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Greetings:<br><br>
I've received permission to post this letter from Henry Gerrits, whose
wife was dismissed by the principal of Cary Christian School where she
was an elementary school teacher. I'm still unsure of the
principal's connection to Wilson, so perhaps someone in that camp could
enlighten us.<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica">12/13/2004<br>
Friends of Cary Christian School:<br><br>
Doug Wilson's letter to the editor 1/11/04 in response to the N&O
[<i>News & Observer} </i>article about his booklet certainly was not
a very robust response in defense of his booklet or the use of it at Cary
Christian School. Perhaps as I suspect he is not able to defend it. He
obviously tries to sidestep the issue entirely and throw in some humor
about not being a Neo Confederate. Perhaps he is not officially a Neo
Confederate, but he certainly assists in promoting their agenda. His
co-author Steve Wilkens by the way is acknowledged as a senior advisor to
the board of directors of the League of the South, a well known Neo
Confederate organization designated as a hate group. Does Doug Wilson not
know this or just not want you to know this.<br><br>
The press release from Cary Christian School that reports the booklet was
withdrawn from use on December 9 in response to learning about footnote
errors from the N&O is completely ridiculous. Claims of historical
inaccuracies regarding Doug Wilson's booklet on slavery were documented
and made known to Doug Wilson in 2002 by an expert in Civil War history.
Over 60 professors signed a plagiarism complaint regarding this book
earlier this year. Doug Wilson was well aware of these issues and has
done nothing to correct it so far. <br><br>
As CCS must follow a Moscow approved curriculum to be accredited, the
statement that they just learned of these issues from the N&O this
past week and therefore decided to stop its use is intended only to
deceive the public as well as the staff and parents of Cary Christian
School. If Larry Stephenson wants to issue an apology on behalf of the
CCS administration and authors of this book, he should address more than
just missing footnotes. He should request forgiveness for
misrepresentations and inappropriate use of the intellectual property of
others, or lying and stealing, to use Biblical terms. <br><br>
To argue as the authors of this booklet do that slaves were treated
better than we may be led to believe by other historical records is
really of no consequence considering the negative aspects of slavery on
slaves and the effect on our nation as a whole. Misrepresenting that the
only purpose of this book is to present an alternative view of history
and denying any knowledge of the plagiarism issue shows again that those
who lecture others the most on issues of the Christian life and proper
behavior are themselves often the most flagrant violators of the values
we respect such as honesty and integrity. <br><br>
If the focus of argument is that the conflict of that period is more
about constitutional freedoms and states rights as implied in other
writings of Doug Wilson, then people should read the article by Thomas
Alderman, an attorney, who has researched historical records of that
period. He demonstrates with a review of original documents how
Confederate states clearly intended to continue the defense of treating
slaves as property in the new confederacy by further institutionalizing
slavery and legal protections for the practice of slavery in the
declaration of secession and new constitution. <br><br>
To tell our community that this book is used only to tell the other side
and to encourage debate is also ridiculous. Ask your teachers at CCS if
they have freedom of expression and may raise alternate views regarding
curriculum matters for example. If you truly want to consider opposing
views then you need to open and discuss other books besides those by Doug
Wilson unless CCS is just another outlet for funding and enlarging Doug
Wilson's empire and enriching Cannon Press which had revenues of over 1
million dollars last year on sales of Doug Wilson books. Over 100
affiliate schools is quite a captive and lucrative market for the Wilson
empire.<br>
Perhaps the importance of the Christ Church and its book business has
already overtaken the importance of the Christian doctrines they were
founded to promote. Already numerous local pastors whose members have
children at CCS are expressing concerns that CCS is being changed from a
non denominational school to one that promotes Christ Church doctrines.
Open your eyes and take back your school. These folks from the Moscow are
well on their way to hijacking the school and your faith in order to
create a Christian version of the Taliban in North Carolina. <br><br>
We do pray for the school and that it will be restored to what it was
intended to be, a non denominational school which serves our mainstream
evangelical Christian community in Cary. <br><br>
Henry Gerrits<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any
system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and
studying each part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on
the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true
of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between
science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of
its various parts." --Max Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm</a><br>
208-883-3360/882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift/index.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift/index.htm</a><br><br>
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