DUMB & Tan

As a brief follow-up to this morning’s post, I believe that early on in the scandal, a small front-page vignette written by the gossip columnist for the Daily News captured as well as anyone the walking scandal called Douglas Wilson. On Friday, October 24, 2003, or two weeks into the affair, Vera White (who calls herself “the Inkster”) wrote:

According to recent reports, Moscow Holy Man Doug Wilson is not a racist. He’s hammered the point in articles appearing this month in both the Daily News and the Lewiston Morning Tribune, as well as an opinion piece appearing Oct. 15 in the Daily News wherein he wrote:

So, for the record (again!), racism is a sin. Because I am not an ethical relativist, it is not an “it all depends” kind of sin. God hates it, and will judge it along with all other sins on the last day. . . .

Call her “reckless” if you will, but the INKster is a bit confused, especially after reading pages 43 and 44 of Wilson’s book A Serrated Edge (Cannon Press 2003). Wilson writes about a woman of Canaan:

Jesus was not above using ethnic humor to make His point either. . . (Mt. 15:22–28; Mk. 7:27). . . Put in terms that we might be more familiar with, Jesus was white, and the disciples were white, and this black woman comes up seeking healing, for her daughter. . . She comes up and beseeches Christ for healing. It’s not right, He says, to give perfectly good white folk food to “niggers.” . . If this understanding is right, then Jesus was using a racial insult to make a point. If it is not correct, then He was simply using a racial insult.

So there you have it, the Gospel according to the Rev. H.M. Wilson. Never mind that his view of the Lord Jesus and of Christianity per se differs much from that of the rest of the world. I can’t tell you how relieved the INKster is to know Wilson is not a racist. However, she is a bit disturbed to find out Jesus wasn’t above a racial slur or two!

Thank you.