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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>In response to my comments here: <a
href="http://poohsthink.com/?p=838">http://poohsthink.com/?p=838</a> I
received a letter from Rose. I think these are important issues as we
seek to figure out the best way to evangelize and pastor, or otherwise contain,
the Kirk. Following Roes’s letter I offer a reply:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Good Morning
Michael,</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>I have just
read your recent post titled “An Interesting Discussion About
Authority” and respectfully disagree with some of your conclusions.
It is my sense that Light and Simple Gifts have captured the essence of the
Kirk accurately. In particular, I do not share your appraisal that: </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 color=navy
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>“Doug Wilson fostered an environment that made
his culture building lovely, or at least tailored for the children and inviting
for them. And the general point of his argument I think still stands: in so far
as dying your purple hair is an expression or symbol of rebellion, we should
allow purple hair to speak as rebellion, just as I would want my clean cut
presentation at a job interview to communicate non-rebellion.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>From his earliest public days Doug has preached a
gospel of division and exclusiveness. A close friend recalls Doug’s
preaching in front of the UI library in the early 1990’s which (both in
quality and content) differed little from the incoherent rantings of that
itinerant lunatic, Brother Jeb, who appears annually on the UI campus.
Doug has carefully nourished and encouraged the character of the
twenty-somethings that haunt the halls of <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">New St</st1:address></st1:Street>. Andrews, Greyfriars, and
the Logos clone schools across the country. These environs are not lovely
for children - as Light pointed out. They produced bullies, liars, and
distorters of the gospel. The key to success in climbing the hierarchical
ladder of the Kirk, is not allegiance to God, but rather loyalty to Doug
Wilson. As an aside, I have recently considered the similarities between
a snake oil pyramid scheme and Doug’s empire. The
“distributorships,” i.e. local households, allow every man to
be a leader while holding out the promise of advancement through promotion of
Kirk franchised activities. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Purple hair vs. a clean-cut appearance as a barometer
of rebellion is a straw man argument. How many times have non-Kirkers in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> pointed out that
the nice-looking and well dressed the NSA students are an asset to the
community – as though clothes somehow mirrored character.
Successful con men dress in conventionally acceptable ways. Similarly the
country-casual Ralph Lauren look assumed by the leadership of the Kirk and
their eager want-to-be followers has absolutely nothing to do with the
condition of their hearts, souls, or minds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>I hope that school is going well for you.
As ever, you and your family are in my prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Rose<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'>Rose,<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'>Thank you for writing in, and as always I appreciate your encouragement
and help, in addition to your many good insights. I will have to disagree with
some of this, although I think much of the disagreement is based on mild
misunderstanding. Here are my thoughts in reply:<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'>Certainly there are elements of what Light described from her
experience that we see expressing themselves here in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City>. However, as one who has
participated in the Kirk community for over a decade I can say that the two
environments are different. Whereas most conservative cult-like
communities are noted for their stern legalistic approach to morality and
control, in many respects this is not what you have seen Wilson foster
here. He has explicitly distanced himself from the more sickly
“dower” expressions of reformed or baptistic reformed
cultures. The children here, particularly the college students, like
being in the Kirk. The stance <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
takes to the world creates a more cozy and protected world in which members can
enjoy their tradition, studies, identity, and sexuality. There have been
explicit attempts to maintain “liberty,” bordered by boundaries
such as drunken debauchery, lewd behavior, disrespect of women, and
fornication. The community is specifically tailored to the children, so
that they will learn to love and internalize their own family’s culture
and the more general culture of the Kirk. <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'>Take the issue of women for example. <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> has been liberal in contrast with the
conservative fundamentalism to which he has attached himself. Women
should get an education as good as men; if they are to manage households
instead of pursuing careers then a rigorous education will serve them just as
well, particularly since they will be the educators of their children. Women
can be political rulers. Women as “help meets” means they must be a
peer to their husbands, or else all the “help” they will bring is
some wet softness in bed and a pretty smile during the day. They have
encouraged women to move out of the home once they are of college age and have
taught against mothers placing household duties on their daughters; rather,
parents are here to love and serve their children, giving them the best
experience and education they can. They have encouraged the idea of women
pursuing medical degrees and becoming medical doctors. They have taught
against a ban on birth control and that it is not the number of children
produced that matters but rather the quality of rearing you are able to provide
the children you do have. As far as sex goes, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> is all for oral sex and other such
matters, as you will see in his book on marriage. Passionate love making is the
only proper approach to the subject and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>
has reasoned that the sexual experience has no explanation or
justification. It is self-justifying and something to take delight in as
autonomous to religious axiom. Last I checked the divorce rate in the
Kirk was 6 percent, and knowing the people there, it is hard to imagine this is
solely because of the tyranny of patriarchy. <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'>As for <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>’s
earlier days, I’m sure he was a fundamentalist idiot; unfortunately, we
have seen the fact that he still is. However, he certainly sought to put
himself through his own rehabilitation hospital, which had many effects,
including his ability to start NSA. Now certainly, we agree on many of the
corruptions at the Kirk, and the horrifying nature of the arrogance coming from
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>, Jones,
Nate, and their young Jedi-knights in training—Nate Wilson’s
pathological arrogance and insensitivity is simply a scary thought given the
no-boundaries nepotism Doug Wilson has been able to flaunt before the Kirk
community. But as one who has both known what it is like to be in the Kirk for
a decade and one to also receive the beatings from its cultish expression, I
would think that my inside testimony should carry some weight; the nature of
the Kirk is a complex situation, and the more common cultish expressions Light
describes is not fully reflective of what you have had here, at least in the
past. <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'>As for the purple hair issue, the idea is not that the color of your
hair is a “barometer” or that clothes “mirror”
character. The idea is simply that expressions such as the way one walks,
carries himself, dresses, and does his hair generally act as cultural signs
that bear meanings in ways analogous to the signs of explicit linguistic
expressions. I cut my hair and shave before a job interview in part to
communicate something about myself and my attitudes towards work and the
company I am interviewing in particular. When a young man decides to
spike his hair and color it purple, this typically “says” something
about his current attitude towards his society and his role in it. That
is all. In certain “culture-semantic contexts” (if I may make
up a phrase) dying your hair purple might be a virtuous act, much like wearing
the funny mask was a virtuous act in the movie Vendetta. In the case of the
nice dressed kirkers, all I think you have to do is create different layers of
“character.” For example, I’m sure that Nazis displayed
certain forms of virtuous or developed character, such as, for example, respect
for parents or fidelity in marriage. In their narrow contexts, these were
“goods,” even though Nazis were capable of creating an enemy group
of people to torture and murder. Clearly, we consider them bad people, but this
doesn’t mean we can’t point out that their nice dress and cultural
refinement were not positive goods while taking them in their narrower context.
<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'>That’s all I have time for right now. I’m glad Rose
wrote in.<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="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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