<html>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">In a recent post Donovan Arnold could
not find any differences between conservative evangelical Christians
(CECs) and Doug Wilson, so he wonders why we single out Wilson and not
the others. In response I have listed 14 ways that they
differ.<br><br>
Note: I draw the following from my evangelical friends and acquaintances
as well as my in depth study of them in my book <i>God, Reason, and the
Evangelicals</i>
(</font><a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/gre.htm." eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/gre.htm</a></u></font><a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/gre.htm." eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times">.</a>)<br><br>
1. No CEC minister I know has declared that he heads up a “New
Reformation.” Read for yourself the arrogant and self-aggrandizing
statements at
</font><a href="http://www.credenda.org/issues/15-4presbyterion.php" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.credenda.org/issues/15-4presbyterion.php</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
and
</font><a href="http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID</a>
=1&BlogID=910<br><br>
</u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">2. No CEC pastor I
know would sanction an April Fool’s stunt, complete with stealing UI
letterhead and using some else’s FAX line, to announce an alleged UI
sponsored lecture entitled “Topless and Proud.” He tells us how
proud he was of his son-in-law’s actions: <br><br>
“By the time you receive this, our local police will probably have
forgotten all about it, so a little bragging is now safe, and perhaps it
is even in order. But first some background. Our local city council,
through a series of ridiculous circumstances, decided to quit restricting
female toplessness. The noble senior editor of this journal [Wilson’s
son-in-law], encouraged by some winks and nudges from me, not that he
needed any, made up a flyer which announced a topless and proud lecture
series by topless feminist scholars.” See the full text at
</font><a href="http://www.credenda.org/issues/11-3meander.php" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.credenda.org/issues/11-3meander.php</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
and the police report at
</font><a href="http://dougsplotch.com/looter.htm" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://dougsplotch.com/looter.htm</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
at the bottom of the page.<br><br>
3. While most CEC ministers believe that homosexuality is a sin,
very few join Wilson & Co. in calling for their execution. The
<i>Daily News</i> caught Wilson in a generous moment when he admitted
that the Bible would also sanction exile rather than death. Two articles
in Wilson’s <i>Credenda Agenda</i> (vol. 3: nos. 9, 11) supported capital
punishment for “kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality,
and cursing one's parents.” <br><br>
4. Very few CEC pastors lead their congregations in imprecatory
prayers against their enemies. According to a former church member,
Wilson’s favorite seems to be “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths”
(Ps. 58.6). <br><br>
5. Most CEC theologians, such as Stephen Davis, consistently
reinterpret biblical passages that impugn Yahweh’s moral integrity, but
Wilson revels in pronouncing that every immoral act seemingly committed
by Yahweh was indeed committed by him. Commenting on the stories of
Abraham and Job, Douglas Jones, Wilson’s right hand man, actually admits
that God is "morally insane" and "dangerous and
unpredictable"(</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>"Playing
with Knives: God the Dangerous," <i>Credenda Agenda</i>
16:3).</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times"> In his book
<i>Debate about the Bible</i>, Davis wisely argues that it was sinful
Israelites, not God, who carried out the genocide of the Canaanite
peoples.<br><br>
6. No CEC minister that I know has paid the gambling debts of errant
college students out of church funds. Even though the IRS requires
that a 1099 be filed for any payment over $600, no such document exists
for this $1,000 transaction. For the entire story, as yet to be
covered by the local press and complete with letters, e-mails,
affidavits, tape recordings, see
</font><a href="http://dougsplotch.com/index.html" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://dougsplotch.com/index.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">.<br><br>
7. Very few CEC ministers who run their own schools would openly deny
that they have these schools, but Wilson, who accredits 157 schools,
regularly speaks at their commencements, and requires that they read his
textbook on Christian schools and buy his books, said the
following:<br>
“Do your schools support neo-Confederate and Christian nationalist views?
Yes or No? MY SCHOOLS? I DON'T HAVE ANY SCHOOLS . . . . OKAY, OKAY. WE
REPUDIATE ALL ICKY VIEWS. NEVER HEARD OF 'EM.” Wilson’s full caps
in his reply to my questions, posted on Vision2020 on December 9, 2003 at
http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2003-December/005891.html.<br>
One of Wilson’s Moscow graduates is principal of Carey (NC) Christian
School and he was forced to withdraw Wilson’s booklet <i>Southern Slavery
as it Was</i>, whose co-author is a founding director of the
neo-Confederate League of the South. For more see
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/slavepage.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/slavepage.htm</a>.<br><br>
8. Not many CEC churches, even in the South, support
neo-Confederate views, but one of Wilson’s best friends Steve Wilkins is
a founding director of the neo-Confederate League of the South
(LOS). The LOS has been declared a hate group by the Southern
Poverty Law Center and the LOS is taking more control of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans, who just elected Kirk Lyons to its national
executive board. An outspoken racist, Lyons was married by neo-Nazi
Richard Butler in 1990, when Butler still had his compound in Hayden
Lake. <br><br>
9. Most CEC ministers would support the international genocide treaty,
but not Wilson. “Do you support the international conventions against
genocide? Yes or No? THIS ISN'T A PRO-LIFE TRICK QUESTION, IS IT? IT IS?
THEN NO”
(http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2003-December/005891.html).
Notice Wilson’s flip style in this exchange: This is typical of the way
he debates. As I liked to say: those who live by the flip will die
by the flip. <br><br>
10. All but a few CEC pastors would defer to CEC scholars in their
congregations, but not Wilson. When Tracie McKenzie, a University of
Washington civil war expert and a member of the Seattle Christ Church,
dared to object to the errors in the slavery booklet, Wilson rejected his
advice to withdraw the booklet.<br><br>
11. Very few CECs would support Wilson’s practice of infant baptism, an
act that makes them, according to Wilson, Christians in more than just a
nominal way. How much more nominal this state of grace is, is hard to
determine in Wilson’s writings. Personally, I believe Wilson has switched
from adult baptism so that he has more control over these children and
their parents.<br><br>
12. Not very many CEC ministers start their own denomination when
their current sect criticizes them. Conservative Presbyterian
denominations are notorious for their strict discipline, but it appears
as if rules are broken left and right in Wilson’s Confederation of
Reformed Evangelical Churches. See
</font><a href="http://dougsplotch.com/index.html" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://dougsplotch.com/index.html</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">.<br><br>
13. Most CEC pastors would respect other CEC colleges, but Wilson
believes that very few of them meet his standards of true
Christianity. Wilson states that “evangelical establishment,
particularly the evangelical establishment as now represented by its
flagship colleges and publications, is completely adrift” (<i>Credenda
Agenda</i> 17:1). See also his “Classical Learning and the
Christian College” at
</font><a href="http://www.canonpress.org/pages/" eudora="autourl"><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.canonpress.org/pages/</a></u></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">
pdf%20pgs/quest.pdf. Finally, check out his
article</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2> “Why
Evangelical Colleges Are Not” in <i>Chronicles</i> (September,
1998).<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times">14. Most CEC theologians would
reject Wilson’s “Federal Vision” in which the individual self is
supplanted by a collective self and where women would lose their right to
vote.<br><br>
There’s much more, folks, but I’m exhausted.<br><br>
Nick Gier<br><br>
</font></html>