[Vision2020] Wilson's Excuses [made transparently simple]

Sat Feb 17 14:40:57 PST 2007

Well Gary,

I can't speak for J Ford.  And since you are, for whatever reasons, unable or unwilling to comment upon the love and Christianly compassion-filled essay by Greg Dickison at issue, perhaps you will be kind enough to allow me to try to clarify the issue for others, and perhaps there is a 1 in 1 million chance that it may influence your current perspective just an Angstrom unit.

Your continued facade of being credulous and semi-literate is sometimes amusing.  However, since the subject we are now attempting to discuss rationally concerns one issue which has caused even very moderate community members (a group to which I do not belong) to eschew the Christ Church Cult, I will attempt to make clear what is being said.  In honor of and humoring your pretended semi-literacy, the journey will be in small steps.  Also, since my use of different colors and sizes of fonts inconveniently discommodes you, and gives you an angry, debilitating mental hernia, I will try not use that particular piece of knowledge too unmercifully.

I.    Definitions of "credenda" and "agenda"

Since the article by Dickison appears in the aptly named Christ Church Cult publication Credenda/Agenda we need to be sure that we understand the meaning of the words "credenda" and "agenda."  Here are the definitions:

Cre·den·dum
n. pl. Credenda 
[L., fr. credere to believe.]
(Theol.) A thing to be believed; an article of faith; -- distinguished from agendum, a practical duty. 

a·gen·da
noun (plural a·gen·das) 
      1.  list of things to do: a formal list of things to be done in a particular order, especially a list of things to be discussed at a meeting  
      2.  matters needing attention: the various matters that somebody needs to deal with at a given time 
      a.. What's your agenda for today? 

      3.  somebody's particular motive: an underlying personal viewpoint or bias 
      a.. Of course she's in favor, but then she has her own agenda. 

In simple terms in the present context, an agenda is a list of required* things to be accomplished and required actions to be taken as a practical duty (duty = mandated behavior), 

while a credenda is a list of the articles of faith motivating, mandating, and justifying the agenda.

*The use of the word "required" in this context will become apparent in the next section, but it means that X is required basically because some alleged God allegedly said so.

II.    Application of the Definitions to Christ Church Cult Dicta

Once again information about Credenda/Agenda can be found from the source at:
http://www.credenda.org/about.php

So that there can be no doubt about whose credenda and whose agenda we are speaking about, here from the website are the cast of characters, etc:

Editor: Douglas Wilson
Senior Editor: Douglas Jones
Managing Editor: Nathan Wilson
Contributing Editors:Chris Schlect, Ben Merkle, Gary Hagen, Peter Leithart, Patch Blakey, Joost Nixon, Gregory C. Dickison, and Pablo MacArthur.
Credenda Agenda is a bimonthly periodical exploring all areas of life from a biblical, classical Protestant perspective. 

Please be kind enough to notice that the list includes Christ Church Cult Cultmaster Douglas Wilson himself positioned at the top, his sometimes ghost writer and dirty work executor, Douglas Jones, and the cult heir-apparent, Nathan Wilson, the son of the Cultmaster.

If you scroll down the Credenda/Agenda webpage referenced above, you will find the following:

"Our brief statement of faith is available, although we are in essential agreement with the confessional statements of classical Protestantism. The statement describes our doctrinal editorial policy..."

Now, if you click on statement of faith and read down through the material, you will find the following, which gets to the essential core of the issue:

"We believe the Bible to be the only inerrant Word of God. It is our only ultimate and infallible authority for faith and practice."

In other words, if you will kindly permit, the source of the credenda or "authority" for the articles of faith is "the ultimate and infallible" "inerrant" "Word of God," the Bible."

The agenda or practices required to be followed and actions required to be accomplished are those practices/actions proscribed by "the ultimate and infallible", "inerrant" "Word of God," "the Bible."

Hence, Credenda/Agenda contains the dicta of the Christ Church Cult according to their interpretation of some writings(the Bible) that allegedly comes from some alleged God.  It is a list of actions that must be taken and the unchallengeable motivation, justification, and mandate (from their alleged God) for those required actions.  From the stand point of the Cultmaster, Credenda/Agenda is not a joke or comic book or light entertainment reading.  It is a most serious work from the standpoint of and produced by the cult highest hierarchy and contains the statement of faith and proscription of required actions derived from that faith.

III.    Application

1.    The article by Greg Dickison (reproduced below) is found in Credenda/Agenda.
       http://www.credenda.org/old/issues/vol3/magi3-9.htm

2.    Hence, the agenda items found in the article are claimed to be supported by the Bible (the source of the Credenda).

3.    The particular agenda items mandated by Dickison's essay are a list of required things to be accomplished and required actions to be taken according to the credenda, derived, motivated, justified, and mandated by the allegedly ultimate, inerrant, infallible Word of some alleged God.

4.    Among the list of required things to be accomplished and required actions to be taken, the agenda, are execution of those committing "capital crimes."

5.    These capital crimes for which execution is mandatory crimes include:

       premeditated killing (murder), 
       kidnapping, 
       sorcery, 
       bestiality, 
       adultery, 
       homosexuality, 
       cursing one's parents, and
       heresy. 

6.    To add a nice touch of Christian compassion and infinitely delicious godly love to it all, the alleged totally wonderful God, according to Dickison, allegedly condemns and, in fact, forbids any pity to be felt for any of the above offenders before, during, and after their execution.  Feeling pity in such cases is itself a sin, and is a sure sign the person pitying is not with the program, and is thus way, way out of sync with Dickison's/Wilson's alleged God.

In case there were too many words used above: 1 - 6 is a summary for what the Christ Church Cult believes is a subset of a list of required things to be accomplished and required actions taken, their agenda, according to their credenda as derived, justified, and mandated from their interpretation of the Bible, which is the allegedly ultimate, inerrant, infallible Word of their alleged God.

Gary, follow closely now:

A.    Cultmaster Douglas Wilson is not only the head of the Christ Church Cult, but also the Editor-in-Chief of Credenda/Agenda, the house organ stating, explaining, and promulgating cult dicta.

B.    Therefore, when dicta, regardless of the author, of the Christ Church Cult appears in Credenda/Agenda, it is the voice of Cultmaster and Editor-in Chief Douglas Wilson speaking for and on behalf of his alleged God.

C.    Therefore, when Greg Dickison is permitted by the Cultmaster, acting as the Editor-in-Chief, to include, for example, mandating the execution of children who curse their parents as part of the list of required things to be accomplished and required actions to be taken, as part of the agenda of the Christ Church Cult, it has the same import as would be if the Cultmaster himself had written or spoken the words.  Agenda items are derived from the Bible and mandated and justified (the credenda) by the same, which is the allegedly ultimate, inerrant, infallible Word of Wilson's alleged God and not subject to challenge, change, or change of Wilson's interpretation.

Hence, when J Ford said of Cultmaster Douglas Wilson:

"He'll kill a child that disobeys his parent, he'll kill any gay just because they are gay,"

what J Ford perhaps she meant to say is:

"He'd order or sanction the of killing a child that disobeys his parent; he'd order or sanction the killing of any gay just because they are gay."

If that is the case, then J Ford is only paraphrasing what Cultmaster Wilson himself affirms as being his immutable, unchallengeable belief in Credenda/Agenda, the list of required things to be accomplished and required actions to be taken, the agenda, justified and mandated by the credenda, as derived from the Bible, which is the allegedly ultimate, inerrant, infallible Word of Wilson's alleged God.

Of course, Wilson and his followers/devotees/toadies cannot get away legally with most of their agenda items currently.  But other writings, speeches, and sermons show they are vigorously working to bring about a theocracy where they can implement their wonderfully loving, forgiving, and most Christianly compassionate agenda.

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com

http://www.credenda.org/old/issues/vol3/magi3-9.htm
Magistralis

Your Eye Shall Not Pity
Greg Dickison

he civil magistrate is the minister of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer (Rom. 13:4). God has not left his civil minister without guidance on how to exercise his office. The Scriptures set forth clear standards of judgment for many offenses. Capital crimes, for example, include premeditated killing (murder), kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one's parents (Ex. 21:14; 21:16; 22:18; 22:19; Lev. 20:10; 20:13; Ex. 21:17). 

In contemporary American jurisprudence, none of these offenses is punishable by death, with the occasional exception of murder. The magistrates have dispensed with God's standards of justice. Some Christians believe this is an improvement. They would be horrified to think that the "harsh" penalties of the law should still be applied. Sometimes this is the result of the mistaken belief that the Old Testament has no further application after the advent of Christ. This is an exegetical problem. Too often, it is the result of a sinful view of the criminal. This sin is called pity. 

Pity is a compassionate and sympathetic response to another's distress. It manifests itself by some action deemed to be beneficent to the one who is the object of the pity. It is characterized by the thought, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." So what is wrong with that? Why is pity a sin? 

First, pity is not always a sin. But neither is it always good. The Bible teaches that the moral character of pity depends on the context in which it is exercised. 

He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given (Prov. 19:17). Pity toward the poor is good. David was condemned by God when he did not take pity on Uriah, a poor man (2 Sam. 12:110). David sought pity when he was under the reproach of his enemies (Ps. 69:20). It would have been a comfort to him in his adversity. If God had not taken pity on His people, we would all be lost in our sins (Is. 63:9). 

There are also examples of God's refusal to have pity, as when Jerusalem defiled His sanctuary (Ez. 5:11). Likewise, God included in the law specific prohibitions against the exercise of pity in meting out punishment. 

If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods,". . . you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him . . . (Deut. 13:69). 

But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you (Deut. 19:1113). 

If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. And the judges shall make diligent inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother, so you shall put away the evil person from among you. Your eye shall not pity . . . (Deut. 19.1619, 21). 

If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out the hand and seizes him by the genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her (Deut. 25:11, 12). 

The tendency of modern American law is to look at whether the particular criminal deserves the penalty involved. Witnesses are brought in (usually the defendant's mother) to say that Johnny is really a good boy who just got in with the wrong crowd and deserves another chance. Or the judge considers whether the accused is sorry for what he did. Those who side with the victim can go to the other extreme; the prosecutor is allowed to bring in witnesses to testify to what a great guy the victim was, or to the impact of the crime on the victim's family. Justice becomes a contest to see which side can generate the most pity. 

God commands the judge to evaluate the crime rather than the criminal. If the crime is one for which God requires death, then death must be the punishment. Your eye shall not pity. Neither is the repentance of the accused relevant to the imposition of the sentence. When it was discovered that Achan had kept some of the spoil of Jericho, Joshua beseeched him to repent. And Achan answered Joshua and said, `Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done . . . (Josh. 7:19-20). After Achan confessed, he was still stoned to death. 

Thus, the Bible teaches that pity is not an option where God has decided the matter. The magistrate, God's minister, is to faithfully execute justice according to God's standard, not man's. 

What the Bible does not teach is that the preaching of the gospel and repentance have no place on death row. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a place where there is a more immediate need of grace, and a presentation of the gospel should be the first response of Christians to those who are condemned. But condemnation still must come if we are to be obedient to God's Word. We must respond to the wrongdoer biblically in both judgment and grace. 

This means that we must return to an obedience which confines pity within the bounds which God has established for us. 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: g. crabtree 
To: J Ford ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wilson's Excuses

All righty then, here's your chance to turn me to the dim side. Provide for me a cite in which "Doug hiself" declares:

"I'll (He'll) kill a child that disobeys his parent, I'll(he'll) kill any gay just because they are gay"

I don't want to hear where you infer this from something he or someone else says. I don't want your subjective paraphrase, I want the exact quote verbatim, in context, just the way you spewed it. (or as close as your fevered little mind can come) With several hundred occasions I'm guessing that this will be a walk in the park for you. 

On the faint chance you can't manage to provide me with the proof that you claim abounds, how about you give it a rest for a while?

g
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