CANCELLED
I received this comment yesterday:
David Gadbois said. . .Mark,
I just received an e-mail from Christ Church indicating that Trinity Fest has been cancelled, since the low registrations indicated that it would not be “financially viable.”
The e-mail speculates that this is because of the economic downturn. While this is no doubt a factor, they seem blind to the fact that they have marginalized themselves because of their promotion of Federal Vision theology.
I had attended Trinity Fest a few years back. It was a genuinely fun thing to do. I can’t say anything bad about it.
But I, and I suspect many others, would not attend it now because they show no sign of backing off of the FV kookiness. I’m sure it wasn’t part of the plan, but Wilson has gone from having broad appeal in the Reformed world (articles in Tabletalk) and even the broader evangelical world (the Family Series books). But by now he has whittled down his audience to theonomic, post-mill Federal Visionists. A very small market indeed.
I don’t know which TF DG attended, but I know that locally, the TF was no less controversial than its predecessor, the History Conference, and the vast majority of locals did not receive it as well as DG. It was an unmitigated disaster for the downtown businesses and it’s clear that the Kult leaders went out of their way to personally offend the downtown businesses that they hurt financially, so as to rub the loss in their faces. I can’t say how pleased I am to hear this and if you’re out there Dave G., I would love to see and post the whole email (including the “To” and “From,” I can remove your name).
And as long as we’re on the Kult’s financial woes, I welcome an insider’s explanation for why so many Kult members have suddenly began taking seconds on their mortgages. We’ve calculated a couple of million dollars in loans spread out among roughly 15 different families in a one-year window (the average note is $250,000). It could be a coincidence, but my instincts tell me that Beelzeblog has discovered another way to fleece the flock. We protect our sources and the way we see it, if you share inside information with us, you’re well on your way to escaping and we will help you as much as possible. Think of our services as an underground railroad.
Thank you.
9 comments:
Uh didn't you just reveal his name or is there some joke I'm not getting?
Mark,
The e-mail I received was a mass e-mailing to everyone who was on their e-mail list from past Trinity Fests. As such it is quite public and I doubt anyone would object to the announcement being posted in the blogosphere.
You will also note that the Trinity Fest link on Wilson's site is not a broken link.
Last, I will say that my previous comment was for the purpose of drawing attention to Christ Church's self-marginalization, not for the purpose of reveling in their "financial woes", as you say. I don't want them to have financial or programmatic difficulties, I want them to repent.
Here is the e-mail:
The elders recommended yesterday that we're should cancel Trinity
Fest for this year as the registrations are on the weak side and we
will not be financially viable. We do believe the economy is a big
factor in this as we usually have a wonderful turnout. We hope to
repackage the event for the future. We'll probably be sending out
some sort of survey to you all regarding this shortly. It will be
most helpful if you could take a minute and fill it out.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.
Chris
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Christine LaMoreaux, Administrative Secretary
BTW, my e-mail viewer doesn't have the plain text formatted e-mail, with the "to" and "from" in it. A more IT-savvy person would be able to figure it out, but I can't. Hopefully the version I sent you will be sufficient.
No, I revealed nothing because his name is apparent. My point was to remove his name from the “To” column to distract attention from him to the point. However, I did not make this clear, which was mistake. Thanks for calling to my attention.
Dave,
Yes, you made your point well and I shifted gears in midstream, to mix my metaphors. The marginalization that you noted is obvious to anyone watching; consequently, I marked the primary unit of measure that Wilson would use to gage his marginalization — money — because next to fabricating good PR it’s the only thing he cares about. Believe it or not, canceling the TF is absolutely devastating PR for the Kult because they saw it as a postmillennial feast similar to the OT feasts, and canceling a feast of God constitutes a big one in anyone’s book, regardless of the dispensation.
But to the point: you cannot divorce the money issue from his strong push to recruit families to move to Moscow and the TF’s role as a primary means of recruitment. He has exhausted his financial resources here and anyone who moves to Moscow should beware of the funny-money business going on. They expect members to show their loyalty and it’s very possible that seconding the home is now a litmus test for devotion.
I also noted the money because it’s such a red flag. Recently, an administrator at NSA took a second for $340,000; his property is worth considerably less and he would have to earn $125,000 per year to qualify for the loan. I promise you he’s earning less than a fourth of that amount, probably a fifth if he’s lucky. So we’ve been looking for an opportunity to broach the issue because it doesn’t pass the smell test. We suspect serious fraud involving two persons at the center of this.
Re repentance: ideally, we all want to see them repent but as G. Campbell Morgan said, “I’m a realist not an idealist.” Their pattern is clear: lie, deceive, abuse, accuse. Then lie some more, deceive some more, abuse some more, and accuse some more — but never stop pushing forward. Always grab, take, and steal. And ignore anyone who reproves you. I know that with God all things are possible, but I also know the Scripture is clear — “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy,” and the pattern in Scripture bears witness to this text. The enemies of God (you name them: Nimrod, Pharaoh, Goliath, Haman, etc.) appear unstoppable until that moment when God suddenly breaks their neck. Since 1993, God has reproved Wilson more times and with more witnesses than any oppressor named in Scripture. As I said, I believe God can do all things, but I hold out no hope for the man or his cause and my personal conviction is that this won’t end well.
Finally, let me tie this together in a bundle. Most folks don’t know that Wilson gave birth to the Federal Vision in Moscow in 1993. We’re sitting on a boatload of correspondence between him and his three elders who were trying to dissuade him of his newfound paedo views (the elders were Baptist). Please note that it wasn’t just his paedo views, it was his newfound paedo views. One officer resorted to quoting Berkoff (in writing) to Wilson to demonstrate that his views of the sacraments were beyond the Reformed and Presbyterian position that he claimed to hold.
My point in noting this is to show that the Federal Vision is not a five-year-old novelty; it’s a fifteen-year-old doctrinal conviction. Wilson has been on a journey for over 15 years and he’s been planning this disruption for the entire period. He truly believes that he is forging a new Reformation and that everyone who corrects him is dead wrong. This explains why he could blow off the voice of seven Reformed denominations. More importantly, he was acting according to the pattern that he established 15 years ago. He’s already had the Green Baggins debate a million times with three other men who were no lightweights. Don’t let their Baptist credentials fool you. They were all PhDs (professors at UI) who understood how to frame an argument and who could rightly divide the Scripture, from a credo or paedo point of view. Wilson’s done all this before. It’s a game for him. He was spinning the same circles then that he’s spinning now. Same game, different audience. So while I share your hope that he repent, I’m just smart enough to know that he’s hell bent.
Finally, thanks so much for the email. I expected to see more dougspeak in it (there was little), but it’s still revealing because it show that they intent to push forward.
Anon,
I neglected to note the most obvious concern in matters such as this, which is posting someone’s email address.
I understand. I was just trying to prevent the wrath of Doug and his monkeyboys from falling on somebody for trying to be helpful
You said, "We protect our sources and the way we see it, if you share inside information with us, you’re well on your way to escaping and we will help you as much as possible. Think of our services as an underground railroad."
With regard to leaving a church in this movement, I would caution anyone considering this to be aware of a few things. First, some of these groups will come after former members and their families. I know of one instance where a family tried to make a clean break. Their twelve-year-old daughter was still maintaining email contact with her former best friend, a fourteen-year-old still on the "inside." The parent became suspicious and logged some of the email to a file on their home computer (The email was located on a web-based email server). The fourteen-year-old had arranged for the twelve-year-old to go to a "safe" house (since her parents were now "evil") in a town over 200 miles away. She was to run away. The twelve-year-old balked and argued with her "friend" about leaving. She asked some questions about the safe house and her life after she "escaped" to return to "Godly people". It was obvious from the arguments advanced in favor of leaving the youngster's evil parents that the fourteen-year-old's responses were being framed by at least one older, more knowledgeable person. They began first by running down the parents for leaving the church. They discussed the child's parents' reasons for leaving and refuted these to the child. From there, they advanced to the notion of running away as a valid response to the parents' sin. In this particular case, someone with more resources than any fourteen year old was trying to get the oldest of the family's children to become a runaway. They were using her former best friend inside the church to do it. God only knows what would have happened to her if they had succeeded.
Be careful and keep your eyes open if you leave.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Thomas Jefferson
Anon,
Exactly. Whenever someone begins their escape the first thing we do is warn them to take heed to their loved ones — whether small children, teenagers, or even spouses — depending on the circumstances. We know that Wilson will use anyone or anything to stop a family from leaving, even if it means ripping them asunder to obtain retribution. We also have standards that people must meet before we help them, which I won’t address here. But your point is well made and I agree.
Post a Comment