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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Gary Crabtree Writes:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Joe defiantly states
" A better explanation is that there is more to the story than <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gary</st1:place></st1:City> suggests." OK!
Have at it then. What specifically is it about this group of people that
elicits the level of criticism displayed here…. . .Why is Christ Church
solely taken to task for philosophy's that could be laid equally at the doors
of any number of other denominations? . . . I do feel a small need to challenge
the blind assertions that this group is somehow evil . . . In your explanation,
please include for us why any point that you care to make can be only said of
C.C. and not leveled against the Roman Catholics, the Latter-Day Saints, the
Christian Scientists, the Baptists or any other of a number of other
religious groups in the area. If you can't come up with something totally
unique to Pastor Wilson and Co., please explain why you don't attack these
other groups with the same fervor and ferocity that you reserve for them. I
anxiously await your explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><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><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Gary</span></font></st1:City></st1:place>,<o:p></o:p></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'>It seems as though you might not have seen one of the posts I wrote
this morning in answer to some of Paul’s questions. What I have
given is in no way exhaustive, as I stated originally, but it certainly begins
to answer some of your questions and concerns as posed here. I know that
Keely has made similar comments recently as well. Here they are again
(below) in case you missed them. Thanks, Michael<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Christ Church is a very elitist and
arrogant expression of conservative Christianity that preaches dominance and
pays lip service to love and silent grace; however, the pastor, Doug Wilson,
thrives on national popularity within a splinter denomination and
conflict—not local peace and sociologically healthy integration.
There are many good people still left in <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType>, but the primary interface with
the local community is a brash, vocal, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
defending group – what some call the “insiders.” <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Many former members of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType>
consider Wilson a deceptive oppressor who continually lies and spins in order
to control his group – many of them call <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
an outright “cult.” <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
is also very well known for turning on old friends and laymen as soon as they
criticize on the wrong issues or publicly challenge him; he is known as a
master at what we call “character assassination” and he has been
very successful at it. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place>
boasts a “Presbyterian” government of checks and balances, but
there really are not checks and balances within the non-Presbyterian CREC
denomination that he started; and the elders surrounding him offer no
accountability at all. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>3.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>There are many views and practices that
are very offensive to the outside Christian and secular community, such as a
form of theonomy, a defense of the pre-civil war South, the belief in much
legal regress over the last 100 years in America, and the practice of
imprecatory prayers, where the Christ Church community calls down literal harm
against local real people who happen to oppose Christ Church. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>4.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>There is a strange, non-Christian
theology and defense strategy that I call “enemy theology,” wherein
any concern or criticism from the outside, no matter what it is and from where
it comes from, is interpreted as “persecution” and evidence that
not only are the things they are criticized for not wrong but that they are
actually very holy and right. The Princess notes that this is not a simple
deductive mechanism – not always is this a sign of being right –
but in practice this is precisely what it is: criticism functions a priori as
evidence for being right and holy, a prophetic persecuted group. Wilson
has developed a “Serrated Edge” model to justify his insulting and
arrogant approach to many different kinds of people ranging from local
neighbors, Thomas Kincaid, a Grayfriar student, evangelicals, local professors,
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">Bill London</st1:PersonName>, etc. This is
where the “cult” concern extends from the sociological to the
theological: this is a clear defensive, and ad hoc twisting of scripture; the
“serrated edge” in the New Testament was never to dehumanize and
merely insult the opponent as an act of “war” but was rather
dignified pronouncements of judgment against those who sat in Moses’
seat, those in places of religious authority and power that used that power to
belittle “outsiders” and oppress insiders. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place> is really the only person on the
Palouse, according to standards of scripture, that currently deserves something
like the serrated edge.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>5.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>I was a loyal <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City></st1:place> defender and Christ church member for
10 years, a Greyfriar student, and contributor to Credenda Agenda. After
the above realizations become firm enough in my mind, I began questioning and
challenging. The response I received from Wilson, Jones, Nate, and others
caused me to move into a more public setting: character assassination had
already set in against me in mild forms and the message was clear that I either
shut up or prepare for a nasty fight. I started a web site to track this
experience, which you can find here: <a href="http://www.poohsthink.com/"
title="http://www.poohsthink.com/">www.poohsthink.com</a> . I have been
kicked out of Christ Church, shunned by many (e.g. my daughter is not allowed
to play with two of her best friends), and the elders are currently making me
out to be an insane, bitter, evil man who is as perverse as a child molester in
order to steer kirkers away from my website and the evidence and arguments
contained therein. As with all the other kirkers who have left and
received this kind of treatment, I must say that I am glad to be out –
although this has been a very gruesome and hurtful exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'><span
style='mso-list:Ignore'>6.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font
size=5><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Much criticism that comes against <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
is not just, rational, or fair. But much of it is. All of it should
be expected, since any religious group that acts so exclusive and arrogant
would get a strong lashing back from a small liberal community anywhere in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> currently.
<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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