[Vision2020] Pastor Wilson is as slippery as ever

Thu Feb 1 16:43:14 PST 2007

The easiest thing for Wilson to have done, of course, would have been to not 
ever write the booklet.    I have spent 25 years studying theology, 
Scripture, and apologetics, and I can't imagine the effort involved in 
attempting to defend the Bible by way of proclaiming the harmony and mutual 
affection of slavery.  (And its health care benefits).  It was vile, 
dishonest, and as tortured an attempt to defend the Bible as I could 
imagine.

Since he did write it, though, the easiest thing to do at that point would 
be to realize that he blew it so colossally, and on so many levels, that 
only one course of action would work.  It wasn't a mystery, or shouldn't 
have been, that only deep personal and spiritual reflection, followed by a 
public apology and repair, would be sufficient to undo the damage.

Then he could have done the next easy and obvious thing:  Preach the Gospel. 
  That's what ministers do.  They model, in words and in actions, Jesus' 
message of reconciliation.  They take care to present the Gospel in all 
honesty, in all humility, to all humanity.  And, as Francis of Assisi wrote, 
they even use words when they have to -- words of hope, peace, truth and 
sacrifice, with nary a word about Trinitarian skylarking.

But no.

The hardest thing for Wilson to do would be to try to defend the morass he's 
been in and the slop that brought it about, and he evidently ran right to 
it.  Perhaps that's why it took nearly two years to orchestrate his defense.

I appreciate Nick's comments about the evening.  Me, I would have found it 
exhausting to follow Wilson's efforts . . .

keely

From: "Saundra Lund" <sslund at roadrunner.com>
To: <nickgier at adelphia.net>, <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Pastor Wilson is as slippery as ever
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 16:16:31 -0800

Hi Nick & Other Visionaries,

I just want to add that for me, the most *fascinating* part of the evening
was the new spin -- or revisionist history -- Doug Wilson is now putting on
his heavily plagiarized and unspeakably offensive _Southern Slavery As It
Was_.

First, let's remember what Wilson repeatedly told our community -- and too
many reporters to count -- was his purpose in writing (and I use the word
loosely) SSAIW.

"Wilson has said the booklet was not intended to defend slavery but to
defend the Bible and to place slavery in a historical context."
Source:  "UI, WSU slam slavery booklet" by Adam Wilson, Lewiston Tribune,
2003-11-14, Page: 5A.

"Wilson, pastor of Moscow's Christ Church, said he did not co-write the book
to defend slavery.  His intention was to defend the Bible. . . . Wilson said
his book about Southern slavery was carefully put together so it would not
be perceived as a racist publication.  He had two thoughts in mind when he
decided to take on the subject of slavery.  The first was to defend the
Bible. The second was to present a historically accurate picture of slavery
as it existed in the South prior to the Civil War."
Source:  "Does book defend slavery or the bible?" by Alexis Bacharach,
Lewiston Tribune, 2003-10-23, Page: 1A.

All of that has magically changed now!  The REAL purpose, you see, was to
reach out to those Evangelical Christians who were inclined to think that
murderer Paul Hill's methods were a correct way to fight the pro-choice
majority of our county.

(At least, that was my understanding of the story Wilson was trying to sell
last night -- please feel free to correct me if you understood him
differently.)

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

The question that immediately came to my mind was:  was he lying to us then
or is he lying to us now???

And, that, of course, is the crux of Wilson's history of problems in our
community, IMHO:  the truth is an elusive and ever-shifting thing with him.
His personal truth constantly shifts to whatever is personally expedient for
him at any given moment.

I believe that KRFP, Radio Free Moscow, made an audio recording of last
night's forum, so I hope it will be available soon from their Web site:
http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/

If and when the audio becomes available, I cannot strongly enough urge those
interested in gaining a better understanding of Wilson's role in the
polarization of our community to please listen to Wilson's own words and
hype.  Sift through his rhetoric and compare the story he's trying to sell
us now to the story he worked so hard to sell us back in 2003 & 2004.

I also found it interesting that Wilson spent more than a little energy last
night trying to distance SSAIW co-author and League of the South founding
board member Steve Wilkins from the League of the South  :-)

Oh -- one more thing I found interesting:  the young man who opened the
forum made a point of expressing the expectation that the behavior of those
participating would be civil, professional, and polite.  Unfortunately, some
of Wilson's supporters have adopted the same "I'm special and the rules
don't apply to me" notion that Wilson himself holds -- they thought it
perfectly acceptable to loudly hector -- even yelling out at -- those who
had been given the microphone to ask questions.  Clearly not one of the
Kirk's shining moments in their disingenuous "call for a return to
civility."  As is par for the course, those present from other sides of the
issues had no problems remaining respectful and polite.

JMHO,
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of nickgier at adelphia.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:55 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Pastor Wilson is as slippery as ever

Greetings:

I just returned from Wilson's response to the "My Town" documentary.  There
was no panel as promised, bu just Da Man talkin'.  I may have something else
to say about the evening, but I will now limit my post to two points.

First, Wilson now disassociates his Paleo-Confederacy from anything having
to do with the historical Southern Confederacy.  He now says it is simply
the original American republic with Senators being appointed by the states.

He now also disagrees with the Founding Fathers about saying that only
propertied males could vote.  The New Doug Wilson now says that he never
said that women could not vote.  (He would now only exempt students from
voting because they do not own property!) In the excerpt below and in "My
Town" he of course says something very different.

Second, again Wilson claimed that at no time did any of his institutions
display the Confederate Flag or portraits of Robert E. Lee.

But our own Wayne Fox has posted a Lee portrait hanging in a Logos School
Room several times on this list (please do it again), and a visiting
Calvinist pastor wrote to the Daily News testifying that the Confederate
flag was hanging in Wilson's office when he once visited.

And then there is Wilson's own confession in a story in the Spokesman
Review, which I've excerpted below.

I've worked with reporter Shawn Vestal before on faculty union issues and he
is top notch.  I called him and asked him if this is what Wilson said, and
he was offended that he would ask him such a question.  "Of course Wilson
said this; otherwise I would not have written it!"

Old-school Controversy surrounds New Saint Andrews College

Shawn Vestal
Staff writer for the Spokesman Review
October 22, 2006

Wilson echoed that comment but said he might be fairly described as
"paleo-confederate" - favoring many ideas of the Southern confederacy, such
as agrarian living, opposition to a strong central government, voting based
on property ownership and a focus on traditional family and community, but
not slavery. . . .

He acknowledges that portraits of Lee and Confederate flags have adorned
office and school walls at times and says that he believes in some - but not
all - of the tenets on which the Southern confederacy was built: a society
centered around God and belief, a simple farming life as opposed to a hectic
modern one, and an emphasis on traditional family and community. . . .

Nick Gier, Proud Intolerista
Intolerance is a virtue when one is intolerant of dishonesty, deception,
evasion, bigotry, and bad manners.

=======================================================
  List services made available by First Step Internet,
  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
                http://www.fsr.net
           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================

_________________________________________________________________
Get live scores and news about your team: Add the Live.com Football Page  
http://www.live.com/?addtemplate=football