicals, Muslims, and Reformed Christians who disagree with him on certain abstruse points of doctrine.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He's even managed to insult Eskimos—not an easy thing to do.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></FONT> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN>The way I see it, Doug is the Don Rickles of Christian intolerance.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hang around long enough, and he's bound to rub you the wrong way; hang around a little longer, and you'll begin to find it funny. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Of course, that could just be the two-drink minimum talking.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I'm never a meanie once I've got my Martini,</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>PS: If you really want to learn more about Doug, Mr. Stout, then I suggest you read his magazine, Credenda Agenda (<A href="http://www.credenda.org">www.credenda.org</A>), his blog (<A href="http://www.dougwils.com">www.dougwils.com</A>), and the Vision 2020 archives. For sheer entertainment value, it's hard to beat. Unless, of course, you have Showtime Love that "Six Feet Under."</FONT> </P><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>