<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT><FONT size=4>Rose, et al,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Please pardon the confusion of an old man perhaps past the
first blush of senility, but Cultmaster Douglas Wilson is quoted by The
<EM>Daily News</EM> as saying:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff>"But do I have regrets about thinking what I think
about this? No. <STRONG>We are not defending slavery as a positive
good</STRONG>..."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But in Wilson's and Wilkins's infamous religious
tract <EM>Southern Slavery: As It Was</EM> <FONT size=4>they assert:</FONT>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: BookAntiqua; mso-bidi-font-family: BookAntiqua"><FONT
face=Verdana><FONT size=3><FONT color=#0000ff>"...slavery was a harmonious
institution, one characterized by racial affection and patriarchal
benevolence."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: BookAntiqua; mso-bidi-font-family: BookAntiqua"><o:p><FONT
face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: BookAntiqua; mso-bidi-font-family: BookAntiqua"><FONT
face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=3>"...slave life was to them a life of plenty,
of simple pleasures."</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Hmmm.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The latter quotes sound suspiciously like a defense of slavery
as a positive good. Who wouldn't want to live a <FONT color=#0000ff>"life
of plenty"</FONT> and <FONT color=#0000ff>"simple pleasures"</FONT> in a society
characterized <FONT color=#0000ff>"by racial affection"</FONT>?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But of course, it may be that the uninitiated like myself are
not able to correctly decode Wilson's simple words just as we are not able to
correctly decode, as Wilson and his Cult policemen allege, the
simple words of the <EM>Bible. </EM>But mistakenly
we uninitiated take words in context with their ordinary
meanings.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But granting my possible lack of decoding ability, perhaps
someone can clearly explain why the quotes from <EM>Southern Slavery: As It
Was</EM> above are not attempting to point to slavery a positive good.
Maybe some of those nice boys and girls (or their masters) at New Saint Andrews
will clear this matter up for us.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><BR>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<BR><A
href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">deco@moscow.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message -----
<DIV>From: "donald huskey" <<A
href="mailto:donaldrose@cpcinternet.com">donaldrose@cpcinternet.com</A>></DIV>
<DIV>To: "'Nicholas Gier'" <<A
href="mailto:ngier@uidaho.edu">ngier@uidaho.edu</A>></DIV>
<DIV>Cc: <<A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A>></DIV>
<DIV>Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 12:29 PM</DIV>
<DIV>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wilson Digs His Slavery Hole Deeper</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>> Hi Nick and other Visionaries:<BR>> <BR>> Thank you
for posting the Daily News (aka The Daily New St. Andrews) article<BR>> about
Dale's new book. Could any of you clarify a point in the article
for<BR>> me? Doug is quoted: <BR>> <BR>> "But do I have regrets
about thinking what I think about this? No. We are<BR>> not defending slavery
as a positive good - like food, air, or sunshine - but<BR>> it was not the
Holocaust either."<BR>> <BR>> I don't recall Doug using this particular
excuse before, is this a new<BR>> wrinkle?<BR>> <BR>> Thanks,<BR>>
Rose<BR>> <BR>> P.S. Ah, yes. The Blue Bonnet Press, still
flogging the Confederate cause.<BR>> <A
href="http://www.bluebonnetpress.com/wbts_authors.html">http://www.bluebonnetpress.com/wbts_authors.html</A><BR>>
I think we might identify this splendid little outfit as Canon Press
South.<BR>> The authors for this press include (are limited to?) George
Grant, J. Steven<BR>> Wilkins, Douglas Wilson (described as "another leading
light in contemporary<BR>> classical Christian education"), and Tom Spencer,
secondary principal at<BR>> Logos School. Note: Mr. Spencer was
terminated several months ago. I<BR>> believe it would astound all Doug
Wilson's critics if he actually found a<BR>> press that wasn't connected
ideologically or theologically with his far<BR>> flung enterprises .However,
there is no danger of that happening. <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> -----Original
Message-----<BR>> From: <A
href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</A>
[mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com]<BR>> On Behalf Of Nicholas
Gier<BR>> Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:21 PM<BR>> To: <A
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>> Subject:
[Vision2020] Wilson Digs His Slavery Hole Deeper<BR>> <BR>> Greetings:
<BR>> <BR>> I believe that this is more than three today, but I had
to be the first<BR>> to post <BR>> this for those who do not read the
Daily News. <BR>> <BR>> Just to set the record even straighter.
The lifted passages in the slavery <BR>> booklet did not come about because
of "citation problems," or as<BR>> "transmission" <BR>> problems, as
Wilson once described it. It was plagiarism pure and<BR>> simple, and
<BR>> Wilkins, the co-author, admitted as much in the evangelical
"World"<BR>> magazine <BR>> (May 1, 2005). Wilkins has done
this with at least two other books of<BR>> his. <BR>> See my article
on plagiarism at<BR>> <A
href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/kidnap.htm">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/kidnap.htm</A>.
<BR>> <BR>> An attempt to set record straight; UI professor's book
contradicts<BR>> writings of <BR>> Moscow pastor <BR>> <BR>> By
Kate Baldwin, Daily News staff writer <BR>> Thursday, November 2, 2006 - Page
Updated at 11:56:01 AM <BR>> <BR>> A new book released by a
University of Idaho professor continues the<BR>> academic <BR>> response
to a controversial slavery booklet that rocked the community three <BR>>
years ago. <BR>> <BR>> Dale Graden, an associate history professor,
said his book focuses on slave <BR>> resistance as one of the key components
of abolition in the Americas. <BR>> <BR>> "It undermines any concept
that slaves are happy, passive or not<BR>> resisting their <BR>>
enslavement," he said. <BR>> <BR>> That premise contradicts the ideas
forwarded by a local pastor in the now <BR>> out-of-print work, "Southern
Slavery: As It Was." <BR>> <BR>> Moscow Christ Church pastor Doug
Wilson partnered with Louisiana pastor<BR>> Steven <BR>> Wilkins to write
and release the booklet in 1996. Their booklet defended <BR>> biblical
slavery, suggested that pre-Civil War slavery was not as bad as <BR>>
historians make it out to be, and indicated that in some cases it could<BR>>
be a <BR>> beneficial institution for slaves. <BR>> <BR>> It
wasn't until October 2003 that the booklet surfaced in Moscow and<BR>> began
to <BR>> divide the community with the issues it raised.
<BR>> <BR>> Less than a year later, a number of errors were found,
including<BR>> problems with <BR>> citations and attribution, and
information that was taken out of context. <BR>> <BR>> Graden, 54,
said both the ideas and the problems within that booklet<BR>> motivated
<BR>> him to take his research to the next level as he worked on his own
book<BR>> about <BR>> the history of slavery. <BR>> <BR>> He
estimated that he read more than 20,000 documents in the process of<BR>>
writing, <BR>> "From Slavery to Freedom in Brazil: Bahia 1835-1900," which
came out<BR>> this month <BR>> after more than a decade of work.
<BR>> <BR>> Graden said his assertions are based on hundreds of
documents to ensure an <BR>> appropriate interpretation of the historical
evidence. <BR>> <BR>> "Getting into the lives of slaves and
underclasses isn't easy to do,"<BR>> Graden <BR>> said.
<BR>> <BR>> There is little documentation and viewpoints often were
suppressed at<BR>> the time, <BR>> he said. <BR>> <BR>> While
Graden's book focuses mainly on Brazil, he believes the slaves'<BR>>
resistance <BR>> efforts happening there were representative of the movements
taking place <BR>> throughout the Americas, including the southern United
States. <BR>> <BR>> Slave revolts were a classic sign of resistance,
he said. Sometimes the<BR>> revolts <BR>> came peacefully with work
slowdowns, and other times violently with the <BR>> assassinations of masters
and overseers. Slave escapes and runaways also<BR>> were <BR>> prominent
in both places, he said. That method of resistance was so<BR>> popular in
<BR>> the United States that the underground railroad became an institution
of<BR>> its <BR>> own, freeing thousands of slaves. <BR>> <BR>>
"It's an issue of personal responsibility and social responsibility to<BR>>
grapple <BR>> with the racism, violence, and repression of what slavery was
all about<BR>> and the <BR>> legacies it has left," he said. "It makes me
want to dig in and keep<BR>> working on <BR>> history - social history."
<BR>> <BR>> Graden wasn't the first academic to respond to the
booklet co-authored by <BR>> Wilson. <BR>> <BR>> UI professors
Bill Ramsey and Sean Quinlan published an 11-page response<BR>> in 2003
<BR>> that was titled, "Southern Slavery As It Wasn't: Professional
Historians<BR>> Respond <BR>> to Neo-Confederate Misinformation."
<BR>> <BR>> "Some of the assertions in the booklet were so patently,
so obviously<BR>> false that <BR>> they needed to be challenged," Ramsey
said. "And nobody else was<BR>> challenging it, <BR>> so I did it."
<BR>> <BR>> Graden agreed. <BR>> <BR>> "It's important
that historians like Quinlan and Ramsey, and myself in this <BR>> book, are
trying to make the historical record accurate," he said. "Thank <BR>>
goodness people within academia are not just doing theoretical work."
<BR>> <BR>> While the Wilson and Wilkins booklet is out of print, it
continues to<BR>> circulate <BR>> in two places. <BR>> <BR>>
Wilson said portions of the booklet appear in a textbook called "The War<BR>>
Between <BR>> the States: America's Uncivil War," which is published by Blue
Bonnet<BR>> Press in <BR>> Texas. A revised portion of the booklet also
made it into a new book<BR>> written <BR>> solely by Wilson that is titled
"Black and Tan." <BR>> <BR>> Wilson uses this new book to reinforce
the concept that the need to defend <BR>> biblical slavery stems from a need
to be able to interpret the Bible<BR>> literally <BR>> and use it for
addressing modern challenges caused by issues like<BR>> abortion or <BR>>
sodomy. <BR>> <BR>> Wilson said the position he argued in the
original booklet is that<BR>> people need <BR>> "a sense of proportion
about our own history." <BR>> <BR>> "There is a difference between
wanting to solve an obvious social<BR>> problem they <BR>> had at that
time and being willing to kill 600,000 people ... " he said, <BR>> referring
to the Civil War. <BR>> <BR>> "I certainly have regrets about the
citation problems, that was an<BR>> inexcusable <BR>> blunder," Wilson
said. <BR>> <BR>> "But do I have regrets about thinking what I think
about this? No. We<BR>> are not <BR>> defending slavery as a positive good
- like food, air, or sunshine - but<BR>> it was <BR>> not the Holocaust
either." <BR>> <BR>> Graden said arguments like those in "Southern
Slavery: As It Was" are<BR>> appealing <BR>> because they give credibility
to white, Southern elites. <BR>> <BR>> "It makes them look better
than they were," he said. "My book shows the <BR>> fallacies of the pamphlet.
Virtually every point they make in the<BR>> pamphlet, I <BR>> disagree
with." <BR>> <BR>> Ramsey tries to keep the debate in perspective.
<BR>> <BR>> "I don't think the history of slavery is hinging on the
Moscow<BR>> controversy," he <BR>> said. "The fact that we have some local
radicals who are not comfortable<BR>> with <BR>> that unpleasant portrait
of slavery doesn't undermine 50 years of academic <BR>> scholarship."
<BR>> <BR>> Meanwhile, Graden hopes to keep the dialogue open on
"diversity and<BR>> equality and <BR>> freedom . and what black Americans
have been through." <BR>> <BR>> "We need to grapple with these
issues," he said. "More is better than less <BR>> discussion."
<BR>> <BR>> Kate Baldwin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239,
or by e-mail at <BR>> <A
href="mailto:kbaldwin@dnews.com">kbaldwin@dnews.com</A><FONT size=4><FONT
size=3>. <BR>> <BR></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>