[Vision2020] Confronting Douglas Wilson's Christian hate

[Art Deco]

* Confronting Douglas Wilson's Christian hate *
  by Linda Greene<http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/author/linda-greene>
 April 21, 2012
  <http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2012/04/21/10944>
Photograph by Linda Greene

Protesters gathered outside Ballantine Hall on April 13 as evangelical
bigot Douglas Wilson spoke inside. The Idaho minister has called American
slavery "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes and good
medical care."

The Kinsey Institute chose not to dignify minister Douglas Wilson with a
protest when he gave a talk in Bloomington described as a two-part lecture
called "Sexual by Design," the first half Creation Sexuality and the second
Redemption Sexuality. His April 13 speech in IU's Woodburn Hall included a
commentary on Alfred Kinsey's ideas and activities.

Though the Kinsey Institute chose silence as the appropriate response to
Wilson's presence in Bloomington, IU students and members of the larger
community thought Wilson's views were too repulsive and dangerous to
ignore. About 75 people gathered outside Woodburn Hall with signs lauding
diversity and condemning hate, with some wearing "Out and Proud" buttons
and either carrying or wearing rainbow flags, the symbols of LGBTQ
liberation. The group walked over to nearby Ballantine Hall, where Wilson
spoke.

The group frequently disrupted Wilson's talk with sarcastic and angry
remarks, often laughing loudly at what he said. The IU police arrested one
protester for refusing to be quiet and leave the hall. They released him a
short time later.
***

ClearNote Campus Fellowship, a ministry of Bloomington's ClearNote
Church<http://www.jesusatiu.com/>,
invited Wilson to speak at IU.

>From his resume Wilson sounds half-way legitimate. The pastor of Christ
Church in Moscow, Idaho, he is a founding board member of Logos School, a
senior fellow in theology at New Saint Andrews College and an instructor at
Greyfriars Hall, a ministerial training program at Christ Church.

Wilson helped establish the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, is
the editor of the journal *Credenda/Agenda* and is the author of numerous
books on "classical" Christian education, the family, the church and the
reformed faith.

After serving in the submarine service of the U.S. Navy, he completed
bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy and a bachelor's in classical
studies from the University of Idaho.
 <http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2012/04/21/10944>
Photograph by Linda Greene

Protesters met Wilson's hate-filled speech with calls for love and
tolerance.
 ***

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog organization that tracks
right-wing groups, tells a different story. The center's senior fellow Mark
Potok said in the spring 2004 issue of the *Intelligence Report* that
Wilson "is part of the far-right theological movement fueling
neo-Confederate groups."

During his three decades in Moscow, Wilson, the center
says<http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/spring/taliban-on-the-palouse>,
has built a "far-right religious empire that include[s] a college, an array
of lower schools, entire denomination of churches and Canon Press," which
has published and sells 31 of Wilson's books.

Wilson, the center says, has developed a theology "that married an
enthusiastic endorsement of the antebellum South with idea of religious
government -- an ideology now at the center of the neo-Confederate
movement."

Wilson, Potok says, has written that:

In some circumstances, the penalty for adultery should be execution.
Women should be permitted to date or "court" only with their fathers'
permission and, if they're Christian, date and court with only other
Christians.
Woman "was created to be dependent and responsive to a man."
A rapist should pay the victim's father a bride price and, if the father
approves, should marry the victim.
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are "sodomites" and
"people with foul sexual habits." He favors the "exile [of] some
homosexuals, depending on the circumstances and the age of the victim."
Cursing one's parents is "deserving of punishment by death. Parental
failure is not a defense." Christian parents "need not be afraid to lay it
on" when spanking their children. If fact, in Wilson's world view, "godly
discipline" should include spanking 2-year-olds for such "sins" as whining.

"A rapist should pay the victim's father a bride price and, if the father
approves, should marry the victim."

Wilson and Steven Wilkins are coauthors of *Southern Slavery, as It Was*,
which includes the following "highlights":
"Slavery as it existed in the South ... was a relationship based upon
mutual affection and confidence. ... There has never been a multiracial
society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the
history of the world."
"Slave life was to [slaves] a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food,
clothes, and good medical care."

***

In the first half of the lecture Wilson barely touched on sexuality.
Instead, he regaled the audience with banal, reactionary interpretations of
tedious stories about Biblical figures.

There were some bizarre moments, too. Wilson said at his weekly Sabbath
dinner with his extended family he asks the children religious questions
individually but always ends by asking them to say in unison what the point
of the Bible is. The correct answer, he said, is, "Kill the dragon, get the
girl."

At one point someone shouted that a "queer dance party" was taking place
outside Ballantine Hall and everyone was invited.

As Wilson droned on, with an annoying rhetorical habit of repeating
sentences and phrases he seemed to think were especially salient and never
mentioning Kinsey, the protestors quieted down.

Outside the hall, labor studies professor Joe Varga observed he thought
Wilson was purposely trying to "defuse" the protest by boring the
protestors.

*Linda Greene can be reached at lgreene at bloomington.in.us.
*


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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