Fact Check

The New York Times Magazine recently reported,

Evan Wilson, 52, has been estranged from his older brother’s church and college ever since a theological quarrel in the late 1980s that he dubs “the Great Unpleasantness.” . . .

And Douglas Wilson writes on his blog,

And just so you know, out of respect for my parents, I am not going to answer any particular questions about Evan in this setting. To the extent that something has been made obvious to the world (as happened with the NYT article ) I am willing to acknowledge it and say what is generally up. But I am going to do whatever I can to keep the details from being hauled out on the public stage. Whether that resolution will be successful remains to be seen. Suffice it to say for now that I believe it is really sick that the first notice that my father’s extremely fruitful ministry got in the NYT was notice of a conflict between his sons.

And Wilson enlarged upon this subject at Green Baggins (after misrepresenting Kevin Johnson and taking him to task for that misrepresentation), writing,

I would characterize our relationship as personally cordial and doctrinally and positionally strained. No hypocrisy there. When you are dealing with such complicated issues in the future, and assuming it to be your business, I would urge you to get the facts first.

Here are the facts, which are all well known and public in the Moscow–Pullman region. Douglas Wilson has had a family feud with his brother Evan for about 20 years, or roughly since Wilson embraced “Reformed” theology. At that time, Evan served with his brother as a pastor of Faith Evangelical Fellowship(?), which eventually changed its name to Community Evangelical Fellowship and then Christ Church. 20 years ago or so, Faith Evangelical Fellowship was an Arminian- and Baptist-oriented church, until Douglas went “Reformed,” which was when he delivered an ultimatum to his brother Evan: “Embrace ‘Reformed’ theology or face a trial for heresy.” Evan saw the writing on the wall and left the church to plant another church across town, with less than half the congregation following him, feeling more than a little disdain for Douglas.

Evan describes this event as “the Great Unpleasantness”; he talks freely about it; and to this day the core membership of his congregation thinks very little of Doug and his imperial ambitions. Evan, on the other hand, does not have a bitter bone in his body and speaks with affection for his brother, though he freely admits that

1. Douglas has functionally excommunicated him from the faith;
2. Douglas openly treats him as an unbeliever (they only speak when Doug needs something from Evan); and
3. Douglas is drunk with power, arrogant, deceitful, and mentally disturbed.

He affirms these things without a trace of animosity.

I have spoken with Evan on more than one occasion and many of my friends attend his church. Evan is an honest and godly man who is a theological independent, just like his brother, and he attributes their mutual independence to their father who calls himself “the Bishop of Moscow.” All three men are sophists (which I attribute to their father); however, Evan lacks his brother’s guile. Evan matches his brother’s rhetorical skill word for word and slam for slam, but he can’t write worth a lick (to be fair, Doug has been self-publishing since the late ’80s, whereas Evan’s first real consistent effort began when he opened his blog).

Evan has a lovely wife who, when she speaks about the Great Unpleasantness, has said to more than one person, “No one believes that Doug is capable of doing it, until he does it to them.” Leslie speaks from experience. She has watched Doug blame Evan for scandal upon scandal that took place at Christ Church — from the NSA drug ring to the Christ Church casino — Douglas found a way to pin it on his brother. Indeed, Doug’s contempt for his brother goes much further. He regularly ridicules Evan in private conversations; he often exhorts members of his congregation not to speak with Evan; he prohibits officers’ children from visiting Evan’s home; and Christ Church has issued at least two letters warning the congregation to avoid Evan. In other words, Doug has made a deliberate effort to treat his brother as a leper and he has intentional done this in public.

This is not gossip. These facts are all public knowledge, well known throughout Moscow and Pullman, and Doug Wilson knows it. Even worse, his father pled with him on several occasions not to let his animosity for Evan go public with church censures et al., but Doug ignored his father’s pleas.

So if Douglas Wilson doesn’t like reading this in public as he alleged when he wrote, “But I am going to do whatever I can to keep the details from being hauled out on the public stage,” then he should not have spent the last 20 years creating the public record. In fact, if the man had any decency at all, he would repent publicly for the horrible way he has treated his brother (and many others).

Regardless, when Doug Wilson writes “And just so you know, out of respect for my parents, I am not going to answer any particular questions about Evan in this setting,” he is using mom and dad as human shields. He had the opportunity to respect his parents long before the NYT got wind of the family rift, but he refused. And when Doug Wilson writes, “I would characterize our relationship as personally cordial and doctrinally and positionally strained,” he is . . . well . . . he is lying through his teeth.