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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Vision Friends:<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'>Writing is a bit hard on the road with four little kids
(understatement!); so I don’t hope to accomplish much for now, even
though it is true that I’m finding my name out in public a bit more than
I would like. For now I wanted to offer some important
clarifications to my involvement in this issue. <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'>First, the Sitler issue never has been nor is it now something I have
wanted to be involved with. Although I have been tempted to cease all
blogging many times now, for various reasons I continue to plug away at trying
to analyze, and at times unmask, what I see as some unusual corruptions at
Christ Church; this has been a difficult process of going from a loyal Wilson
defender to a public critic, and I still feel like I’m in process.
My primary concerns have been with respect to the ‘serrated edge,’
a developing ‘enemy theology,’ and what I call <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>’s ‘sociology of
violence.’ The problem of cult of personalities and closed
communities is also of interest. The Sitler issue does not sit very snuggly in
these categories, and I have been—probably to a great fault—very
apathetic to it. I remain apathetic to it in many respects. However,
after a long bit of encouraging and arguing from a friend of mine, and after
getting notice that I had many respectable people with the same encouragement,
I went ahead and forwarded the public announcement. Even after I did, I was
asking people I trust if they thought it was the right thing to do, and I received
no thumbs down. I forwarded the public announcement along with
trepidation, and I actually had little desire to make this some sort of
political attack against Doug Wilson. I do desire to continue to unmask
the various levels of corruption at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, but if you
haven’t noticed, most nonChristians find much on my Blog a bit
boring. I’m not into this politics stuff, nor am I interested in
bashing <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
with anything I find on the ground. In fact, I have been forced to
actively defend <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
on occasion off line because of my status of public critic. <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'>What has followed my posting of this announcement has simply grieved
me. I deplore the undisciplined and ungodly use of this information to
spew bitterness and fabricate half truths. The person who wrote the
announcement has condemned the handling of it by some others, to the point of
possibly loosing a friend over it. And I have been saddened to see the
way both sides of this ‘dispute’ have handled the topic of
“victims.” In fact, I almost feel like I’m
staring into a wasteland of chaos as I watch the posts role in. This is
just further illumination of what I see as the continuance of a
‘sociology of violence.’ Are all the claims made about <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place> just? Of
course not. Are all of them true? No way. What I feel in my heart
seems so simple to me that I would not have imagined that anyone would
entertain the idea of lumping me in with those people who will pick up any
stick to do the work once the ‘enemy’ is located. In some
ways I wish I never posted this announcement, thus freeing my name from the
train wreck that was going to result once this information got out—which
was inevitable. Perhaps I was unwise in posting this. It would seem
so looking at what <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> has done with my
posting of this announcement. Many of you not following some aspects of
this might not realize the fact that Wilson and others at Christ Church have
rhetorically associated me with the wildest responses to all this and have
gotten the suspicion off the ground that my posting the announcement makes me
just as sick as a child molester. I have now been labeled as totally
immoral and psychologically unstable. This is in fact the primary
response of <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
to the revealing of this information: those who offered the information are
attacked first, other questions are partially addressed secondarily. <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'>So this is where I see myself in this issue. My blog was the
conduit of revealing this information. My name is attached to the
origination, and that is all. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
has therefore made me the whipping boy as this issue heats up. This kind
of slanderous attack by <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> is fully in line
with the purpose of my web site; <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>’s
response to this issue is my primary concern: the deceitful rhetoric; the
maligning of people instead of dealing with the evidence and issues directly;
abusing his position through intimidation and manipulation, etc.
Apparently, many do not share this concern as much, but I believe they should;
I believe that this is really getting more at the heart of the problems at <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
Do I think that there was pastoral misconduct in how the Sitler case was
handled? From everything I can tell so far, it would seem so; but I’m
reading this off the nature of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>’s
very troubling response to this more so than the actual evidence we yet have of
what had really transpired. I wish I could just correct the announcement
and say that it is true that the congregation was sufficiently notified, but I
still cannot. One of the reasons for this is the fact that myself and
many other kirkers were indeed not successfully notified at all. Does
this reveal aspects of the corruption at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>?
I would think so. But this does not mean that there was some kind of big sex
scandal to go on the front page of the newspaper. I could be wrong; there
could be more to this than I know. But I currently have little reason to
believe this and I have no intentions of being a part of the next big
politicized attack on Doug Wilson or <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. So few find
it interesting that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
is currently attacking the person who posted the information on Sitler more so
than providing basic information; I think this highlights how at odds I just
might be with this current ‘controversy’. Some of you will
thank me for the info and then tip your hat once the Kirk has lynched me.
A good reason to be careful on all fronts it seems to me. <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'>Finally, I want to also comment on my thoughts about Sitler. I
agree more with <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
than others who have so far commented to this—although I do not wish to
suggest a great coherence between this and their prior theonomic stances and
attitudes. We are all sinners, and it is ultimately not by my choosing
that I’m Metzler and not Sitler. The entire world is sick and full
of perversion. I am thankful for the American Legal Tradition and its
careful balancing between protection from harm and the disciplining of
vengeance. The law and the courts are not God, nor do they perfectly reflect ultimate
justice. The way some of the talk has gone about the death penalty and
disgust reveal hearts that need to know the God who became man and died. <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 think I rambled a bit, but if you are still reading: Thanks for
listening; I hope this at least clarifies my take on all this. <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'>Michael Metzler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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