To the Editor

So I’m gathering data for the next post in the Kult Police State series and discovered that I had saved electronic copies of many of the letters to the editor from Wilson’s Southern Slavery scandal. Honestly, I had no recollection that these were here but when I started reading through them I realized that these would help you understand the magnitude of the scandal, if you don’t already. Unfortunately, I did not save letters from all the papers, just the Moscow–Pullman Daily News and a few that struck me as worthwhile from the Lewiston Morning Tribune and the UI Argonaut. And to my shame I admit that I did not document the dates of these letters, so in this respect I sadly confess that my blog is not fully documented.

My text document with the letters is 107 pages long and contains roughly 42,000 words, which should give you an indication of the number of letters Wilson’s little slavery problem generated, and since this is my blog I make no effort to be fair and impartial. I have weeded out all letters written by monkey boys to defend the Fearless Leader and I weeded out as much liberal drivel as possible. That said, these 24 letters should give you a feel for the temperature of Moscow in 2003–2004.

Finally, the letter by Dr. Joe Morecraft deserves its own post, which I intend to write, but suffice to say that Wilson wrote an op-ed (or letter to the editor) where he stated that the RPCUS declared him a heretic because they took offense to a Credenda editorial criticizing Confederate flag wavers. Of course, the RPCUS’s Resolution neglects to cite this nugget, which really doesn’t matter because we’ve established that Wilson has a fertile imagination not subject to the Ninth Commandment.

Here they are:

Racial subjugation is evil
There are a couple points worth reiterating with respect to Doug Wilson’s position on slavery and racism.

First, slavery in the antebellum United States was a devastatingly racist institution. There is no other intelligent characterization possible; one race wholly subjugated another on the very basis of race. A mere denial of this is vehemently racist.

Actually postulating that such racial subjugation resulted in a remotely harmonious inter-racial relationship is not only ludicrous, it’s plain evil.

Neither Wilson’s wide-eyed incredulity (assuredly feigned) at the reaction to such a vile position, his reported civility in interpersonal discourse, nor his recent theatrics denying he is a racist alter the nature of the position he’s assumed.

This is, perhaps, the least Christ-like position one could adopt with respect to slavery in the United States.

Second, were Wilson simply a harmless crackpot, he could easily be ignored. Unfortunately, he is far from harmless. As is well known, he’s a church leader. His attempts to build Moscow into a utopia for his church as well as his leadership positions at institutions of learning render him one who requires active opposition.

Every time a member of the Moscow community spends a dime in a local business that donates a share of its profits to Wilson’s church, that person is contributing monetarily to the indoctrination of our youth to the hateful positions he espouses. He certainly has the right to have his views and advocate them actively. However those members of the community of Moscow who find such views reprehensible have a duty to counter them.

Jack Sullivan
Moscow


Not very Christian
I am one of Jim Fisher’s liberal friends who cannot have an open mind about Doug Wilson. I first noticed Doug Wilson in the late 1980s when he labeled those of us seeking to establish a sister city relationship with a small community in Nicaragua as “communist bedfellows.” Several times after that he and his associates attacked the sister city organization in letters to the local paper. By the way, the Moscow Sister City Association is now 17 years old; it is a vibrant organization of friendship and help to Villa El Carmen, Nicaragua.

Through the years there have been many other public statements and attacks from Doug Wilson and his followers which have been astonishing coming from people who claim they are Christian; an example is the mean-spirited attack on the public schools in the last school board election in Moscow.

But to assert that slavery was a harmonious institution, one characterized by racial affection and patriarchal benevolence, is pedantic, chauvinistic and plainly immoral. It is also embarrassing coming from people who profess to follow Christian, ethical principles of love and respect for fellow human beings.

Mary Voxman
Moscow


Wilson’s ‘truth’ is changing
Doug Wilson says his Christ Church is all about following the absolute unchanging truth of the Bible, but now it looks like that truth is bending to the political wind.

First, in the book he co-authored in 1996, Southern Slavery, As It Was, Wilson directly and specifically supports slavery. On page 17: “the Bible is clear that Christians may own slaves.” On page 21: “Owning slaves is not an abomination.”

However, in the Christ Church statement printed as an advertisement in the Daily News (Page 3A, weekend edition, Nov. 15–16), the position is completely different. In the fourth paragraph: “slavery has always been an evil needing to be abolished.”

Second, Wilson explains in his book his clear opposition to the American abolitionist movement (the political effort to end slavery in the United States). On Page 10: “nothing is clearer — the New Testament opposes anything like the abolitionism of our country prior to the War Between the States.”

However, according to that Church statement published in the Daily News, “we side with nonviolent abolitionism.”

Third, Wilson’s book does not mention the casualties and pain of the Civil War in the defense of slavery and the Confederacy.

However, now the Church statement from the Daily News says that the real core of its position is “against the butchery of 600,000 persons in the Civil War.”

If Wilson’s tenets and proclamations are based on unchanging Biblical truth, why have they changed so completely?

Bill London
Moscow


Wilson should be Christ-like
The recent homophobic and fascistic anti-gay comments of Doug Wilson have confirmed my suspicion about many people who claim to be Christian. They do not attempt to be Christ-like but merely Christ-loving, and they will use any means necessary to re-create the world in their own psychopathic image.

Wilson magnanimously suggests that we should banish gays and lesbians rather than exterminate them. Hurray. He is one step this side of Hitler. Jesus Christ, save me from the Christ-lovers.

Paul Weingartner
Moscow


Slavery always has been wrong
When I was just a baby white redneck growing up in Georgia, I loved Dixie and the Stars and Bars and all that good stuff about how great we were and how we could lick 10 Yankees each. And when they integrated my high school, I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. And to her dying day my momma thought we could have worked things out, if they’d just left us alone.

But sometimes you just can’t be left alone. And you shouldn’t be.

This is one of those times. I was wrong then about segregation, and slavery is wrong, was wrong, and always will be wrong. Geeze — why are we still having this argument?

Well, probably because some of us are having trouble connecting the dots. So, to be plain spoken: If we think writing a screed defending Southern slavery and the gracious old South is anything but an attempt to court black-hating, Jew-hating, hetero/loving-other/hating white supremacists, we need to stop smoking that stuff. Or, phrased more delicately, perhaps we should consider the ramifications of our thoughts and reexamine them.

Meanwhile, I whole-heartedly agree with those who think this ridiculous community argument ought to have stopped by now. I’m with you. All it takes is for the author of the nonsense to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

It’s not that hard (see my third paragraph). And it is about slavery. And it is about “death or exile” for those we love.

Jim Weddell
Pullman


Church board ignores facts in booklet
I wasn’t going to write any more letters about Doug Wilson’s book, but when I saw the ad which has been run several times by the Christ Church Board, I felt someone needed to set the record straight.

The good news is that the board says “slavery has always been an evil needed to be abolished.” The bad news is that they ignore the fact that in his book, Southern Slavery, As It Was, their pastor, Wilson, says just the opposite. To quote the book, “Our humanistic and democratic culture regards slavery in itself as a monstrous evil, and it acts as though this were self-evidently true. The Bible permits Christians to own slaves provided they are treated well. You are a Christian. Whom do you believe?” The book also says, “the New Testament contains many instructions for Christian slave owners, and requires a respectful submissive demeanor for Christian slaves.”

If Wilson’s and Wilkins’ book was meant to be a condemnation of the bloodshed of the Civil War, it is well hidden. Only one sentence in the 40-page booklet seems to make this point, when it says “the remedy which has been applied has been far worse than the disease ever was.” The rest of the book covers such topics as the Bible’s view of slavery, the treatment of slaves, the strength of the slave family, the myth of slave breeding and the stability of the slave family.

No one has accused Christ Church, as they say, of being part of “some vast conspiracy to impose slavery on the Palouse.” Rather, people have questioned Wilson’s defense of slavery as being permitted by the Bible, and the rosy picture he paints of the multi-racial harmony of Southern slavery. These assertions are being challenged in the name of human rights and historical accuracy.

Joann Muneta
Moscow


Church cleared up ‘mystery’
Christ Church certainly has shown its position on equality — but one has to be armed with a dictionary to know that. They state in a recent paid advertisement in the Daily News:

“Christ Church has a long published history of revealing the uglinesses and hypocrisies of (among other things) . . . egalitarians . . .”

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary an egalitarian is an advocate or supporter of a “belief that all people should have equal political, social and economic rights.” As a firm egalitarian, I’m so glad they made that clear.

Connie Driver
Moscow


Slavery is violence
Pastor Doug Wilson’s asserting that slavery could have worked if it had not been rooted in violence, misses the whole point that the whole system is based in violence, bondage and ruin and could never produce any thing good.

African men, women and children were hunted down, captured, placed in chains, herded onto ships and then transported all over the world. They had no rights, were denied U.S. citizenship, or any of the other basic freedom common at the time. Slavery was then and is now abhorrent — unjust and un-Christian.

Harold G. Smith
Lewiston


Wilson enjoys the attention
We have been watching with great interest the commotion swirling around Doug Wilson. Our son, then completely closeted, attended Logos School from seventh-grade until half-way through his junior year but had to leave because Wilson discovered (through my son’s “friends” at the time) that he was gay. We were told he could stay if he kept quiet and took classes from Wilson to “become” heterosexual. Obviously this was not an option.

We never would have gotten involved in this discussion — we have never actually spoken to Wilson — but we recently ended up on a plane with him where he inexplicably tried to intimidate and stare down my son. Why he would push us I don’t know, since my son was there several years and saw many things, but then we have never considered Wilson connected to the real world. His is a world of predestination, elitist Calvinism, and the belief that he is part of the “Godly Elect” while we, obviously, are not.

To us, Wilson is simply someone who doesn’t realize how most of the world sees him, as someone who enjoys getting attention, even if it’s negative. He is a minister who has not attended seminary, believing that mainstream ministers become “prideful” at seminary, with especially strong feelings reserved for the Catholic and, I am sure now, Episcopal Church.

There were good things about Logos School, particularly the excellent education, and also some unpleasant things. This school is a reflection of Wilson’s beliefs, and for this reason we have never patronized his businesses. We consider them his businesses since Christ Church members pay a substantial tithe, and we choose not to help the church buy up more of Moscow’s downtown. And if some of us choose this, it is our right.

Corinne and Jay Hunter
Moscow


Which Doug are we to believe?
In the article “Group opposes slavery booklet” (Daily News, Nov. 21), Doug Jones is quoted as saying that “no member of Christ Church supports slavery.”

If that quote is correct, then the views of Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, must have changed recently. I certainly hope that they have. But if so, then Rev. Wilson should admit (out loud) that what he wrote in the booklet, Southern Slavery, As it Was, was 100 percent wrong.

This is what he says in the booklet:

“The reason why many Christians will be tempted to dismiss the arguments presented in this booklet is that we will say (out loud) that a godly man could have been a slave owner” (page 11).

“Our humanistic and democratic culture regards slavery in itself as a monstrous evil, and it acts as though this were self-evidently true. The Bible permits Christians to own slaves, provided they are treated well” (page 12).

“The Bible teaches that a man may be a faithful Christian and a slave-owner” (page 17).

“Owning slaves is not an abomination. The Bible does not condemn it, and those who believe the Bible are bound to refrain in the same ways” (page 21).

The two Dougs from Christ Church cannot have it both ways. Either slavery is evil or it is not.

Which Doug are we to believe?

Steve Wells
Moscow


False testimony
I was born and raised in the Deep South. I knew many older blacks who had learned to kowtow to whites. I know many, mostly older, deeply religious whites who could tolerate “Neegras” as long as they knew their place and didn’t get “uppity.” This was 100 years after slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment (ratified Dec. 6, 1865).

I would like to ask any apologist for slavery if they had ever lived or would like to live in fawning subservience for fear they would be arrested, beaten, cut, burned, or lynched if they forgot their place. Remember I’m referring to years shortly before and after 1965, not 1865 when Southern blacks were finally recognized as people.

The straightforward evidence of chains, whipping posts, and contemporary photographs of heavily scarred slaves gave silent witness to the fact that slaves often lived under brutal, not idyllic, conditions. To deny this is to perpetrate a bald-faced lie. It reminds me of how creationists mutilate and ignore the evidence the Earth itself gives concerning evolution.

If, in defense of their faith, Christians (Doug Wilson) must lie, and twist or ignore evidence, then they will lose the battle that they most want to win: The battle for the hearts, minds and souls of the young. One would hope witnesses for Christ would deal honestly with material evidence and dispense with spurious apologetics in misguided attempts to imbue callous primitive customs or ignorance with holiness. While faith, by definition, doesn’t require evidence, it is condemned by false testimony.

L.G. Gibson
Asotin


Dear editor,

Apart from whatever Mr. Wilson currently claims about the harmonious state of slavery, I am still distressed about his overall abuse of the Bible. Among his now famously flaunted teachings is that the Bible demands either exile or execution for homosexuals and a similar fate for particularly disrespectful adolescents.

Lately his congregation has had to rise to his defense in a flurry of paid ads. They claim their shepherd’s tortured biblicism is simply upholding the classical Trinitarian faith, and that he is merely immersed in the same tradition as the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and the Eastern Orthodox.

As a card-carrying ordained member of one of those churches, I’m obligated to reject their kind flirtation. Our scholars and leaders within these traditions blanch at Mr. Wilson’s kind of handiwork. His dissent, as his flock calls it, leaves him theologically orphaned. Of course, academic and theological isolation serves to keep him relatively safe from accountability. And it makes for a great ruse about being a lone prophet in this hostile environment.

Back in the archives of some of Wilson’s favorite church traditions, sure, we could find him some biblicistic bedfellows. But back then our churches were still proudly protecting slave-trade, drowning and burning those they accused of witchcraft and heresy, torching synagogues and chaining mental patients to filthy beds.

Meanwhile, though, most of his imagined theological circle have broken free from those days and from those hideous readings of biblical texts. We are still stumbling our way forward, usually.

As harmonious as Mr. Wilson continues to feel regarding those times, most of the rest of us don’t miss them. And although he may not wish it, many of us pray for his thorough and speedy emancipation. We welcome and don’t doubt his prayers for us as well.

Rev. Dean Stewart
Moscow


Advertisement is revealing
The Christ Church-sponsored derision and ridicule of the (assumed) secularists behind the “Not in Our Town” petition provides an interesting insight. Derision and ridicule have no place in the practice of Christianity. This will never be more true than those times when the targets are the very persons a Christian should seek to lead to the gospel. Open debate can be a good thing but for a (Christian) church to publicly ridicule anybody shames all Christians.

Every Christian sect I have studied or participated in has held that God is Love. I find it helpful to weigh the statements of self-proclaimed Christians against this: If God is Love, then the voice of God is patient and kind. It is not jealous, pompous, inflated or rude. It does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered and does not brood over injury. The voice of God will not rejoice over wrongdoing but will rejoice with the truth.

I know that many of the signatures on the “Not in Our Town” petition belong to practicing Christians. There was a time when Christians wanted to remove the Jewish community from Rome as well. In my opinion, neither idea was Christ centered. In today’s America, we need to be both careful and tolerant. If Christ Church or petitioners or boycotters seek to bring change or enlightenment, unconditional love is the one tool they must master.

Ken Clark
Moscow


Feeling a little more ill at ease
I attended Christ Church’s and Doug Wilson’s town meeting.

When I arrived, I knew only that Wilson had written that slavery as it existed in the United States before the Civil War did not in his opinion transgress the dictates of the Bible.

I heard and learned much while there, including:

• Wilson admitted that on at least one occasion at a Christ Church historical social function a Confederate flag was displayed.


• A questioner asserted at some time a classroom at Logos School displayed a photograph of Robert E. Lee and that his birthday was celebrated. Neither Wilson or anyone else denied this assertion.


• Included in the reading material given away by Christ Church at the town meeting was an attack on Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center. This organization provided legal services to sue the Aryan Nations and close its compound near Hayden Lake, Idaho. The author of this attack was not Wilson so I wonder why Christ Church reprinted and distributed it.

Adding these three pieces of information to the one I came with caused me to leave much more ill at ease than when I arrived.

Andrew Schwam
Moscow


Arrogant with painful logic
It is not just Doug Wilson’s preachy moral dogmatism that bothers me (“Leftist screeching has accomplished little,” Opinion, Jan. 9). Nor is it simply his derisive comments toward “liberals,” “progressives,” “leftists,” “humanists,” and “homosexuals” — groups that represent the vast majority of my family, friends and colleagues. It is all this together with the fact that he usually makes his arrogant and offensive comments while employing painfully bad logic, or often no logic at all.

For instance, in his essay we are told of “the sin of homosexual behavior” but that “to be a slave-holder is not a sinful condition.” Homosexual behavior is always sinful yet sometimes it is permissible to own slaves. Can anyone in his right mind believe this?

Tell me, Wilson, after the slave is kidnapped, put in chains, and subjected to forced labor, what consolation is it for him to learn that “masters are carefully instructed to treat their slaves right?” Once you decide to hold an innocent person against his will, what could possibly constitute right conduct apart from setting him free?

Lastly, doesn’t Wilson’s “sometimes sinful, sometimes not” view of slavery conflict with his own moral absolutism? Isn’t his view a kind of relativism?

Joe Campbell
Moscow


Actions, behavior are intolerable
I see Doug Wilson is at it again with his campaign of misinformation and revisionist history (Opinion, Jan. 9). He’s trying to convince us the controversy is not about his views on Southern slavery, but it’s about homosexuality. As one who’s followed the controversy, that’s news to me.

Wilson may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but he cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Just because Wilson says something doesn’t make it fact. Once again, Wilson is just simply wrong, and his belated attempt to shift the focus and rewrite our community’s experience is wicked, arrogant and insulting.

It is true Wilson sees modern Christians as needing to fight against “abortion, feminism and sodomy.” Those issues are part of his agenda. However, it’s his justification of slavery and the upcoming “history” conference that got him in hot water this time.

Warning: for any tempted to accept Wilson’s offer to debate, make sure to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bodyguard). If Wilson and his minions don’t like what you have to say, your microphone will be turned off, you will be shouted down, and you will be physically “escorted” from the premises, whether by Christ Church members or their buddies. Think I’m exaggerating? I’m not, for this is exactly what happened to a dissenting participant at Wilson’s Christ Church town hall meeting.

I call on Wilson and his followers to quit playing the religion card and stop accusing those who disagree with theonomy of intolerance. We do not object to your minority beliefs; rather, it’s the intent of your actions and behavior that’s abhorrent and intolerable to those of us who support the Constitution of the United States of America.

Saundra Lund
Moscow


Wilson’s ranting has worn thin
Once again, Doug Wilson gets his colossal ego stroked with a newspaper article. He tells us how godly he is, while hurling vitriol on others. Wilson has vilified the media, the University of Idaho, the UI Office of Human Rights and Diversity, public schools, liberals, homosexuals, feminists, secularists, atheists, and “Not in Our Town.” He ridicules everyone not embracing his views, including other religions. Yet Wilson whines “victimized” and “slandered” when someone responds negatively to his invective.

We’ve witnessed Wilson’s vicious insult attacks disguised as “forums” and “debates.” Those who refuse his verbal bludgeoning and garbage spewing are accused of “running away,” because Wilson without an audience is a carp without water.

And this bloated, self-aggrandizing, self-referencing blowhard has the gall to call “foul” when outed as a nasty piece of work? Wilson is so upset anyone has dared infer he is slimy and wicked that he is now whining to Idaho’s governor for relief. His defense of his own ignorant, bigoted, homophobic, sexist, un-Christian ranting has worn thin. The only one victimizing Wilson is Wilson himself. If he had any decency, he wouldn’t snivel about intolerance towards his behavior and views.

Debi Robinson-Smith
Moscow


Connection is in Wilson’s mind
No connection exists between the stand of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States against some of Doug Wilson’s heretical positions and his Credenda/Agenda article on the confederate battle flag, except in Doug’s mind. Relating the two as he has done recently in print is either a figment of his imagination or wishful thinking on his part. I too am against all self-righteous displays of the confederate flag. Furthermore, when I visited the offices of Doug’s school in Moscow several years ago, the battle flag and pictures of Confederate soldiers were prominently displayed.

Sincerely,

Joe Morecraft III
Minister, RPCUS
Atlanta, GA


Exercise your First Amendment rights
Dear editor,

Doug Wilson’s letter to Gov. Kempthorne was nothing more than a note from a 2-year-old crying to his teacher that someone was picking on him. The very fact that Doug Wilson took known historical documents and forced them into the molds of his and Christ Church’s ideas is repugnant to all of academia. Any individual who puts out a written work should be prepared to subject that work and their own ideas to public criticism. When that criticism has been delivered, a mature author would recognize the validity of that criticism and accept it with dignity.

Dr. William Ramsey of the History Department took what he knew and dissected Wilson’s argument that slavery was good. Dr. Ramsey exercised his First Amendment rights by bringing to light the massacre inflicted by Wilson on historical thought and documents regarding slavery. I applaud Dr. Ramsey and others in the History Department for standing up to the insults that were dealt to the historical timeline when it was argued that slavery was good.

As a student, I am free to form my own opinions from all lectures, books and documents presented at a university. That is the purpose of a university, to aid students in developing their own opinions and expressing them.

I am expressing my opinion. Slavery was bad. February 5–7, Doug Wilson and Christ Church will be a hosting a “History Conference.” I will exercise my First Amendment rights in respectful protest at this event. Join me and give your constitutional rights a workout.

Mari Robinson
Junior
history and secondary education


Professors deserve right to express opinions
Dear editor,

It’s really sad when you have to argue that slavery is wrong. Doug Wilson took credible historical documents and molested and perverted them until they were no longer the truth, claiming that slavery wasn’t all that bad. Wilson then had the audacity to belittle the outrage of credible historians into nothing more than soapbox ranting.

When Wilson put his pamphlet, Southern Slavery As It Was, out into the public, what was he expecting? Did he expect that no one would be outraged? Did he think that he was above professional criticism? When you put your opinion out into society publicly, you can expect that there will be dissenting opinions.

I respect Wilson’s right to express his opinion, but he needs to show respect as well. This criticism of Wilson is because he shows no respect for dissenting opinions. He expects our professional historians to sit by while he distorts credible historic documents. Wilson expects that since our historians work for a public university, they have no right to express their opinions. Our professors are showing us how to channel our opinions in a positive, constructive way, instead of a less professional slanderous venue. As college students, we are trained to question everything and discover the truth for ourselves.

Well, I question both Wilson and Dr. William Ramsey, and from what I have read Dr. Ramsey’s arguments withstand criticism while Wilson’s crumble beneath his scare tactics and false accusations. I fully support the actions of our professors. Wilson needs to learn to be an adult about these situations, instead of crying to the governor when he receives criticism.

I plan to protest his neo-confederate “history conference” and not because anyone from the university tells me I should protest, but because I don’t believe Wilson understands history.

Chanel Aiken
Sophomore
History


No place for theocracy here
Douglas Wilson whines that his critics are intolerant. In my case he is correct.

Wilson preaches that women lack wisdom and prudence and are unfit for leadership. Isn’t such an obviously false by observation, poisonous doctrine abusively and hatefully denigrating? Mightn’t this doctrine cause perhaps irreversible damage to many innocents of both sexes who are flimflammed into believing it?

Wilson argues the abolitionists who worked to free the slaves were the real sinners, not the slave owners. Wilson states that slavery was an affectionate, mutually satisfying institution. Besides being toxic fantasy, is this not covert, insidiously hypocritical racism?

Is Wilson’s insatiable need to control others and thus his frothingly concupiscent opposition to adults choosing whom to love and with whom to spend their lives a severe case of reaction formation?

Are the arrogantly dishonest denials by Wilson of his written statements consistent with his alleged Christian views against lying?

Are Wilson’s megalomaniacal views really unconscious, desperate cries for the services of a competent mental health professional?

Like his homologues in the Neo-Nazis and KKK, Wilson’s egomaniacal (“I’m always right; everyone else is wrong”), repugnant, reptilian views based on ignorance deserve this much tolerance: He has the right to hold and to argue for his views.

Tolerance ends there. Beliefs have behavioral consequences, sometimes terrible ones. Hence, all ideas are open to critical examination, especially those where human rights are at issue.

If you share some or all of these intolerances with Wilson’s assault on human rights, liberty, and dignity, then act. For your and your children’s sake prevent the spread of fanatical, theocratic, Talibanesque bigotry in your community.

Boycott the businesses that financially support Wilson’s hateful doctrines. Actively speak out and participate with those that dare to oppose He Who Must Be Obeyed.

Wayne A. Fox
Moscow


Hatred is born of fear
I was struck by the (perhaps) unintentional irony in the photo (Daily News, Feb. 7 & 8) of cult leader Doug Wilson in front of a podium saying: “Idaho is too Great for Hate.”

If Wilson had his way there would indeed be no hate except for: homosexuals, uppity women, scientists, teachers, atheists, abortion providers and their patients, members of other religions, public school supporters, contemporary artists and architects and musicians and poets and writers, red heads, Planned Parenthood supporters, socialists, Marxists, and so on.

Such wide-ranging hatred usually comes out of fear. It would be interesting to know what Wilson is afraid of. Being ignored?

Ross Coates
Moscow


Don’t give in to the rhetoric
Douglas Wilson’s goal is to make Moscow a miserable place for modern-day students and faculty to live and learn.

The truth is, Moscow does not have to give in to Wilson’s rhetoric. The only consequence of his heinous actions is that he will make the student’s voices louder and stronger against him.

The University of Idaho hires professors knowing what they have done academically in their educational past. Ramsey and Quinlan are published in renowned, scholarly journals whereas Wilson has to produce his booklets in his basement and then sell said booklets to schools he is affiliated with.

If Wilson did not want to have his work commented on, he shouldn’t have published it in the first place; a lot of people would not have been affected if Southern Slavery, As it Was had not been published. His work has been termed as scholastic fraud.

Wilson is a radical leader bent on bringing down toleration, secularism and, eventually, every free-thinker he comes across. It is our duty not to let this demon spread his evil. I agree with those who think he’s not only a bigot against gays, lesbians, secularism, and different races, he also is a bigot against religions.

Wilson and his kind are dangerous and against every person who does not conform.

Melissa Montgomery
Moscow


Letter writer went too far
At last there is an issue the entire Palouse region community can agree upon. A recent letter to the editor (Opinion, Feb. 7 & 8) by Wayne Fox described Christ Church pastor Douglas Wilson’s views as “reptilian.” This is obviously an uncalled-for, deliberate, outrageous, heretical, and vituperative libel.

This time Fox has gone too far. Let all members of the community join together firmly and loudly to protest this blatant blasphemy by the spiritually bereft Fox. All together: We demand that Fox issue an immediate contrite and heartfelt apology to all reptiles.

Rosemary Huskey
Moscow

Thank you.