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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Princess,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Because of the strength of your points here and the surface
plausibility of your argument, I am inclined to offer a challenge to your
defense of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
(although I wish you would reveal your identity). I did not want to make
this a Wilson-bashing contest, but for the sake of clarity and balance, I will
need to darken the skies a little bit; for me, the hope for a just and loving <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> is simply no more.
However, I do applaud your valiant defense; I wish I could agree with your post.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I believe there are many problems with your argument here, but here I
will just name a few: First of all, there are years worth of context already in
place; at this point, after the kind of confirmed testimony against pastor
Wilson and his repeated habit of using sheep as a shield or else attempting to
destroy them when they publicly dissent, it is not reasonable to ask outsiders
to all this (or to those already critical) to judge each and every one of
Wilson’s actions in a neutral void. The overall story line is essential;
context is crucial at this point. Your argument does not grant this larger
story.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Second, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
has already responded to this in detail. The way <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>
has responded to this has been petty, self-defensive, slanderous, dishonest,
and revealing of the fact that he is really the last person in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> to care about the feelings of the
victims right now. To defend <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>
against the implicit accusations here you must also defend the way <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> has thus far
responded to this. But you do not do that here. The way <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>
responds to these kinds of situations is one of the primary concerns of
X-Kirkers who believe that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> is a cult.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Third, your primary claim here is unfortunately not true at all. Generally,
your point seems to be that if <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> was a bad
man he would have declared the news publicly, but if <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> was a good man he would have concealed
it the way he has. However, I have known <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>
for over a decade, and based on this I cannot imagine <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> wanting to trumpet this information
publicly. One of the things that started giving me the creeps a couple
years ago while I was studying directly under him in a special, private
mentorship, was the fact that it was becoming apparent that Wilson’s
little darling was the political and financial success of New St.
Andrew’s College. <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
is an ambitious leader, a politician. He is not a pastor, and he is
certainly not a humble ambassador of the gospel. He is building a
reputation, a following, an institution, and in his greatest hopes, an entire
sub-culture and mighty cathedral. I can only imagine that you are either
in the Kirk, princess, or else have part of your social identity wrapped up with
pastor Wilson; rarely do those fully ‘outside’ all this not see much
of what I am outlining here. <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
persistently conceals problems within the church, particularly anything
relating to the health of NSA. More to the argumentative point: Advertising
that a NSA student, in good standing in church and school, had been doing what
he was doing for 18 months within the protective walls of Kirk-Jerusalem is not
what we would call a good marketing tactic for New St. Andrews. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Fourth, given <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>’s
psychology, I think it is very plausible that he thought this was not going to
get out. But either way, his goal would be to mitigate the damage as much
as possible, just as he is trying to do right now—-a method that includes
demonizing me like never before. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I am astounded at <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>’s
response to this so far, which has weakened my hope to keep all this civil and
protective of the victims. This should not be primarily a battle between
Metzler and Wilson, but <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
is aggressively bent on making it so. If this leads to further revelation of <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>’s corruption,
so be it. It will be his doing. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Michael Metzler <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>J Ford's allies over at Little Jim-Bob Way dot com are spinning this as
"The First United Church of CYA." If Rev. Wilson was really the sort
of person his enemies claim he is, the easiest thing for him to do as pastor of
Christ Church would have been, immediately upon Sitler's problems coming to his
attention, to hold a press conference announcing to the whole world what had
happened, and calling for victims everywhere to come forward into the light to
join in the public prosecution of this criminal. The easiest thing for him to
do would have been to write to the judge, "Lock him up and throw away the
key." In other words, the easiest thing for him to do, if he was the kind
of man his enemies claim he is, would have been exactly the sorts of things
they loudly proclaim he should have done. Now that would be CYA. But what did
he do? Knowing full well that this could not be kept secret, and knowing full
well that his enemies would have a field day with it, he took an approach that
shows genuine concern for achieving healing -- both on the part of the victims
and on the part of the perpetrator. Since the details are not knowable, it is
not possible for me to say whether Rev. Wilson took the course of greatest
wisdom in the way he dealt with it. But what this whole incident makes
manifestly obvious is that his overriding concern as pastor is to faithfully
serve Jesus Christ. It is safe to surmise from this that compared with his
concern for faithfully serving Jesus Christ, he could care less what his
enemies think about him -- indeed, he could care less what his own flock thinks
about him. I say that not in any absolute sense, but only relatively speaking.
In the end, when push comes to shove, he only cares about what Jesus Christ thinks
about him, and nothing else. Because if he was any other kind of man, publicly
washing his hands of Steven Sitler would have been the easiest thing to do. I'm
not saying we can conclude that Rev. Wilson took the wisest course of action.
But this whole incident reveals mountains about the essential purity of his
most basic faith commitment. And the fact that Rev. Wilson's enemies can't see
this plain fact is because they are the sort of people that he claims they are:
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>spiritually blind.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>-- Princess Sushitushi<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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