tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90974085555760850212024-03-19T09:40:16.186-07:00Fœdero SchismMark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.comBlogger313125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-31898903474469228942008-08-06T17:37:00.000-07:002008-08-06T17:41:12.955-07:00“Tipper Over”A week or so ago a friend sent me a link to <a target="_blank" href="http://michellemalkin.com/">this blog</a>. I don’t know anything about it except what I’ve read on the <a target="_blank" href="http://michellemalkin.com/about/">“About”</a> page, but the comments on <a target="_blank" href="http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/06/name-al-gores-hugetastic-boat/">this particular thread</a> are a riot.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-46323608042813624232008-08-02T18:01:00.000-07:002012-07-25T19:16:44.682-07:00Leading the ChargeA few weeks ago we received a suggestion/request to juxtapose copies of Wilson’s quotation advocating the death penalty for pedophiles from his book <i>Fidelity</i> next to his letter to Judge John Stegner pleading him to limit the sentence for <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html">serial pedophile Steven Sitler</a>. And since this is a fully documented anonymous attack blog, we produced the full documentation (<a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-line-tuesday.html">“Open-line Tuesday”</a>) to prove the point that when Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, affirms one of his convictions in writing, you better sniff once and think twice before you actually believe it, let alone before you think that <i>he</i> actually believes it. Because he doesn’t.<br /><br />Sure, he writes with conviction and authority. Sure, he leaves the impression that he holds his principles dearly. Sure, he writes as though he really believes he’s articulating non-negotiable biblical truths, handed straight from God to Moses to him (though to be fair, most of the time you could delete Moses). But it’s all an act. He doesn’t believe a word of it. It’s all for show. He understands that deep down inside most people need to hang on to absolutes, and so he panders to the crowd. He makes a stance, puffs his chest, and blows. And he looks good doing it too. But it’s all for looks — it’s all for show — it’s all act. Wilson is a hypocrite from head to toe. Look at the images appended below. Try to reconcile his hard-line theonomic position in <i>Fidelity</i> with his letter to Judge John Stegner on behalf of serial pedophile <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html">Steven Sitler</a>. Try to account for him advocating the death penalty for pedophiles on the one hand and urging Judge Stegner to limit Sitler’s sentence on the other.<br /><br />Before you look, however, take a few minutes to listen to the following YouTube. It’s a public conversation between Wilson and one of his former professors at UI, Dr. Nick Gier, where Wilson confidently invokes the death penalty as an answer to Dr. Gier’s objections regarding the way Southern Christians treated their slaves in the antebellum South. Dr. Gier introduces the subject at the 3:27-minute mark, and at the 4:04-minute mark Wilson starts his act:<br /><blockquote>Let me put it this way, let me put it this way, I’m speaking as a pastor: If — if I had been a pastor in the antebellum South and I had been confronted with a member of my church who raped or abused any of his slaves, I would have led the charge in excommunicating such a one for professing the name of Christ while behaving that way, <i>and</i> if he had been abusing his slaves the way you described, I would not have any problem with urging the Civil Magistrate to execute such a person. No one. . . .</blockquote><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eKpQv9X_2q0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eKpQv9X_2q0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Wilson blew these words on January 31, 2007, or roughly eighteen months after he blew his letter to Judge Stegner on <a target="_blank" href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">August 19, 2005</a>. And in the recording, once you get past his supposition that owning slaves was not morally wrong, you have to notice his use of the word “urging”: <i>“I would not have any problem with urging the Civil Magistrate to execute such a person.”</i> You have to notice this because in his letter to Judge Stegner, Wilson wrote, “At the same time, I would <i>urge</i> that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited.” Of course, the conditions upon which Wilson predicated his “urge” with Dr. Gier were the raping and whipping of slaves. In other words, he would “urge” the death penalty in cases of raping <i>and</i> whipping, but if Sitler teaches us anything he wouldn’t “urge” the death penalty in cases of rape alone. There has to be whipping.<br /><br />And you can’t miss his apologetic to Dr. Gier after Nick raised the objection that the antebellum Presbyterians failed to defend the slaves. At the 4:51-minute mark, Wilson quipped (boasted?), <i>“You know what, you know why it never happened? — because I wasn’t there.”</i> But he was there when Sitler raped his victims and he was there when <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/greyfriars-hallmark.html">Jamin Wight</a> committed his sins, and in both cases Wilson ditched his strongly held biblical convictions to insure the safe and seamless reintroduction of both predator-criminals into the flock. He led the charge alright, and he led it with all his heart.<br /><br />And the moral of this story is that it doesn’t matter if Wilson writes it or says it — <i>he doesn’t mean a word of it.</i> It’s all an act.<br /><br />Here is page 85 from the book <i>Fidelity</i>, by Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, and page 2 of his letter to Judge Stegner:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW7gPn-3hCkgX-NNxiFHXf0Adqt_W0VBoXotgXVF9Ngqu5uaDYYMzmHByTxHRxSnfzYD4TAgQJSGDQzMF_zwhfCfIWEVJu7FA1gXVbl_C9_gMSK-UqhJ_LzM8JzL2Crb1JoRTtP4C-fo/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW7gPn-3hCkgX-NNxiFHXf0Adqt_W0VBoXotgXVF9Ngqu5uaDYYMzmHByTxHRxSnfzYD4TAgQJSGDQzMF_zwhfCfIWEVJu7FA1gXVbl_C9_gMSK-UqhJ_LzM8JzL2Crb1JoRTtP4C-fo/s1600/85.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223234235903217634" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyBa01oVd1fe-9bH1Degi7TaoAvQ_FqqaMePkBIVCmaxS-JH3V_Ii5iIwhrCBCo1vOVd7ClXRa8NjPea9vzIeprJEn_xBC5kx8IgbXdnqmz6L7Lf6OrUSJX-qmCwWf5162OIXsaawCuU/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyBa01oVd1fe-9bH1Degi7TaoAvQ_FqqaMePkBIVCmaxS-JH3V_Ii5iIwhrCBCo1vOVd7ClXRa8NjPea9vzIeprJEn_xBC5kx8IgbXdnqmz6L7Lf6OrUSJX-qmCwWf5162OIXsaawCuU/s1600/Urge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223234331918695522" /></a><br /><br />HT: SC<br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-87360188300945597792008-07-30T18:01:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.375-08:00Steven SitlerSomeone recently posted serial pedophile Steven Sitler’s latest SOR photograph on Vision 20/20. Before I say more, however, I want to note that I really feel sorry for Steven Sitler. I know that he committed unspeakable abominations, but I also know that he cannot stop himself, which is the reason I pity him. And just in case you think I’m getting soft, please note that <i>I know</i> Steven Sitler is fully 100% responsible for his actions, depravity notwithstanding. This is why I believe the best thing the state could do for him is execute him mercifully. Short of that, the state should put him away for life. He poses too much of a threat to society to grant him any kind of liberty. As one of my attorneys said, <i>“He’s going to start killing his victims — that’s what they always do.”</i><br /><br />Now look at his latest <a target="_blank" href="http://www.isp.state.id.us/sor_id/SOR?id=6787&sz=996">Idaho Sex Offender Registry</a> photograph and tell me if it doesn’t give you the willies (we placed it next to Beelzeblog for comparison; the resemblance is uncanny). Also, notice that his home address is 329 North Main Street. That’s about six blocks from his alma mater New Saint Andrews College — or roughly a five-minute walk. Talk about a millstone.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI65Ofn8j48vZ8YOqvzlD-LLEBq4TgwCGUfLxUkBk2zsmaX9e8g4a0Gy_OYm6nHUksER0bVBgNpejXPYhCe7JKxueBFZ0Xvi2gKOxZbXyuCQpn5fpU_3Q3mvkw76IlKjJeIf7WrHYC3ag/s1600-h/SOR.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI65Ofn8j48vZ8YOqvzlD-LLEBq4TgwCGUfLxUkBk2zsmaX9e8g4a0Gy_OYm6nHUksER0bVBgNpejXPYhCe7JKxueBFZ0Xvi2gKOxZbXyuCQpn5fpU_3Q3mvkw76IlKjJeIf7WrHYC3ag/s400/SOR.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228976909465521586" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-62818500653795868912008-07-25T18:47:00.000-07:002008-07-31T06:47:58.458-07:00Testimony From the HeartEveryone knows testimony from the heart when they read it. A young lady just left the following comment on <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/02/diary-of-pirated-church.html">“Diary of a Pirated Church”</a>; please read it:<br /><blockquote><a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/02/diary-of-pirated-church.html?showComment=1217015520000#c6922189598420865154">Ophelia Moonstone</a> said . . .<br /><br /><blockquote>I went to EPC as a child. Michael Marshall is my father. We were part of the renegades that left. I was so young at the time I only knew what my father told me. Burke Shade influenced my father in many dangerous ways. He encouraged what he called “spanking” but what was more like beating with a belt. He approved of this being used even on teens.<br /><br />I never liked him as a child. He was pushy and disingenuous. Families with children in regular school were put under tremendous pressure to homeschool. Clothing for women had to be unattractive from any angle, or it was looked down upon.<br /><br />Wives were expected to be mindlessly subservient and obedient. My father had told my mother not to go to the library with me and my younger brother and she went anyway. Because of this, Burke Shade came to my house and “chastised” my mother. He ganged up on her and verbally harassed her. I listened from another room. I was 13 and very very angry.<br /><br />We finally left due to a disagreement with the Akins and the Bankesters. The Akins were under the impression that I had gotten their teenage daughter, who had been a good friend to me in childhood, into promiscuous sex and drugs. This was not true. Because of the rumors, however, my scapegoat status was secured.<br /><br />Our departure was an ugly one. I hope Burke Shade melts in a pool of his own excrement. He made me hate church.</blockquote></blockquote><br />I cannot substantiate her testimony but I believe every word of it for two reasons:<br /><ol><li>Everyone in Moscow can confirm the part about Stepford Wives who wear parachutes as they homeschool their children to insure that the colony of mindless clones will walk in lockstep like lemmings to the cliff (most Kult members do not know this, but the Kult elders ridicule home-schooling mothers as “Prairie Muffins” behind their backs; Wilson wants the children in Logos where HE can control their minds).</li><br /><li>By now everyone knows that the Federal Vision is a euphemism for power-hungry pastors who hold ultra-high views of the sacraments while they split churches and beat sheep — it’s code for <i>“Canis Lupus</i> Vision.” So even though she was in Illinois, Wilson’s boilerplate left the same impression on her as it does everyone else. I haven’t even got near the subject of him driving people from the Church and from the faith. But Ophelia said it better than I ever could.</li></ol>Thankfully, however, Wilson, Shade, and all the CREC wolves will face that great shepherd of the sheep. And if they had any brains at all, they would realize that all their hateful deeds will come back on them a thousand fold — only then it will be too late. These brutes should expect to reap in eternity what they sow in time.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-31352750691015976902008-07-25T07:30:00.000-07:002008-07-25T12:10:14.663-07:00Canis lupus 3Continuing with a few thoughts on our Lord’s warning to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, here is another video of a wolf pack hunting prey. Like the previous video where the pack sought to isolate the caribou calves, this video shows the pack isolate a buffalo calf (at the 4:45-minute mark). However, unlike the previous video where the herd abandoned the calf to its fate, here we see healthy bison rescue their calf from the wolf pack. In this respect you could argue that the herd functioned as a healthy body that protected itself from predation. Sadly, however, the protection only went so far because wolves will be wolves, and they must eat. Consequently, they successfully isolated a weak bison and brought him to a slow painful death.<br /><br />Of course, there are many analogies we could draw here, but I want to go another direction. As you watch this poor beast die, remind yourself that our Lord warned us against wolves <i>who dress as sheep.</i> So in this case, consider the awful damage these wolves would wreak if they <i>looked like buffaloes.</i> They would have had the calf and more because none of the other herd would have suspected them. According to our Lord, this is how wolves operate in the Church.<br /><br />Finally, make careful note when the narrator says, <i>“killing quickly is not a choice.”</i> The kills I’ve seen are every bit as agonizing as this one — with one difference: The prey never knew they faced wolves until the predators bared their fangs — and then it was too late. This is because the wolves looked and acted like sheep. In short, they were wolves in sheep’s clothing.<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nk3G47MFOHY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nk3G47MFOHY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-63343091618487047072008-07-22T16:43:00.000-07:002008-07-22T16:54:47.843-07:00Excellent PointI just received an excellent comment worthy of front-page coverage:<br /><blockquote><a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/canis-lupus-2.html?showComment=1216746540000#c7937605544230874163">Anonymous said . . .</a><br /><br /><blockquote>Something that seems apparent from evidence that has been presented here is that FV (or maybe it is just [Christ Church]) leaders do not seem particularly concerned to protect the smallest and most defenseless people among them; they are more concerned to protect the hierarchy. Perhaps it’s another aspect of the apparent FV impulse for union with Rome.</blockquote></blockquote><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-25951242079022366282008-07-18T06:32:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.510-08:00Canis lupus 2<blockquote><i>Her princes in her midst are roaring lions;<br />Her judges are evening wolves <br />That leave not a bone till morning. <br />Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people;<br />Her priests have polluted the sanctuary,<br />They have done violence to the law.</i> — Zephaniah 3:3, 4</blockquote><br />We have lifted the following article and picture gallery from <a target="_blank"href="http://www.outdoorlife.com">OutdoorLife.com</a>. It furnishes us with another profound lesson in predatory behavior taken straight from the wolf.<br /><br />Again, in the Sermon on the Mount our Lord Jesus Christ did not choose the metaphor “wolves” to warn against false teachers because He thought it clever or colorful. It is a real-life term that we see play out every day in the Church. This fact is especially true as it applies to Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow. Over the years one family after another has bore witness to the same identical testimony regarding Wilson’s sadistic cruelty. The circumstances for each family varies, but the narratives are all the same — Wilson will stop at nothing to exact vengeance against those members who catch him in sin and then try to leave. In every single instance the sin is <i>always</i> lying, because Wilson lies like the devil, and when caught the hunt begins. He pursues his prey (<i>preyishioners</i>) to silence them or utterly ruin them forever, depending on his appetite. He targets their livelihoods, their careers, their character, their public reputation — you name it — he will stop at nothing.<br /><br />As you read this narrative, keep in mind that wolves have no moral capacity. This wolf merely acted according to his nature. He was hungry so he took a bite. He was completely oblivious to the doe’s agony. In this respect natural predators are comparable to nature’s psychopaths. They lack compunction and they are violently aggressive. At this point, however, our Lord’s metaphor fails. Natural predators will not give account at the Great White Throne. They kill because they’re hungry. Not so for wolves in the Church. Like natural wolves, they have no conscience but unlike wolves they are without excuse.<br /><br />The metaphor fails at another point as well. Whereas the wolf was insensible to the deer’s pain and he did not act out of malice, it’s clear that Wilson derives pleasure when he inflicts pain — hence the word sadistic. I have seen him do exactly as this wolf, mercilessly attacking persons whom he already mortally wounded, for no other reason than sick desire. He’s not satisfied unless his prey (the sheep) suffers.<br /><br />The following is a pictorial account of Wilson serving in the Christian ministry. Read it, and pray for the saints in Moscow:<br /><br /><blockquote><b><a target="_blank"href="http://www.outdoorlife.com/article_gallery/Eaten-Alive-Wolf-Predation-Captured-On-Camera/&showall=Y">Eaten Alive: Wolf Predation Captured On Camera</a></b><br />Michael Veine was hunting grouse in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when he stumbled upon a wolf attacking a doe.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuMdtlb8rAHW5tbhVNN8WQJDL9OuGL-OALllkCw9tETCl1iBZpGxcgNNNeOPh5cc2LRLc5GitsWo5t0MBcTp8ykugF4l4-iisoLMgHjGB1_GiurE2Irr4bdfC453S_OIWx48V_IKQ1Fk/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGuMdtlb8rAHW5tbhVNN8WQJDL9OuGL-OALllkCw9tETCl1iBZpGxcgNNNeOPh5cc2LRLc5GitsWo5t0MBcTp8ykugF4l4-iisoLMgHjGB1_GiurE2Irr4bdfC453S_OIWx48V_IKQ1Fk/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224136287484863938" /></a><br />On October 24, 2006, Michael Veine was bird hunting in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula along the Escanaba River when he heard agonizing bellows coming from a long distance away. Stalking in the direction of the noise, he came upon a wolf attacking a deer. At first the wolf chased the adult doe along the riverbank, lunging repeatedly at her and biting the backs of her legs. He kept up the assault until he eventually hamstrung her. Unable to run, the doe was pulled down, and the wolf began feeding on her even though she was still alive. On the opposite side of the wide river, Veine snuck in closer and pulled out his camera.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifm7MQSL6BkDSk-2ncihE91ZLxshXPy_EZQdWtjUKr7uI3247ZvxotMC0rwVOQvbF9J2ppL6ShePaLBxWYZpC8IuBb2C_ALUCYp6lfOtWhTCrlOT8Xldr_zUPJIWl_9ST10IGPL-MRw44/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifm7MQSL6BkDSk-2ncihE91ZLxshXPy_EZQdWtjUKr7uI3247ZvxotMC0rwVOQvbF9J2ppL6ShePaLBxWYZpC8IuBb2C_ALUCYp6lfOtWhTCrlOT8Xldr_zUPJIWl_9ST10IGPL-MRw44/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224136241636282066" /></a><br />The wolf fed on the doe as she continued to bawl. Wolf researcher Dr. Durward Allen has recorded that wolves are not the quick, clean killers some people believe. Allen’s research has demonstrated that wolves will typically kill by literally tearing their prey apart. When a pack is involved the killing process is often quick, but even then sometimes takes a while. All that’s required is that the prey holds still enough for the eating process to begin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxlT2epCm7CpZ4hxeaG-R844CuPjcauaHhFI33R2StsbVbQYlPSEvqQc2tCoVGuDUDbhlahkciw7DeJp8b5SeiyLz2NzdcIQusoyyO1f7ZSaj2P3BPB9SqxoHGS6iwWU-smq0Eh1_fXw/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxlT2epCm7CpZ4hxeaG-R844CuPjcauaHhFI33R2StsbVbQYlPSEvqQc2tCoVGuDUDbhlahkciw7DeJp8b5SeiyLz2NzdcIQusoyyO1f7ZSaj2P3BPB9SqxoHGS6iwWU-smq0Eh1_fXw/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224136192877891794" /></a><br />The deer tried to escape many times, but with her hind legs ripped up, the wolf easily knocked her back down every time. Dr. David Mech, a wolf researcher from Minnesota, told me that wolves typically attack deer and other prey from the rear in an attempt to immobilize the hind legs. As I watched the struggling doe, I recalled a National Geographic video entitled <i>Wolves: A Legend Returns to Yellowstone</i> that shows wolves attacking and bringing down lots of elk and other big game in this manner.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYluo2CRYcjrG9lC0aXRBy0h_iHepiuLvPE8J7ZEmo_Y2UWqFgwk52zQF2v7yyyFDuVijJQeJwHDZCMBJbim-Sjy_fY8T5NiPhCIJf3UAlHCbPe-7jsLEv7n0R3p1AkGFQKyiyegw12AQ/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYluo2CRYcjrG9lC0aXRBy0h_iHepiuLvPE8J7ZEmo_Y2UWqFgwk52zQF2v7yyyFDuVijJQeJwHDZCMBJbim-Sjy_fY8T5NiPhCIJf3UAlHCbPe-7jsLEv7n0R3p1AkGFQKyiyegw12AQ/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224136127171267986" /></a><br />Whenever the deer attempted to escape her tormentor the wolf would bite her on the face and neck, forcing her back down. The wolf never made any overt attempt to kill her. “Wolves will often pull down deer and other big game and begin feeding on them before they are dead. A wolf’s first concern is his stomach. They do not have feelings like a human and they are not capable of caring if a prey animal suffers,” says Dr. Mech.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_g-yid5Z9Tru0HX414rsJ6K3w3rlWGf2OnGX0cKPieziGTHy-c17xXBRwLDRJBGxljDaQLc_qlYgVVPJ57bOHmb5FMNXZoRryncDVKb7-t_GhT-qLCHxS6rANtBwzchCcA8j7r_neoY/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_g-yid5Z9Tru0HX414rsJ6K3w3rlWGf2OnGX0cKPieziGTHy-c17xXBRwLDRJBGxljDaQLc_qlYgVVPJ57bOHmb5FMNXZoRryncDVKb7-t_GhT-qLCHxS6rANtBwzchCcA8j7r_neoY/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224136062016874930" /></a><br />The wolf frequently broke off his attack to cautiously check his surroundings. The sound of the deer’s bawling seemed to make him nervous. The area contains a robust bear population and I figured he was afraid the doe’s distress calls would attract one to the scene. Bears have been known to steal wolf kills and even kill wolves on rare occasions.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVDtJw0-GQgGOSDZzYLkayF2m1pusilwgQAo9jSHJkqHbSU8zf-VrLeZZg374bFlhWAvl0bFhJBfMQiozA0GnWeZdaYtx4wewamMS7ideguErBzakt9H7NcfztW8m1IGC5x1Qwy-0YII/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVDtJw0-GQgGOSDZzYLkayF2m1pusilwgQAo9jSHJkqHbSU8zf-VrLeZZg374bFlhWAvl0bFhJBfMQiozA0GnWeZdaYtx4wewamMS7ideguErBzakt9H7NcfztW8m1IGC5x1Qwy-0YII/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135991745399394" /></a><br />Several times the wolf left the scene, once for more than an hour. “What you witnessed was rather typical fall wolf behavior. During the fall, deer are in peak physical condition and widespread, making them difficult prey. That’s when wolves will typically hunt for deer alone to cover more ground, although they still share the kill with the pack. The wolf was probably going back to a rendezvous area to look for other members of the pack,” Dr. Mech told me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqW9yB8jZbUxlGBwt5W7NHkbJ9k048_Y47BKHZs2XpYmUhnAeNFKjO6xehKQB_T_xePZ8fukmX1arRvFf9irEMzYkedY_72kxTKsiJr9gIjzypTmJ6Em0nz38zJESkE7fQ2VtLQQD-Rkc/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqW9yB8jZbUxlGBwt5W7NHkbJ9k048_Y47BKHZs2XpYmUhnAeNFKjO6xehKQB_T_xePZ8fukmX1arRvFf9irEMzYkedY_72kxTKsiJr9gIjzypTmJ6Em0nz38zJESkE7fQ2VtLQQD-Rkc/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135939930957522" /></a><br />During the encounter, I was able to sneak to a position directly across the river. My distance from the wolf was about 100 yards. The camera I used was a sub-compact Canon Powershot G6. This camera has a modest zoom lens, but the 7.1 megapixels camera set on the highest resolution did a fair job of capturing the action. I would have liked to have been able to get closer, but also realize that horning in on a wolf with his kill is not a prudent move.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk533eUQ9QXwBvvCBwZEu4zxLHEMzTPIPGxpjeQrpjI81o8ebSUuUklFhZL24J2Xf4-GWwK2giQn33L_RVgNFVafVRbm56euZVmnRsc35M_wvL9-ffDaNhvjhsvSkDAhh-2ZosjlG6lgM/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk533eUQ9QXwBvvCBwZEu4zxLHEMzTPIPGxpjeQrpjI81o8ebSUuUklFhZL24J2Xf4-GWwK2giQn33L_RVgNFVafVRbm56euZVmnRsc35M_wvL9-ffDaNhvjhsvSkDAhh-2ZosjlG6lgM/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135880715361426" /></a><br />The wolf finally left and didn’t return, leaving the deer still very much alive. My gut reaction was to put an end to the deer’s suffering. I’m a realist though. By the time I happened upon the attack the deer’s fate had already been sealed. Should the wolf catch my scent around the kill, it might have abandoned the deer for good, which would have been a senseless waste of the resource. Besides, had I interfered, I would have actually been breaking the law. It is illegal to harass a wolf.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWw0SCOc1YP59GBrexezcIexsmsfKkFP0NKYlOAG-Q5awSEPo8DQytFgeAuIoO17lQ6aPkrd6fmqLavUFf2rDUF4Sv3rQiVMvassCIGtY-WPn6mA-aE1dYTR40d2ntM8tQqXgISaDzWU/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWw0SCOc1YP59GBrexezcIexsmsfKkFP0NKYlOAG-Q5awSEPo8DQytFgeAuIoO17lQ6aPkrd6fmqLavUFf2rDUF4Sv3rQiVMvassCIGtY-WPn6mA-aE1dYTR40d2ntM8tQqXgISaDzWU/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135814318671954" /></a><br />At one point I thought the doe had died. She lay in the water without moving for at least 10 minutes. Eventually, when the wolf did not come back through, she picked her head up and looked around. I’m not sure whether she was playing dead or had passed out.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAeEAARiv0MV1mOfiHxHrqP4adudIHUgJ2ENVZqOhR6-ML96i1ZjUC2958be-ND8tWg2kH2tC3i6EZQeYQ4Qg0CuggdMYi_EKcl6MtUhZx-AXozTIhyOHY2_ugfsh_D3y3Kz0jq6bsXA/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAeEAARiv0MV1mOfiHxHrqP4adudIHUgJ2ENVZqOhR6-ML96i1ZjUC2958be-ND8tWg2kH2tC3i6EZQeYQ4Qg0CuggdMYi_EKcl6MtUhZx-AXozTIhyOHY2_ugfsh_D3y3Kz0jq6bsXA/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135740228863218" /></a><br />Eventually the deer righted herself and surveyed her wounds. I estimated that the wolf had eaten at least five pounds of flesh along with several pounds of hide and hair. Dr. John Vucetich, a Michigan Tech professor and wolf researcher who has been studying wolves for many years, says “Wolves will often feed on the prime parts first. Those would include the hindquarters and other large muscle groups. Next they go after the internal organs and then the bones. They also typically eat the hide and hair which helps them with their digestion of meat and bone.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0vt5ZGRZMs9sybGxai6-N_L89XBNcN3YfeLcW68zeJLLbqbrLLlFs4McsWgQrW4YMXNHDYtKm29ZE0wBWTSzJU58TixaTJn5XcbEBAZUX5o1Uo4Un88CGVtiRJX9v0GkIH6wIaG7DarM/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0vt5ZGRZMs9sybGxai6-N_L89XBNcN3YfeLcW68zeJLLbqbrLLlFs4McsWgQrW4YMXNHDYtKm29ZE0wBWTSzJU58TixaTJn5XcbEBAZUX5o1Uo4Un88CGVtiRJX9v0GkIH6wIaG7DarM/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135684186997810" /></a><br />The doe began to drag herself from the icy river water. She was unable to stand. Using her front legs, she inched her way toward the bank. Few people will ever witness the feeding mechanics of wolves. It is a gut wrenching spectacle. “I’ve seen wolves take prey down many times and it still always affects me emotionally every time I see it,” Dr. Vucetich told me. The experience certainly affected me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6KW2HS1403Vp97ahOJ4I1ZGIj4fsvohYPDU7T7tdlBx_YHOnynSn29EaeVClNASwvdFDprZxvnXR0NIOhS9sYB8h6LPsXLghSle0tLCCQqrqzkoryvaUAIRtKpi90rRy-Rn3a66EAQo/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6KW2HS1403Vp97ahOJ4I1ZGIj4fsvohYPDU7T7tdlBx_YHOnynSn29EaeVClNASwvdFDprZxvnXR0NIOhS9sYB8h6LPsXLghSle0tLCCQqrqzkoryvaUAIRtKpi90rRy-Rn3a66EAQo/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135593281592082" /></a><br />As her suffering continued and she struggled toward the bank, I wondered how long it would take for her to succumb to her fate. I shared these photos with Brian Roell, wolf coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He was surprised that the deer had not died more quickly from such wounds. “Wolf prey typically dies from shock, which is a loss of blood,” Roell says. From where I sat though, I saw surprisingly little bleeding. It all boils down to luck or chance as to when a wolf happens to bite into a major blood vessel that will cause enough blood loss.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjquMli-SR-Y1YvVtzXL6qTyW0lH8djKAjyLnIUxCjR49nl146Kd7YPlpfKw09c6rg_S7PXRvDqEMjwxidVsRma8_cKwi69gBEr_C4mxCQekpgCwjr82alIG9AuGTC2LPMExpyiqPph1NY/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjquMli-SR-Y1YvVtzXL6qTyW0lH8djKAjyLnIUxCjR49nl146Kd7YPlpfKw09c6rg_S7PXRvDqEMjwxidVsRma8_cKwi69gBEr_C4mxCQekpgCwjr82alIG9AuGTC2LPMExpyiqPph1NY/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135495789158850" /></a><br />Eventually the deer struggled onto the bank where I watched her for quite some time, wondering if the wolf would return. I’ve witnessed multiple cases of wolves killing more than they can eat, which is referred to as surplus killing by wolf biologists. “Surplus killing is like a short circuit in the wolf and typically occurs when their prey is malnourished and deep snow conditions make them easy targets. Surplus killings rarely happen during the fall,” Dr. Vucetich says.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIdMmzy95JzZctP1L-hJtX6tMtOdGiV8T5Sjc5AiaBkRcTYDDS-orHbWLaAxEDX7ow-STH-HDsmgBuFp8Xw2GPTK2cj5USP1kdBrw7UBFEQK3j3p3cD-_1O55CGSoSh0f6riU7Zu5zj4/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBIdMmzy95JzZctP1L-hJtX6tMtOdGiV8T5Sjc5AiaBkRcTYDDS-orHbWLaAxEDX7ow-STH-HDsmgBuFp8Xw2GPTK2cj5USP1kdBrw7UBFEQK3j3p3cD-_1O55CGSoSh0f6riU7Zu5zj4/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135431675579026" /></a><br />Eventually I decided to leave. I couldn’t watch any more. When I rose from my hide, the deer spotted me and simply stared. I returned the next morning at daybreak armed with a long-lens camera. The deer was gone. Later I slipped into waders and forged the swift current, but the deer was nowhere to be seen.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oHOpVtyAElA0gm8yVYU0f9Sr27mqEpArQ5zXCTo_P8aMcVlZOaSB6zzlwvVhGH2Mni7bECiAGthlbR9gubBv4B7XRHbVqQp0JcSGOhht5hD94hn0RlAcUOqj_CwYhfyM80163cLctCY/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oHOpVtyAElA0gm8yVYU0f9Sr27mqEpArQ5zXCTo_P8aMcVlZOaSB6zzlwvVhGH2Mni7bECiAGthlbR9gubBv4B7XRHbVqQp0JcSGOhht5hD94hn0RlAcUOqj_CwYhfyM80163cLctCY/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224135344531425202" /></a><br />A photograph of the tracks that were at the attack site. A wolf biologist that I shared my photos with erroneously identified the predator as a coyote at first glance. The tracks were 3 1/2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches long. The largest coyote tracks will measure perhaps 2 1/2 inches long. I later recovered the jaw-bone from the doe, which indicated she was at least 2 1/2 years old. In that region, adult does will typically weigh 130 to 150 pounds during the fall. Comparing the size of the deer to the wolf leaves little doubt as to the species of the predator, <i>Canis lupus</i> (Gray Wolf). (<a target="_blank"href="http://www.outdoorlife.com/article_gallery/Eaten-Alive-Wolf-Predation-Captured-On-Camera/&showall=Y">OutdoorLife.com</a>)</blockquote><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-57979617832712283382008-07-16T07:34:00.000-07:002008-07-16T07:45:42.470-07:00Canis lupus<blockquote><i>Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.</i> — Matthew 7:15–20<br /><br /><i>For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.</i> — Acts 20:29–31</blockquote><br />Yesterday’s photograph of the doe nursing her two newborn fawns is a lovely as it gets. Today, however, it’s back to real life and a visual lesson for all the pastors out there following this blog.<br /><br />Our Lord Jesus Christ does not employ the “wolf” metaphor for entertainment or serrated purposes. Anyone who has seen predators operate in the Church, as I have, knows that He meant it literally. The following video captures a wolf pack hunting a herd of caribou in northern Canada. Be advised it’s not a happy ending:<br /><br /><center><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rsb7MHRb2bY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rsb7MHRb2bY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Here are a few observations off the top of my head:<br /><ol><li>Notice that the wolf pack “shadows” the caribou herd. In other words, <i>they’re hunting.</i></li><br /><li>Notice that, when they make their move, they’re goal is to break up the herd in order to <i>isolate</i> prey, which is almost always the <i>weakest or most vulnerable</i> of the herd.</li><br /><li>Once they isolate the prey, they <i>ruthlessly pursue</i> it and it’s just a matter of time.</li><br /><li><i>No one can help the prey.</i> The herd leaves it to its tragic end.</li><br /><li>When the wolf brings down the prey, it has <i>no sense of sympathy or empathy for its suffering</i> (wolves oftentimes devour their prey alive, not bothering to kill it first) — they only understand their physical hunger.</li></ol>One final observation: When the elders of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) learned of Steven Sitler’s horrifying crimes, they immediately <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/03/opcs-first-letter-to-flock.html">warned the flock</a> by identifying him as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” When Douglas Wilson learned of Steven Sitler’s horrifying crimes, he immediately concealed it from the church and <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">labored diligently to insure his safe reintroduction</a> into the flock where he preyed.<br /><br />These facts say it all for <i>“by their fruits you will know them.”</i><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-64982857633139717612008-07-15T11:38:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.530-08:00Glory!<blockquote><i>The voice of the L<span style="font-size:85%;">ORD</span> makes the deer give birth,<br />And strips the forests bare;<br />And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”</i> — Psalm 29:9</blockquote><br />Taking a few moments away from fully documenting the full-time corruption you know where, and continuing with our Open-line Tuesday, a friend sends this over. If you look closely, that doe is nursing <i>two</i> fawns; you can tell by the two bushy tails pointing upwards and the eight or ten legs down below. Either that or he Photoshopped it:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46agE1Nexs9HiEsNxasoSVSituBWA5mOO1MJ6lccI82lJubmWjRsMs9wgbf82dB_lSe8y1YCDyF2i2Ag_56LsACTNuOc5AOKGHNTLfs8Lb9wD5J0wRGGJeC-rhLlTNoHjV_DseKc7sEs/"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46agE1Nexs9HiEsNxasoSVSituBWA5mOO1MJ6lccI82lJubmWjRsMs9wgbf82dB_lSe8y1YCDyF2i2Ag_56LsACTNuOc5AOKGHNTLfs8Lb9wD5J0wRGGJeC-rhLlTNoHjV_DseKc7sEs/" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223311115836646466" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Glory, indeed.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-64993798594444565842008-07-15T06:40:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.539-08:00Open-line TuesdayWe received a suggestion/request to juxtapose copies of Wilson’s quotation advocating the death penalty for pedophiles from his book <i>Fidelity</i> next to his letter to Judge John Stegner pleading him to limit the sentence for <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html">serial pedophile Steven Sitler</a>. His use of the word “urge” kills me. Exactly why would he <i>urge</i> the judge to limit Sitler’s penal judgment? He answers this question in his last sentence: “I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society.” Notice his use of the word “this”: “He will continue to deal with <i>this. . .”</i> It’s a euphemism for “serial pedophilia.” I suppose it’s his version of a soft answer turning away wrath.<br /><br />Regardless, here is page 85 from the book <i>Fidelity</i>, by Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, and page 2 of his letter to Judge Stegner. I encourage all of our new readers as well as you lurkers to reconcile these two positions:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW7gPn-3hCkgX-NNxiFHXf0Adqt_W0VBoXotgXVF9Ngqu5uaDYYMzmHByTxHRxSnfzYD4TAgQJSGDQzMF_zwhfCfIWEVJu7FA1gXVbl_C9_gMSK-UqhJ_LzM8JzL2Crb1JoRTtP4C-fo/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheW7gPn-3hCkgX-NNxiFHXf0Adqt_W0VBoXotgXVF9Ngqu5uaDYYMzmHByTxHRxSnfzYD4TAgQJSGDQzMF_zwhfCfIWEVJu7FA1gXVbl_C9_gMSK-UqhJ_LzM8JzL2Crb1JoRTtP4C-fo/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223234235903217634" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyBa01oVd1fe-9bH1Degi7TaoAvQ_FqqaMePkBIVCmaxS-JH3V_Ii5iIwhrCBCo1vOVd7ClXRa8NjPea9vzIeprJEn_xBC5kx8IgbXdnqmz6L7Lf6OrUSJX-qmCwWf5162OIXsaawCuU/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyBa01oVd1fe-9bH1Degi7TaoAvQ_FqqaMePkBIVCmaxS-JH3V_Ii5iIwhrCBCo1vOVd7ClXRa8NjPea9vzIeprJEn_xBC5kx8IgbXdnqmz6L7Lf6OrUSJX-qmCwWf5162OIXsaawCuU/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223234331918695522" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-3106314518301254652008-07-12T19:14:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.552-08:00The End of the Trinity Fest Part 4: “celebration as a central component in the culture wars”In reflecting upon the untimely and unannounced demise of the Trinity Fest, we have considered the rather novel approach to history that Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, has taught himself; and we have seen his remarkable efforts at concealing from Kult, community, and all his potential recruits the existence of a serial pedophile, who had his way with the lambs of the flock for 18 months as Wilson fought one culture war after another, starting with the vital doctrine of chattel slavery as they practiced it in the antebellum South. In our third installment we witnessed an incredible stroke of providence that defies the imagination: Two days before Wilson <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">secretly pled</a> with Judge John Stegner to show leniency on Steven Sitler, a Latah County magistrate issued an <a target="_blank"href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/2005/08/arrest-warrant.html">arrest warrant</a> for one of Wilson’s Greyfriars disciples for sexual abuse of a minor.<br /><br />The timing of these two events — Wilson’s secret letter to Stegner and the arrest warrant for Jamin Wight — in conjunction with the first annual Trinity Fest is mind-boggling.<b><a title=""name="_ftnref1"href="#_ftn1">[1]</a></b> And I suppose this is a supreme advantage of hosting a fully documented anonymous attack blog. I mean, think about it. If I didn’t fully document these facts, would you have believed me about these two predators? If you didn’t see duplicates of the original documents with your very eyes, would you have believed it possible for so much sin and iniquity to overrun such a “formidable” church pastored by the man chosen (and <i>“anointed”</i>) by God to call the evangelical church out of her exile?<br /><br />The answer to these questions probably accounts for Wilson’s bizarre pastoral decisions — i.e. <i>his cover-ups</i> — during these dreadful calamities. If you want the world to believe that your church is <i>“formidable”</i> and <i>“potent,”</i> it behooves you to hide its flaws, such as two convicted child molesters, even if it’s to the detriment of your congregation, which was the case here. Wilson never warned his flock about predation; he never stood before his church to identify these two criminals as predators; and he waited until both of his criminal-disciples had run their courses through the court system before he ever said anything to his congregation. He made sure everything was all sewn up nice and tidy before delivering extremely limited comments about them. He couldn’t let anyone, not even his own sheep, know about his weak spots. And as long as we’re on it, I wonder if he teaches this cover-up technique in his Greyfriars Hall ministerial classes — you know, “Cover-up 101: How to Conceal the Existence of Dangerous Criminals From Your Flock.” After all, what they don’t know can’t hurt ’em — <i>right?</i> These facts are beside the point, however, because the point is that he’s leading the 21st-century church into a new reformation, and what’s more important — protecting the children in your care or calling the Church to repentance? Let me ask it another way: what’s a greater priority — fulfilling the duties of a pastor or pretending to be a modern-day prophet?<br /><br />If you think you’re a prophet, then I suppose pastoral duties take the back seat to the higher calling of a prophet. And if you take his blog post titled <a target="_blank"href=" http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2461">“Extended Deadline”</a> at face value, then you must conclude that Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, really believes that God appointed him to some kind of modern-day prophetic office so that he could call the evangelical church out of her exile. Moreover, Wilson really believed the Trinity Fest would be the means to call the church out of her exile. Okay, sure, it sounds crazy, but then so does all the child-molester stuff. <i>Sounding</i> crazy, however, doesn’t make it untrue. Read for yourself:<br /><br /><blockquote>The reason for Trinity Fest in the first place has not been to have just a [sic] another random party, but to do so in the context of calling the evangelical church out of her exile. Repentance and joy are not mutually exclusive, but rather go together like ham and eggs. But of course I am not talking about the grim joy of the pietist, or the macabre repentance of the self-absorbed. I am talking about the joy of those who have realized that individualistic autonomy is a death trap, the joy of those who have been brought out of darkness into the perfect law of liberty. (<a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2461">“Extended Deadline”</a>)</blockquote><br />“The reason for Trinity Fest <i>in the first place . . .”</i> At some level Wilson believed that God called <i>him</i> to this extra-biblical office of orchestrating the Trinity Fest to call the Church to repent of its sins. Obviously God’s call on his life placed him in a gut-wrenching moral dilemma though: Either he must obey God and call the Church out of her exile, or he must pastor his congregation through the agony caused by two child molesters. Douglas Wilson took the high road — <i>he obeyed God.</i> And I seriously doubt he ever thought twice about it. In fact, a cursory glance at his blog post shows that the mighty man of God cleverly redefined the word “repentance” to purge all sorrow and remorse from it. It was party time.<br /><br />We cannot forget, however, that the prophet Wilson was throwing a party even though “God’s hand of judgment” was heavy on Christ Church, at least according to Wilson’s standards:<br /><br /><blockquote>Violent rape is a judgment of God upon a people. . . Violent rape is God’s judgment on a culture, and individual women who are part of that culture are included in the judgment. . . . We see the same judgment at work in disintegrating cultures: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8:11). Here the rape is not being perpetrated by foreign soldiers, but is the result of citizens turning on one another. (Douglas Wilson, <i><a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-funnies.html#fidelity">Fidelity: What It Means To Be a One-Woman Man</a></i> [Moscow: Canon Press, 1999] 82, 83)</blockquote><br />I don’t think that rape can get much more violent than when a grown man physically violates a helpless infant, as in <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/09/victims-letter.html">this case</a>, which Steven Sitler repeated over and over again for 18 months on numerous children in Christ Church, Moscow (in writing this, I do not intend to disparage the awful pain of any rape victim; I only want to note the profound vulnerability of these dear children and the unspeakable aggression perpetrated against them). These historical facts bring us to one of Wilson’s sales pitches for the third annual and <i>final</i> Trinity Fest. I republish the post in entirety sans graphic:<br /><br /><blockquote><b>Worship Right, Work Hard, Study Deep, and Play Harder<br />Topic:</b> Shameless Appeals<br />One of the measurments [sic] for God’s blessings we can use around here is how many times I am compelled to resort to making a Shameless Appeal. When I first added that category to this blog, it was occasionally used, but now it seems to me that I am always telling or reminding you about something or other. This one has to do with our third annual Trinity Fest.<br /><br />One reminder, and then the appeal. Reminder: the date for getting the early registration rates is June 15, which is a week from this Friday.<br /><br />The appeal is this. One of the emphases that we have sought to cultivate in our ministry here is the idea of celebration as a central component in the culture wars. We do this directly when we hold Sabbath dinners in our homes, and when we worship the Lord on His day in covenant renewal. But we also do this indirectly, when our celebrations as a worshipping community spill out into public. This is what Trinity Fest is designed to display, and to do. We want to be neo-Puritans — not the Puritans of the common caricature, or those neo-Puritans who want to revive the dour caricature. We want to be Puritans in the “worship right, work hard, study deep, and play harder” category.<br /><br />The first two celebrations of Trinity Fest have been wonderful, and we are looking forward to the third being the same kind of thing. We wish you were coming. But you haven’t registered yet. I checked.<br /><i>Posted by Douglas Wilson — 6/6/2007 1:20:23 PM</i> | <a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=4004">Link to this post</a></blockquote><br />In this post Wilson put the stamp of Puritan nobility on the subject of “culture wars” and tied those wars to the Trinity Fest:<br /><br /><blockquote>One of the emphases that we have sought to cultivate in our ministry here is the idea of celebration as a central component in the culture wars. . . But we also do this indirectly, when our celebrations as a worshipping community spill out into public. This is what Trinity Fest is designed to display, and to do.</blockquote><br />I must confess, however, that the only wars he’s ever fought in Moscow had nothing to do with the typical culture wars of the Christian right. Wilson limited his battles to <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-anniversary.html">defending the biblical rights of antebellum slaveholders to mansteal</a>; <a target="_blank"href="http://zonemoscow.com/contact/taxes.html">resisting his legal obligation to pay property tax</a>; <a target="_blank"href="http://zonemoscow.com/">violating the Zoning Code in the heart of downtown Moscow</a>; and <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/02/think-al-capone-part-2.html">threatening the Latah County Commissioners</a> (I wonder if, when he threatened the commissioners, he meant to threaten physical harm against them or some sort of legal action; perhaps he could draw us a picture). Oh, and maybe some of that <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/04/april-fool.html">middle-aged “pendulous-bellied” Trinitarian skylarking</a>, which the Bible calls sinful folly. Obviously none of these scandals are your standard right-wing hot-button “culture war” issues. In fact, to the extent that Wilson lost each and every one of these battles, his defeats were to the improvement of Moscow. This is because they were “Doug’s wars” not “culture wars.” Regardless, in this blog post he raises the specter of celebrating in public while waging culture war. This was a polite way of saying that for one week each year he really wanted to gloat in the face of his enemies, the so-called intoleristas, as his one-man carnival in the name of the Trinity stretched far and wide across city limits.<br /><br />But there’s a terribly sick irony here that you cannot miss if you ever want to understand his psychosis. Pastor Douglas Wilson wanted to celebrate in public as he waged culture war against his neighbors in Moscow, but he wanted to do this in the same hour that God’s hand of judgment weighed heavily on the culture that Wilson planted at Christ Church, Moscow. Don’t be confused. There are not two things happening here, only one. It’s inner fantasy vs. external reality. And the reality is that there is no culture war in the community of Moscow, despite Douglas Wilson’s inner fantasy and his endless blustering. The only culture war is inside Christ Church. Its citizens have turned on one another in the most horrible way possible — rape. Even worse, its pastor responded to these attacks by defending the rapists. To be sure, he defended the most fearful predators known to society — pedophiles and child molesters — every mother’s worst nightmare. He never warned his church about these criminals; he simply welcomed them back into the fold. And he defended these evildoers because he needed to reintroduce them back into the covenant community as smoothly and <i>as quietly</i> as possible so that no one would know the true state of his church — he needed to cover it up. But by hiding them and their iniquity he insured the complete destruction of the culture he planted at Christ Church. In short, when Wilson covered-up for the two rapists, he declared war against his own congregation. So while he invited the Christian church to celebrate with him in Moscow as he waged culture war, the sick reality is that the celebration could only take place because he waged culture war against Christ Church.<br /><br />Douglas Wilson pretends he’s a prophet calling the church out of her exile, but the reality is that God has exiled him to a world of delusions. He redefines repentance to look like Fat Tuesday, but the reality is that he needs to repent in sackcloth and ashes if he would ever see the kingdom of God. He celebrates his personal wars against his “enemies” in the center of town, but the reality is that he had to make enemies of his sheep before he could fight his other “enemies.” The mad prophet is so blind that he cannot see the culture he planted is completely disintegrating before his very eyes and it’s falling apart because of him. As I said, it’s a sick irony, because in the end the Fearless Leader fiddled as the lambs of his flock passed through the fire.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlUlbqftgdrHkJcZchFR8tPiNrTyqljioQchaiJNzh-DYMq60o6lhhRcOHCRUnsJaWMD8IzVlNyk0M4ITBwBXpJSdCVQRyK2ll9YQLbT4Cpc69sxTMQSp46SJoD0aE-pfuqJ4luPYlzU/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlUlbqftgdrHkJcZchFR8tPiNrTyqljioQchaiJNzh-DYMq60o6lhhRcOHCRUnsJaWMD8IzVlNyk0M4ITBwBXpJSdCVQRyK2ll9YQLbT4Cpc69sxTMQSp46SJoD0aE-pfuqJ4luPYlzU/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222315410612555698" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br /><div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"><div id="ftn1"><b><a title=""name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a></b> For those of you just joining us or if you need a refresher, here is the documented timeline of events:<ul><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=527">Winter 2004 – Spring 2005</a> — Christ Church announces the Trinity Fest.</li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html">March 11, 2005</a> — Douglas Wilson learns that a serial pedophile preyed upon his flock for 18 months.</li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/07/court-minutes.html">July 7, 2005</a> — Steven Sitler pleads guilty to one count of Lewd Conduct With a Minor Under Sixteen Years of Age.</li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1269">July 24, 2005</a> — Douglas Wilson parades Kult children before the community and declares his sect “formidable.”</li><br /><li>August 8–11, 2005 — Christ Church hosts the first annual Trinity Fest in Moscow, Idaho.</li><blockquote><ul><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1299">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day One”</a></li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1303">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Two”</a></li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1304">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Three”</a></li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1305">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Four”</a></li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1306">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Five”</a></li></ul></blockquote><li><a target="_blank"href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/2005/08/arrest-warrant.html">August 17, 2005</a> — A Latah County magistrate issues an arrest warrant for Greyfriars student Jamin Wight.</li><br /><li><a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">August 19, 2005</a> — Douglas Wilson asks Judge Stegner to show leniency on Steven Sitler.</li></ul> And during this whole period no one at Christ Church knew about Sitler or the damage he wrought.</div></div>Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-88221687672862131742008-07-10T18:02:00.000-07:002008-07-11T15:54:00.815-07:00“Forever Seventeen”A former member of the Kult once told me that when she looks back at her tenure in Moscow, she sees that they put enormous pressure on her to conform her life to Nancy Wilson’s, and since she believed that Nancy Wilson was the perfect wife, she gladly complied. Now that she’s out, however, she sees the big picture much more clearly. In hindsight she says that conformity was really more like a straightjacket that she daily tailored to her body, so that she could not be herself anymore — she had to be Nancy. She said it got to the point that her straightjacket squeezed the life (and liberty) of Christ out of her — because Doug & Nancy are perfect. Thankfully, that family escaped Christ Church, Moscow, and they have rediscovered true freedom in Christ.<br /><br />That true story segues to <a target="_blank"href="http://cleaning-house.org/?p=655">a post</a> by the Iron Rose of Moscow. Once again we see that the Wilsons hopelessly conflict their mind-numbed disciples: Should a woman roll on her husband, as per <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/04/anonymity-excursus-kult-police-state.html#abigail">this instruction</a>, or should the helpmeet play dumb meat? And I wonder what the Wilsons would say about <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/04/anonymity-part-ix-christ-church-wife_22.html">A Christ Church Wife</a>? Actually, I know the answer to that question. Wilson set precedent a couple of years ago when he suspected that a wife was not loyal to the Kult — he executed the family in a <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/11/for-abuse.html">high-profile termination</a>.<br /><br />Anyway, this woman knocks me out: read <a target="_blank"href="http://cleaning-house.org/?p=655">“Forever Seventeen”</a> and picture in your mind’s eye a “pendulous-bellied, bearded, over-fifty-year-old man engaged in Trinitarian skylarking.” Maybe he’ll be so kind as to draw us a picture.<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />Post Script: in the last paragraph Rosemary mentions the “backyard turned into a bulldozed subdivision,” which is a highly public scandal that I have not broached yet. In short, Wilson has not limited his empire building to hijacking churches into the CREC or coveting all of downtown Moscow for his glory. He and a few investment partners (which I believe includes his in-laws) had the Wilson’s <a target="_blank"href="http://www.keyprop.biz/default.asp?PageID=118">backyard re-platted</a> to construct a gated community of cookie-cutter shacks on what is currently a bulldozed mess.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-17729153278141893462008-07-09T06:54:00.000-07:002008-07-09T08:10:49.375-07:00“That’s Doug”A couple of months ago a friend called to observe that Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, has successfully conditioned people across the country to create a special category, <i>just for him,</i> to accept his sin with a wink and nod, instead of delivering to him the appropriate biblical response. This is an excellent point that deserves everyone’s undivided attention, and I submit yesterday’s post to you as Exhibit A to help establish that this special category exists.<br /><br />The <i>Moscow–Pullman Daily News</i> quoted Doug Wilson ascribing the word “nigger” to the Son of God because, according to Wilson, the Lord Jesus was using a racial insult to make a point or else He was simply using a racial insult.<br /><br />If this front-page story had appeared with any other pastor’s name attached to it, the Christian church <i>and</i> the general population would have risen up with a unanimous voice to condemn the reprobate responsible for the blasphemy. And make no mistake: twisting Scripture to place a racial slur on the lips of the Savior of the world <i>is</i> blasphemy:<br /><blockquote><b>Question 113:</b> <i>What are the sins forbidden in the third commandment?</i><br /><b>Answer:</b> The sins forbidden in the third commandment are . . . misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the Word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines . . . the maligning, scorning, reviling, or anywise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive walking, or backsliding from it.</blockquote><br />But when Wilson blasphemes, people shrug their shoulders and say, “That’s Doug,” as though those two words justify and account for what would be intolerably reprehensible behavior from anyone else.<br /><br />I have more evidence to support this theory of the “special category,” which is part of a larger post. For now, however, I simply wanted to feed the hamster in your brains. And don’t get me wrong, as disgusted and appalled as he makes me, I take comfort knowing that “the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain . . . especially because he will be so far from acquitting and sparing the transgressors of this commandment, as that he will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment, <i>albeit many such escape the censures and punishments of men.”</i><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-87830663412809653892008-07-08T15:29:00.000-07:002009-02-12T06:24:56.869-08:00A Book Review<b>U P D A T E :</b> I forgot to note that the citation below from <i>A Serrated Edge</i> that uses the word “nigger” actually made the front page of the <i>Moscow–Pullman Daily News</i> back in 2003 as Wilson’s Southern Slavery scandal was getting red hot (you can read it <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/dumb-tan.html">here</a>). We noted this fact very early in our <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/search/label/DUMB%20and%20Tan">“DUMB & Tan”</a> series, but it’s worth repeating since we have so many new readers.<br /><br />Found this on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/review/RWMMU09KRUG7H/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm">amazon.com</a> (HT: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reformedcatholicism.com/?p=1663">Mary Louise</a>). Man, I wish I could write this succinctly:<br /><blockquote><b>Blasphemy</b><br />By A Customer<br /><br />This book firmly establishes Douglas Wilson’s utter contempt for all that is holy — especially the Lord Jesus Christ. Two quotes should suffice to prove the point.<br /><br />Paraphrasing the Lord’s answer to the woman of Canaan in Matthew 15, Wilson writes,<br /><br /><blockquote>“Jesus was not above using ethnic humor to make His point either. . . . 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 “ni##ers.”’ . . 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.” (pp. 43, 44)</blockquote><br />Well, it is not correct, and your mother should have washed your mouth out with soap.<br /><br />Then commenting on Philippians 3:8, Wilson writes, “We simply cannot imagine the lofty sentiment of this wonderful passage (e.g., the ‘excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’) functioning in the same sentence with dog sh*t.” (p. 62)<br /><br />Well, we couldn’t imagine it until you suggested it.<br /><br />Naturally, Wilson’s contempt for God shows itself, by extension, in his disdain for God’s people. In fact <i>A Serrated Edge</i> is Wilson’s justification for the mean-spirited way that he treats others. Here is the sum total of his argument: “God has divided the world between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and since that time ridicule has been inescapable.” And from this absurd declaration, Wilson argues that Scripture invites him to mock and ridicule believers and non-believers alike. He even calls it a “gift” and a “movement of the Spirit.”<br /><br />Wilson shows his instinctive menace as well. Consider the number of times he used the following words or variations of them: “attack,” 35 times; “offend,” 20 times; “ridicule,” 17 times; “insult,” 14 times; and of course the singular gratuitous uses of “dog sh*t,” “cr@p,” “a%%,” and “ni##er.”<br /><br />But for all his potty mouth, Wilson never mentions the “Golden Rule,” and he fails to ask the one important question: What would the Church look like if believers treated one another the way Wilson does?<br /><br />Wilson “comes out” in this book. He would not have anyone confuse him for a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is wolf to the bone, and these pages reveal his fangs for all to behold. “Proud and haughty, scorner is his name.” (Prov. 21:24.)<br /><br />If you buy this book, hide it from your children. Hide it, that is, until the day when God visits Wilson with calamity. And then teach them something that Wilson never learned: God is not mocked. (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/review/RWMMU09KRUG7H/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm">A Customer</a>, November 2, 2003)</blockquote><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4fjK2kPCae4pPb2gq1qXBNwGpnZ6XgxujXPlbbaxE1x2tbag6Y7Q4MlX12ZJ9GCmVqx0hvIOukjyYMKB7SyVb9oGdOo1kJyDaVcq_BpyBrHLR6LHFgQ15CJf0sNtHFtgDF6vm8_MSxo/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4fjK2kPCae4pPb2gq1qXBNwGpnZ6XgxujXPlbbaxE1x2tbag6Y7Q4MlX12ZJ9GCmVqx0hvIOukjyYMKB7SyVb9oGdOo1kJyDaVcq_BpyBrHLR6LHFgQ15CJf0sNtHFtgDF6vm8_MSxo/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220769608248565490" /></a><br /><br />HT: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reformedcatholicism.com/?p=1663">Mary Louise</a><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-72645899873306664222008-07-07T18:20:00.000-07:002008-07-07T18:21:19.541-07:00CHORTLEI’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-8698402635064180212008-07-06T18:58:00.001-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.600-08:00The End of the Trinity Fest Part 3: “calling the evangelical church out of her exile”In our <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/end-of-trinity-fest-part-2-we-are.html">previous installment</a> we considered some of the controversy that preceded the first annual Trinity Fest by comparing the image of Christ Church, Moscow, that Pastor Douglas Wilson projected for others to see with the actual state of his church that he desperately didn’t want anyone to see, i.e. his inner fantasy of him leading an almighty kirk as opposed to the external reality that a serial pedophile had just ravaged the little ones of his congregation who were under his (Wilson’s) care. Indeed, his inner fantasy militated so strongly against external reality that he never bothered to warn the parents of his congregation that predation may have occurred. Rather, he blustered, <i>“We are formidable,”</i> as he bragged that the infants of his congregation hit the hard stuff during the Lord’s Supper, calling this use of the Table <i>“potent.”</i><br /><br />And each day during the first annual Trinity Fest he used Blog and Mablog to give a blow-by-blow account of the festivities, as part of his self-promotion package. He pushed hard to impose his inner fantasy on the world, despite reality, and he really wanted people to believe that Christ Church, Moscow, was leading the reform of Christian culture at the community level. He wanted his followers to believe, with him, that the world dreaded his awe-inspiring kirk because they <i>were</i> the cutting edge of Christian culture. He certainly would not have anyone know that they were the essence of a disintegrating culture, at least by his own written standards. After all, he was the brilliant light who just a few years earlier wrote this Caiaphas-like prophecy for all the world to read:<br /><br /><blockquote>Violent rape is a judgment of God upon a people. . . This does not justify the perpetrators; it is simply the recognition that when disaster befalls a city, sexual disaster for the women is part of this. This does not mean that a woman who is raped should assume any personal responsibility for it; she is innocent. . . Violent rape is God’s judgment on a culture, and individual women who are part of that culture are included in the judgment. But this does not mean that they as individuals “deserved” it. . . . We see the same judgment at work in disintegrating cultures: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8:11). Here the rape is not being perpetrated by foreign soldiers, but is the result of citizens turning on one another. Every culture is a gathering of sinners, and so rape is always a possibility. But when God’s hand of judgment is heavy upon a people, women are in far greater danger of sexual assault than at other times. (Douglas Wilson, <i><a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-funnies.html#fidelity">Fidelity: What It Means To Be a One-Woman Man</a></i> [Moscow: Canon Press, 1999] 82, 83)</blockquote><br />I don’t think it’s possible for a worse visitation to strike a church than a serial pedophile raping its most defenseless members, and I don’t think it’s possible for a so-called pastor to demonstrate nonfeasance any better than Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, who hid this awful fact from the world so that he could pretend his formidable worship assembly was hosting a Trinitarian carnival. To be sure, his dereliction crossed the line from nonfeasance to malfeasance. By his standard God’s hand of judgment was heavy on the Kirk — two citizens of their own had turned on their babies, infants, and children, to rape them. These crimes took place for over two years, as the Fearless Leader led his formidable army from scandal to scandal — <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/11/destroy-thou-them-o-god.html">imprecatory prayers</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-anniversary.html">Southern Slavery</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://zonemoscow.com/contact/taxes.html">property-tax conflicts</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://zonemoscow.com/">zoning wars</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/02/think-al-capone-part-2.html">verbal threats against the Latah County Commissioners</a>, etc., not to mention the national scandal in the Reformed church known as the <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/01/bag-o-snakes.html">Federal Vision</a>. I’m sure that when he learned about Steven Sitler’s predations he justified it in his mind as some sort of inconsequential collateral damage. After all, everybody knows that serial pedophiles regularly wreak havoc on “formidable” churches. It’s part of St. Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 12. So on August 11, 2005, the last day of the first annual Trinity Fest, he finished his summary of the day’s events by writing,<br /><br /><blockquote>Glitches here and there, but over all, we were <i>extremely</i> grateful to God for the success of the first annual Trinity Fest. (<a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1306">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Five”</a>; emphasis original)</blockquote><br />Yes, he was <i>“extremely</i> grateful to God for the success of the first annual Trinity Fest.” But exactly eight days later, or Trinity Fest 2005, Day Thirteen, he had to leave his inner fantasy for a few moments to deal with reality so that he could express his gratitude for something else. Steven Sitler was still at his parent’s home in Colville, WA, waiting for Judge Stegner to sentence him for his crimes, and someone (we don’t know who) compelled the Fearless Leader to write a letter to the judge on behalf of the serial pedophile. He closed it with similar expressions of gratitude:<br /><br /><blockquote>I am grateful Steven was caught, and am grateful he has been brought to account for these actions so early in his life. I am grateful that he will be sentenced for his behavior, and that there will be hard consequences for him in real time. At the same time, I would urge that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited. I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society. (<a target="_blank" href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">August 19, 2005</a>)</blockquote><br />Of course, he wrote and sent this letter in secret, without his flock’s knowledge or consent (I seriously doubt the Kult elders even knew about it). But God is not mocked because according to the Fearless Leader’s standards “Violent rape is God’s judgment on a culture,” despite Wilson’s gratitude for Sitler’s capture. And just because Wilson concealed, denied, and suppressed the truth about his disintegrating culture didn’t mean it wasn’t putrid — rotten to the core — it just meant that Wilson was ripe for another judgment. We know this because on August 17, 2005, two days before Wilson wrote his secret letter to Judge Stegner, a Latah County magistrate issued an arrest warrant for Jamin Wight. If you’re keeping track (and I know that swimming through this filth gets complicated), that’s Trinity Fest 2005, Day Eleven. The accusation against Wight stated:<br /><br /><blockquote>SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD, <a target="_blank" href="http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=180150006.K">Idaho Code 18-1506</a> and LEWD CONDUCT WITH A MINOR UNDER SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE, Idaho Code <a target="_blank" href="http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=180150008.K">18-1508</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=180660008.K">Idaho Code 18-6608</a>, Felonies in THREE (3) COUNTS, have been committed. . . (<a target="_blank" href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/2005/08/arrest-warrant.html">Arrest Warrant for Jamin Wight, August 17, 2005</a>)</blockquote><br />We have no idea exactly <i>when</i> Wilson learned about Wight’s arrest, but we do know it was before September 1, 2005, which is the date that Pastor Wilson wrote a letter to the victim’s father threatening him with discipline. I suppose that would be Trinity Fest 2005, Day Twenty-Six. Regardless, the same lightning bolt struck the Fearless Leader twice in less than five months, and you would think that the discovery of two child molesters in less than five months would weigh heavily on a pastor. To be sure, you would think this would be sufficient cause of action for a man to examine himself, his ministry, and his calling. You know, some of that “morbid introspection” the Fearless Leader despises so much. After all, these rapes took place under his nose. In fact, they took place at the exact same time that he crossed hill and dale <a target="_blank" href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/06/make-them-say-theyre-sorry-part-1.html">to obtain an apology</a> for imaginary offenses that he believed the University of Idaho committed against him. Personally, I believe that if a man has time to demand an apology, he has time to guard the flock. Or something like that.<br /><br />This brings us to one of Beelzeblog’s entries announcing the second annual Trinity Fest (2006). As you read this, please remember that by this time Wilson knew about both of his sex offenders. I republish it in entirety:<br /><br /><blockquote><b>Extended Deadline<br />Topic:</b> Shameless Appeals<br />The last time I did this, a discussion broke out over whether we ought to cancel Trinity Fest. With <i>this</i> shameless appeal, because I am running that risk yet again, let me begin by showing the consistency between repentance of sin and rejoicing before the Lord. The reason for Trinity Fest in the first place has not been to have just a [sic] another random party, but to do so in the context of calling the evangelical church out of her exile. Repentance and joy are not mutually exclusive, but rather go together like ham and eggs. But of course I am not talking about the grim joy of the pietist, or the macabre repentance of the self-absorbed. I am talking about the joy of those who have realized that individualistic autonomy is a death trap, the joy of those who have been brought out of darkness into the perfect law of liberty. The emphasis that follows is mine.<br /><br /><blockquote>And Nehemiah, which <i>is</i> the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, <i>This day is holy</i> unto the LORD your God; <i>mourn not, nor weep.</i> For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Then he said unto them, <i>Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions</i> unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: <i>neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.</i> So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day <i>is</i> holy; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to <i>eat,</i> and to <i>drink,</i> and to <i>send portions, and to make great mirth,</i> because they had understood the words that were declared unto them (<a target="_blank" href="http://biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=9&passage=Neh.%208:9-12">Neh. 8:9–12</a>).</blockquote><br />That said, we never for a second intended to cancel anything. But for various reasons, we <i>have</i> decided to extend the early registration deadline by one week to Friday, June 23rd. But also, because everything we do is in a highly charged, politicized atmosphere, we know that to do something as simple as this will cause some bad guys to chortle and say, “Aha! They are struggling. Registrations must be down. Look at them! Extending deadlines!” But actually, registrations are rocking right along, and we are on track to be a bigger and better celebration than last year. And so if you want to join us at the early registration prices, you have an additional week to do so. Just working with you all is all.<br /><br /><i>Posted by Douglas Wilson — 6/16/2006 12:46:36 PM</i> | <a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2461">Link to this post</a></blockquote><br />Before we consider the self-proclaimed “prophetic” aspect of this post, let me note the obvious in the interest of a good chortle: Instead of simply extending the deadline for whatever reason (and he had no obligation to give a reason), he had to wax defensive about the extension and stick it in his “enemies’” faces:<br /><br /><blockquote>The last time I did this, a discussion broke out over whether we ought to cancel Trinity Fest. With <i>this</i> shameless appeal, because I am running that risk yet again. . . . That said, we never for a second intended to cancel anything. But for various reasons, we <i>have</i> decided to extend the early registration deadline by one week to Friday, June 23rd. But also, because everything we do is in a highly charged, politicized atmosphere, we know that to do something as simple as this will cause some bad guys to chortle and say, “Aha! They are struggling. Registrations must be down. Look at them! Extending deadlines!” But actually, registrations are rocking right along, and we are on track to be a bigger and better celebration than last year. And so if you want to join us at the early registration prices, you have an additional week to do so. Just working with you all is all.</blockquote><br />As he indicates, he wrote this part of the post with an eye on his so-called “enemies” (that would be the “bad guys”) in Moscow who thought as much about the Trinity Fest as they did the History Conference. He calls them “intoleristas” (I don’t remember if it’s a proper noun). He knew locals followed his blog for these types of announcements because Blog and Mablog was his <i>familiar medium</i> to communicate with his disciples, and so he had to downplay the obvious meaning of the extension. He had to huff and puff. He had to act as though the situation wasn’t what it appeared, i.e. the Trinity Fest was not the rip-roaring success that he expected. This is a critical point because one of his stated goals for the Trinity Fest was for it to be so big that people would like him even less. I realize that’s not a particularly ambitious objective and most Christians would find it difficult to reconcile with the evangel, but that’s how he advertised it (we shall consider this remarkable aim in an upcoming post). He hoped his carnival would canvass so much of the city that its very presence would offend everyone who didn’t share his imperious vision of taking over Moscow, or roughly 96% of the population.<br /><br />Consequently, when registrations for the Trinity Fest didn’t add up as he expected, he had to stick his chest out and pretend otherwise. And “pretend” is the operative term because according to <a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1304">“Trinity Fest 2005, Day Three,”</a> they served “about 850” souls for St. Brigid’s Feast, whereas in 2006 (the year of the post in question), <a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2665">“Trinity Fest Day One/Pictures”</a> states that they served 760 at St. Brigid’s Feast. By my count, they were down pert near 100 people or roughly 9%. That’s worth a harrumph and chortle in my book because, “Aha! They WERE struggling and registrations WERE down!” They were not “rocking right along” and they were not “on track to be a bigger and better celebration than last year.” And once again we see his inner fantasy resisting against external reality. He could not distinguish between them. Self-deception became public deception. Harrumph, chortle, and roll on the floor laughing. Two years later the annual Trinity Fest went the way of all flesh. They canceled it.<br /><br />Please notice, however, as I stop to chortle once more, that <i>he’s</i> the one who put such a high premium on head count. I could care less. In fact, I’m just evangelical enough to believe that where two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is there in the midst. But, <i>nooooooo,</i> they had to have a million-man march. They had to make a pronounced statement of their greatness, their formidability, and their dominance. And their church of 900 souls (that’s the number he publishes) couldn’t even break a thousand for its annual celebration, which is worth a least one more chortle.<br /><br />Now to point: The blog post under consideration (<a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2461">“Extended Deadline”</a>) explained the reason for the Trinity Fest:<br /><br /><blockquote>Let me begin by showing the consistency between repentance of sin and rejoicing before the Lord. The reason for Trinity Fest in the first place has not been to have just a [sic] another random party, but to do so in the context of calling the evangelical church out of her exile. Repentance and joy are not mutually exclusive, but rather go together like ham and eggs. But of course I am not talking about the grim joy of the pietist, or the macabre repentance of the self-absorbed. I am talking about the joy of those who have realized that individualistic autonomy is a death trap, the joy of those who have been brought out of darkness into the perfect law of liberty.</blockquote><br />Let me remind you of the context of this post in case you forgot it with all the chortling. God sent two child molesters to Christ Church, Moscow, as judgment for their sins — to accelerate the disintegration of their culture, at least according to Wilson’s written standards, yet this dark fact notwithstanding he donned the prophet’s mantle to <i>“call the evangelical church out of her exile.”</i> He couldn’t even shepherd a church through two child molesters, let alone warn his congregation, but he thought he could call the Church to repentance, and by an act of self-willed <i>individualistic autonomy</i> he declared the evangelical church in “exile.” I would chortle if it wasn’t so nuts. And please don’t miss this: He then called the evangelical church to come to Moscow (read <i>him</i>) in order <i>to repent.</i> This is not ham and eggs, it’s ham and crazy. He thinks he’s the prophet Daniel when he’s actually Belshazzar defiling the holy things of God and just like Belshazzar he cannot read the writing on the wall, though unlike the Chaldaean king he wrote the writing with his own fingers. Again, he cannot distinguish between his inner fantasy and real life.<br /><br />Finally, we have one more consideration, which closes the deal. In his book <i>Fidelity</i> Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, cited Ecclesiastes 8:11 as his proof text to establish the principle of “disintegrating cultures”: <i>“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”</i> Elsewhere in <i>Fidelity</i> he affirmed the death penalty for pedophiles and rapists. But when he had a chance to stand by his written standards, he caved. And this is not about the appropriate punishment for these offenders; it’s about the Fearless Leader’s hypocrisy. Neither Steven Sitler nor Jamin Wight received the punishment due their evil works, at least according to Wilson’s theonomic standards. Both men skated due in large part to his advocacy. He pled for leniency on behalf of both before he ever warned his congregation of the danger they posed. In one instance he even threatened the victim’s father with punishment. In other words, sentence against their evil work was not executed speedily and when compared to death it wasn’t executed <i>at all.</i> And that’s because Wilson’s heart was fully set in him to do evil.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzMJxQM7vlILSdEI69CUZ53rWQvw1rlB3Dzvk280w3ThN-GIB2Ab9RVKCvVOskbyvXM7sXHEG3_lAmttAYxI2EsKHqj2e8PO4xdLdHENkywr1bjvk4pXhz7E6ik8QvA5VJt60rjxRyJo/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzMJxQM7vlILSdEI69CUZ53rWQvw1rlB3Dzvk280w3ThN-GIB2Ab9RVKCvVOskbyvXM7sXHEG3_lAmttAYxI2EsKHqj2e8PO4xdLdHENkywr1bjvk4pXhz7E6ik8QvA5VJt60rjxRyJo/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220293627632675074" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-1805735417328390672008-07-05T07:41:00.000-07:002009-11-02T06:26:33.548-08:00Pastor Ghoul: Brazen IndeedPlease allow me to call your attention to Pastor Douglas Wilson’s response to the editorial in the <i><a target="_blank"href="http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=665">Intelligence Report</a></i> that covered his pedophile problem:<br /><br /><blockquote><blockquote><b>The father of the girl in the second incident told the <i>Intelligence Report</i> that church officials tried to keep that quiet as well. At one point, he said, they threatened to bring him under church discipline for failing to protect his daughter.</b></blockquote><br /><i>Let’s just say that I have never seen quite so striking an example of a father neglecting his daughter. But this is not one that you have to take my word for. Just look at the previous paragraph. This is a father who was willing to talk to </i>Intelligence Report<i> about this particular incident because he doesn’t believe his daughter has been through enough. And the ghouls at SPLC were willing to print it.</i> (<a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/Print.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=3002">“Brazenly Lied About”</a>; emphasis original)</blockquote><br />If you can cut past the utter contempt dripping from Wilson’s fingertips, notice his argument.<br /><br /><blockquote>(A) Wilson has never seen so striking an example of a father’s neglect.<br /><br />(B) Talking to the <i>Intelligence Report</i> proves the father’s neglect.</blockquote><br />I hope someone lets me know if I missed something here, because the unstated premise of Beelzeblog’s argument appears to be one of two points. It’s either (A) Giving media attention to the crime constitutes a form of paternal neglect, or (B) Talking to the <i>Intelligence Report</i> about the crime constitutes a form of paternal neglect. I think that for the argument to be consistent the premise has to be (A) because the point appears to be that <i>any</i> public attention to the crime constitutes harm to the victim. Of course, Beelzeblog fails to observe that the interview in the <i>IR</i> did not identify the father or the victim, just as he failed to note that the father limited the scope of his comments to Wilson’s pastoral abuse after the crime occurred — <i>threats of church discipline.</i><br /><br />These facts notwithstanding, there’s only one point that’s relevant to the argument here. If we grant premise (A) that giving media attention to the crime constitutes paternal neglect, then what should we conclude about Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, after he wrote about the incident on his blog? Put another way, Wilson condemned the father for talking to the <i>IR</i> and he called the folks at the <i>IR</i> “ghouls” for printing the interview; so if they were “ghouls” for printing it, what does that make Wilson for reprinting a large excerpt from the interview and linking to it?<br /><br />I believe these are fair questions. After all, Wilson blogging on the incident is infinitely worse because of the targeted audience. I don’t know anyone who reads the <i>Intelligence Report</i>, but I know lots of people who read Blog and Mablog. And if media attention causes harm to the victim, then why would the alleged pastor who was overseeing the incident aggravate the victim’s pain by blogging on the subject?<br /><br />Take it to the next step. If publicity to the crime is drop-dead proof of neglect because it harms the victim, then the CREC (or whatever entity that holds Wilson accountable) should initiate disciplinary proceedings against him immediately, because it’s clear that when he brought even greater publicity to the crime he acted with malice of forethought. As he said, <i>“But this is not one that you have to take my word for. Just look at the previous paragraph.”</i> It’s self-evident.<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnv7F_qqHG_o8YjLf8MUJHTOpWQr-IafspinKfOSKZHihsy6w4aKAj7nWIk3v_0Zefj0Pa11N0njp4ruw1ZQJlMyLmrQ2apvy_UohMfEf9Z2Ybbm0wsfTRIc8ZLgbm8XOnZSK_P3zgzg/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnv7F_qqHG_o8YjLf8MUJHTOpWQr-IafspinKfOSKZHihsy6w4aKAj7nWIk3v_0Zefj0Pa11N0njp4ruw1ZQJlMyLmrQ2apvy_UohMfEf9Z2Ybbm0wsfTRIc8ZLgbm8XOnZSK_P3zgzg/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5219540642843839362" /></a><br /><br />HT: AnonMark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-26416077956241662422008-07-03T08:04:00.000-07:002008-07-03T12:07:26.806-07:00Eyewitness TestimonyI received this comment this morning. It’s the testimony of an eyewitness who watched the judge sentence Jamin Wight, and this much is true — when Rosemary Huskey bears witness, you can take it to the bank that every word is true.<br /><blockquote><a target="_blank"href="http://cleaning-house.org/">Rosemary Huskey</a> said . . .<br /><br /><blockquote>I was in the courtroom <a target="_blank"href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/2006/05/judgment-of-conviction.html">the day that Jamin Wight was sentenced</a>. The judge emphasized Jamin’s remarkable immaturity; he was at least 23-years old when he began molesting a 14-year-old girl under the guise of “courting.” What 23 year old in his right mind wants to foster a romantic/sexual relationship with a 14 year old? The correct answer is, of course, a pedophile. Doug Wilson was also in the courtroom that day. We even exchanged a few words following the sentencing. Mine were strong and to the point, Doug’s were, well, let’s just say he floundered for a response and I didn’t buy it.<br /><br />The arrested adolescence and huge gaps in emotional development that were obvious to the judge apparently escaped the notice of Doug Wilson and other Kirk luminaries. In addition to being a Greyfriars student, Jamin Wight was a teacher at the Logos-clone all-boy school, Atlas Academy. (At the time the school was operated without a Conditional Use Permit, and without safety inspections, from Jim Wilson’s storefront ministry, in the Nuart Theater. Using the example of Doug Wilson and Nuisance Andrews, the operators of Atlas School simply blew off city ordinances which specifically banned the operation of schools in downtown Moscow. They have subsequently moved into the county where they can operate without interference from local officials and Jamin is no longer a faculty member.)<br /><br />It’s all about the squeaky-clean covenant image with Doug. His track record of trying to keep the lid on scandal in order to spare himself and the Kirk public embarrassment is sinful as well as useless. What an odious piece of work he is.<br /><br />Rose Huskey</blockquote></blockquote><br />I neglected to note the glaring age difference between Wight and his victim, which is an extremely aggravating circumstance to his crime. Maybe Beelzeblog could draw us a picture.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-58291161564180999382008-07-02T19:15:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.648-08:00The Sunday FunniesAs long as we’re on it, and we will be on it in our next TF post, here is what the Fearless Leader wrote vis-à-vis rape, disintegrating cultures, and the judgment of God:<br /><br /><a name="fidelity"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutf2g7RVfdGR1LFt2n00TO-l1mRARRjzygQEsnMSbvi37D8Bp5JhCRs-rm979K0vIplazskb83HjfMRyJnLJaI42sHpASFcXYeiitHJWkG4Mz3nQ6naWnsIbp0OoCjzuAMvZ1N5j8QB0/"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgutf2g7RVfdGR1LFt2n00TO-l1mRARRjzygQEsnMSbvi37D8Bp5JhCRs-rm979K0vIplazskb83HjfMRyJnLJaI42sHpASFcXYeiitHJWkG4Mz3nQ6naWnsIbp0OoCjzuAMvZ1N5j8QB0/" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218577248488225362" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieq-nOUIATNH9ZGod8yeF5TSYA8MYH81kR0yQskwEBe9J9dfKu_CKb50xdVZzqdz_Xy5u135nzA3T_0nEBAeDEiZa-0HqdxeUYg3jcEW0xoo0jaYihMW9b5LZKqhQt_wwhjV5u00VfX0U/"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieq-nOUIATNH9ZGod8yeF5TSYA8MYH81kR0yQskwEBe9J9dfKu_CKb50xdVZzqdz_Xy5u135nzA3T_0nEBAeDEiZa-0HqdxeUYg3jcEW0xoo0jaYihMW9b5LZKqhQt_wwhjV5u00VfX0U/" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218576875088626994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Notice how he writes with such authority and unction, as though he really holds these convictions. Notice how he leaves the impression that he is committed to biblical standards and that he fears God.<br /><br />Now notice this blog post that Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, uploaded to Blog and Mablog exactly one week after <a target="_blank" href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/2006/05/judgment-of-conviction.html">Jamin Wight’s conviction</a>. I republish it in entirety:<br /><blockquote><b><span style="font-size:130%;">Yes, I Know There Are Many Godly Youth Ministers</span><br />Topic:</b> Cartoon<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOkkxJqji7RhCz6TAmgjYCowxx_8jGWUkcFNqzOFuGZOMVP52P0LMenPJyoaUu6YecU9tRvFT0GM8UZiTZaH7uTvbxOCtW8fPtwSREYkm0M9yCHUPWTciICy8kSqN-KJrwrNILo8ulGKQ/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOkkxJqji7RhCz6TAmgjYCowxx_8jGWUkcFNqzOFuGZOMVP52P0LMenPJyoaUu6YecU9tRvFT0GM8UZiTZaH7uTvbxOCtW8fPtwSREYkm0M9yCHUPWTciICy8kSqN-KJrwrNILo8ulGKQ/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218862212678402482" /></a><br /><br /><i>Posted by Douglas Wilson - 5/19/2006 11:27:27 AM</i> | <a target="_blank" href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=2354">Link to this post</a></blockquote><br />Here’s the real punch line to the cartoon. Wilson concealed Jamin Wight’s crimes from the membership of Christ Church, Moscow, just as he hid Steven Sitler’s predations. Consequently, when he published this clever piece of art (which, by the way, he drew with his own hand; you can confirm this fact in the combox), all of his rabid disciples would have thought he was ridiculing the modern church, as usual, and implying that the Kult was immune from such carnal hustlers.<br /><br />Again, notice how he leaves the false impression that his cult is above it all. Notice how he doesn’t acknowledge that his highly esteemed pupil who was studying for the ministry just dodged the mother of all bullets for rape, which was the major point of the plea bargain. (The other point was getting tagged as a “Sex Offender” in the State of Idaho; Wight had one of the best criminal attorneys in Moscow. In fact, I’m close with Moscow’s lone capital attorney who tells me that if he ever had to beat a rap, he would retain Wight’s attorney: <i>“He’s a pit bull in court!”</i>)<br /><br />Back to point: Do you think that Wilson’s cartoon is funny? If the victim saw it, do you think she laughed? If the father whom Wilson threatened with discipline saw it, do you think he got a kick out of it? What kind of message do you think it sent to the victim family? What kind of message did it send to Wight, whom they never disciplined? What kind of message did it send to Wight’s classmates at Greyfriars Hall? Seriously, what happened to all that posturing about “God’s hand of judgment” being “heavy upon a people”? How does this tasteless image comport with Wilson’s written standards? Is there anything funny about “The Sunday Funnies”? You tell me.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-34279340183124482442008-07-02T16:10:00.000-07:002008-07-02T16:17:28.958-07:00Greyfriars HallmarkAs I write the next post in our “End of the Trinity Fest” series, here is an <a target="_blank"href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/">important website</a> for you to examine. It contains most of the court documents for convicted criminal Jamin Wight, who was one of Wilson’s prized students at Greyfriars Hall when he committed his crimes. Jamin Wight was a member in good standing at Christ Church, Moscow, and Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow (pastored by Dr. Peter Leithart), during his spree and neither church ever put him under discipline.<br /><br />To be fair, however, I’m not sure why they didn’t graduate him from Greyfriars with honors. He committed no sin that he didn’t learn at the Fearless Leader’s feet. As our Lord says, “A servant is not greater than his master,” and in this case Wight did not exceed his teacher’s example — <i>he matched it.</i> Wilson knows exactly what that means and I’ll leave it there for now. We still have lots more blogging ahead of us.<br /><br />Wight lived in one of the Kult’s many illegal boarding houses (I don’t believe I’ve gotten near that scandal), which they rely on to house large portions of the student body at New Saint Andrews College (NSA), and he capitalized on his squeaky-clean image as a prospective minister to take advantage of his host family. The most shocking thing about this scandal, however, is not that the Kult <i>did not</i> discipline Wight for his sins — it’s that <a target="_blank"href="http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=665">THEY THREATENED THE FATHER OF THE VICTIM WITH DISCIPLINE</a>. In <a target="_blank"href="http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=665">this interview</a>, the father said,<br /><blockquote>they threatened to bring him under church discipline for failing to protect his daughter. “It would be like me getting robbed and the police coming over and arresting me because I didn’t have five locks on the door, only one,” he said. “It was just bizarre.”</blockquote><br />One other thing, Jamin Wight spent a summer doing an internship at a <a target="_blank"href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060826150805/http://www.ancienthope.org/">now-dissolved CREC church</a> in Southern California. The elders of the church cut his stay short, however, because of improper behavior with a married woman in the church. Apparently the intern made a few late-night visits to her home while the husband was out of town. When the elders discovered this they sent Jamin packing. Again, no discipline. After all, they didn’t want the student to get the wrong impression about sin. Greyfriars Hall is not a ministerial school; it’s a breeding ground for wolves. What else could it be when an alpha wolf leads it?<br /><br />And the moral of this story is not Jamin Wight’s bankrupt character; it’s that Douglas Wilson corrupts everyone in his sphere of influence; sometimes it’s overt and other times it’s osmosis, but the end result is always the same — a complete loss of moral sensibility in his disciples. They become brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed. They act on impulse, taking whatever they want whenever they want, lacking all sense of right and wrong. In other words, they act just like Wilson.<br /><br />Read the documents on <a target="_blank"href="http://greyfriars-hallmark.blogspot.com/">Greyfriars Hallmark</a>. <i>“Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.”</i> And add its documents to the mountain of evidence we have been compiling to demonstrate that Christ Church, Moscow, is one big massive sewer of corruption.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-88303693885880121232008-07-01T19:01:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.674-08:00The End of the Trinity Fest Part 2: “We are formidable”In <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/06/end-of-trinity-fest-first-blast-part-1.html">Part 1</a> of this miniseries we contemplated the role of fanciful — indeed, truly bizarre — story telling in the first annual <i>Credenda Agenda</i> History Conference, which was the forerunner to the now-defunct annual Trinity Fest. More specifically, we considered the Fearless Leader’s arbitrary and non-objective methodology that licenses him to fabricate stories while ignoring factual history in order to spin a mile-long yarn under the guise of “faithful story telling.” Today we shall consider some of the stories he spun prior to the first annual Trinity Fest and how they reflect the inner workings of his mind.<br /><br />So when Christ Church, Moscow, announced its agenda for the first annual Trinity Fest (2005), two local activists performed a public-records search and discovered that the Kult had rented the UI’s indoor arena, the Kibbie Dome (seating capacity of 16,000), to host their Sunday worship service and that they intended to serve alcohol for communion to children, including infants. Of course, a venue that seats 16,000 was incredibly ambitious since they only needed to seat 1200 at the most (probably less, but Beelzeblog has never disclosed hard numbers). I’m sure that in Wilson’s mind this was the ecclesiastical equivalent of “build and they will come,” though it was more like “rent and watch yourself get tossed.” Regardless, the Kult’s plan of serving alcohol to minors raised a conflict with state law. Subsections <a target="_blank"href="http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=230060003.K">603</a> & <a target="_blank"href="http://www3.state.id.us/cgi-bin/newidst?sctid=230060004.K">604</a> of Idaho Code Title 23 prohibit anyone from dispensing wine to any person under the age of 21, which includes children and infants. So while state law prohibits minors from drinking alcohol, the Kult planned to violate state law on state-owned property during their Trinity Fest worship service. One of the activists, Rosemary Huskey, notes this fact in one of her Vision 20/20 posts <a target="_blank"href="http://cleaning-house.org/?p=395">here,</a> and here is one of several posts written by Beelzeblog that responded to these two women’s concern:<br /><blockquote><b><a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1269">Jesus Gives Alcohol to Minors</a><br />Topic:</b> The Lord’s Table<br />As many of You [sic] are aware, some of our local adversaries have officially complained about the worship service we will be having at the Kibbie Dome just before the Trinity Festival. Their complaint centers on the fact that we will be serving alcohol to minors.<br /><br />For some years, we have been teaching you that our observance of this Supper is potent. We have been saying that the gospel is like wine, and not like grape juice. Grape juice is a fitting element for the modern and moribund church to use — an inert element for an inert sacrament in an insert church. But when God moves to stir His people up, what happens? We return to a biblical observance of this Supper which can be nothing other than a <i>potent</i> declaration.<br /><br />But there is another issue as well. We have seen that if we were serving grape juice in our communion service, our adversaries would not care — a tame sacrament for a domesticated church. <br /><br />The second issue is this: if we excluded you, our children, from the service, they would not care either. But because we eat and drink a potent gospel, and because we insist on including our children and grandchildren in this, their glorious inheritance, the whole thing becomes quite formidable.<br /><br />When was the last time you heard about outsiders <i>caring</i> what was done inside a worship service like this? The whole affair should be greatly encouraging. God has prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and as we sit down to eat and drink, we may know by faith that God is moving in our community in wonderful ways.<br /><br />We have assumed the center, and we now see our adversaries beginning to recognize that it is what is being done in faithful Christian worship that will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world. It is <i>here</i> we are formidable — and nowhere else.<br /><br /><i>Posted by Douglas Wilson — 7/24/2005 10:00:48 AM</i> |</blockquote><br />Putting it gently, this is a psychotic interpretation of events. Here is the distilled argument:<br /><ol><li>The Kult’s observance of the Lord’s Supper is potent because it is biblical.</li><br /><li>The Kult’s adversaries care a great deal about the Kult’s observance of the Supper.</li><br /><li>Therefore, the Kult’s observance of the Supper “will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world.”</li></ol>Obviously it loses its punch when stripped of its rhetorical flair. Nevertheless, let me note a few of Beelzeblog’s misrepresentations and then proceed to my main point.<br /><br />First, no one “officially complained about the worship service” as Wilson claimed; you may confirm this fact by the <i>Daily News</i> article <a href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/07/end-of-trinity-fest-part-2-we-are.html#appendix">appended below</a>. In fact, no one “officially complained” about anything. Two women sent an email to the president of the University of Idaho informing him that the Kult planned to violate state law in the Kibbie Dome. In order for them to have filed an “official complaint,” they would have had to notify the State of Idaho Office of Attorney General, the Latah County Prosecutor, or the Moscow Police Department, just as Wilson did when he filed an official complaint because he <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/04/anonymity-part-vii-chilling-effect.html">“wanted to have it documented”</a> with the MPD. In this case, however, two women (one of them a grandmother, I believe) alerted the UI president to Wilson’s illegal plans and the UI president upheld state law by prohibiting Wilson from serving alcohol to minors. But by predicating his argument on a fabricated premise, Wilson gave himself the requisite wiggle-room he needed to arrive at his fantastic conclusion. And it is fantastic.<br /><br />Second, notice that Beelzeblog accentuated his false premise by asking, “When was the last time you heard about outsiders <i>caring</i> what was done inside a worship service like this?” (emphasis original). Of course, this question makes the Kult’s worship service appear great and mighty, as though “outsiders” actually cared about something other than the issue they raised — i.e., serving alcohol to children on state-owned property — which happened to be the same issue that Wilson completely ignored in his post. Neither woman gave a rip about what the Kult did inside <a target="_blank"href="http://cleaning-house.org/?p=425">its worship service</a>. They communicated one concern to President White: Douglas Wilson and his band of loyal followers must obey state law on state-owned property because, as usual, Wilson defied the law and acted as though he was above it (<a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/02/think-al-capone-part-2.html">“Think Al Capone”</a>).<br /><br />Third, notice how the Fearless Leader’s imaginary interpretation of events grew with each succeeding paragraph so that he concluded: <i>“we now see our adversaries beginning to recognize that it is what is being done in faithful Christian worship that will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world.”</i> This is quite a leap. To be sure, it’s not a leap of epic proportions; it’s a leap of Fearless Leader proportions. If you follow the argument, he jumps from two citizens elevating their concern about the Kult’s illegal plans to the Kult determining the future of our world.<br /><br />But the most important misrepresentation in this post is in these sentences: <br /><br /><blockquote>The second issue is this: if we excluded you, our children, from the service, they would not care either. But because we eat and drink a potent gospel, and because we insist on including our children and grandchildren in this, their glorious inheritance, the whole thing becomes quite formidable.</blockquote><br />Notice the tremendous significance Wilson places on the <i>role of children</i> in the worship service, to the point that they could not be excluded from any ritual. Also notice how he postulates an “us vs. them” mentality, casting himself as the Great Protector of children: <i>“if we excluded you, our children, from the service, they would not care either.”</i> This statement is false and beside the point, but the implication is that he — the Fearless Leader — really cared about the children, as proven by his insistence that they partake of wine during the service. Indeed, the principle that children must participate in the alcoholic rite was as important to him as the fermented juice itself. To be sure, his inordinate emphasis on these points appears almost idolatrous. The Lord Jesus asked, <i>“Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?”</i> In this case you could ask, “Which is greater, fermented wine in the cup or the God who sanctifies the element in the cup?” Wilson’s answer to this question is “fermented wine.”<br /><br />But this question raises an even more important question: “Which is greater, serving wine to children in violation of state law, or insuring the health and safety of every child in the church?” I frame it this way because at the time Wilson proudly paraded Kult children before the community as prized objects who would receive the “glorious inheritance,” he had known about <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html">Steven Sitler’s</a> horrifying predations for four months <i>yet he still had not informed the parents</i> in his congregation — i.e. <i>the current possessors</i> of the “glorious inheritance” — that a serial pedophile may have defiled the very children he pretended to defend. Put another way: He deliberately withheld from Kult and community the one vital piece of information that everyone desperately needed to know if they had any chance of discovering if Sitler had preyed upon their child, while he simultaneously insisted that children must drink alcohol during the worship service. Serving alcoholic wine to Kult children was a non-negotiable priority; protecting them from the long-term damage caused by childhood rape was not. It wasn’t even on the radar. (Please remember that apart from divine omniscience or perfect and complete honesty from a psychopath, he had no way of knowing who Sitler raped.)<br /><br />This fact becomes more poignant when you note the timeline: Just two weeks <i>before</i> Wilson “insist[ed] on including our children and grandchildren in this,” Steven Sitler <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/07/court-minutes.html">pled guilty</a> to one count of Lewd Conduct With a Minor Under Sixteen Years of Age (don’t let the one count mislead you; Sitler leveraged the state by agreeing to privately identify his victims in exchange for owning only one count in public). And less than one month <i>after</i> Wilson “insist[ed] on including our children and grandchildren in this,” he wrote a letter to Judge John Stegner, <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/08/wilsons-letter-to-judge-stegner.html">pleading</a>,<br /><br /><blockquote>I would urge that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited. I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society.</blockquote><br />Wilson implored Judge Stegner to allow the serial pedophile to return to the Christ Church covenant community. Wilson wrote this letter <a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=1306">exactly one week</a> after the first annual Trinity Fest ended its festivities and both of these events — Sitler pleading guilty and Wilson pleading with Stegner — took place unbeknownst to his congregation and the community.<br /><br />Let’s be clear: The man who championed the role of children in his worship assembly concealed the awful fact of a serial pedophile’s predations from the parents of the very children he championed. He even went so far as to ask the judge to show leniency on the pedophile so that he could return to the assembly where he committed his abominations. Wilson did these things in capacity of his office as pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, and HE DID THEM IN SECRET, just as Steven Sitler committed his crimes in secret, which brings us to the heart of Wilson’s psychosis.<br /><br />Pastor Douglas Wilson completely ignored (denied) the horrifying reality that a ferocious predator (a <a target="_blank"href="http://the-kult.blogspot.com/2005/03/opcs-first-letter-to-flock.html">“wolf in sheep’s clothing”</a> according to his home church in Colville, WA) had laid waste to the lambs in his charge so that he could advance publicly an imaginary fiction that his church was not only <i>not</i> ravaged but <i>“quite formidable.”</i> In other words, he failed to distinguish between his inner fantasy of him leading an almighty kirk and the outside reality that the assembly of souls in his care was a smitten house of lost sheep without a shepherd. It was more important to his ego that the general public saw him flexing his biceps than that he actually use his biceps to protect the little ones in his care, which is one more reason he’s not a pastor. As always, the Fearless Leader was more concerned about his appearance than his substance. And in this respect Wilson treated the victims (and their parents) of serial pedophile Steven Sitler no differently than Sitler himself. Both men used those harmless children as mere objects to gratify their sick perversions. Sitler took pleasure in physically abusing the children and Wilson took pleasure in assembling the children so that he could declare his <i>“potent”</i> formidability to the world: “Look at the size of MY kingdom.” But neither man cared one whit for those poor souls, which brings us to Wilson’s breathtaking conclusion:<br /><br /><blockquote>We have assumed the center, and we now see our adversaries beginning to recognize that it is what is being done in faithful Christian worship that will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world. It is <i>here</i> we are formidable — and nowhere else. (emphasis original)</blockquote><br />Pay close attention to the last sentence: “It is <i>here</i> we are formidable — and nowhere else.” Despite the missing punctuation between the first two clauses, I’m not sure there’s any way to misinterpret the sentence. When he writes, “It is <i>here,”</i> the antecedent to the word “It” is “faithful Christian worship that will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world.” In the least these words affirm his conviction that the worship at Christ Church, Moscow, would determine the future of the world.<br /><br />The next clause, “we are formidable,” alludes to his previous statement that their formidability was due to his insistence “on including our children and grandchildren in this,” and since he repeated his use of the word “formidable” we should assume he meant it literally:<br /><ol><li>causing fear, dread, or apprehension <i>formidable</i> prospect</li><li>having qualities that discourage approach or attack</li><li>tending to inspire awe or wonder (<a target="_blank"href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/formidable">Merriam Webster Online</a>)</li></ol>“We are formidable.” Even if it was true (and it’s not), I cannot explain why a professing minister of the gospel would make such a ridiculous boast unless he perceived his congregation as an army of soldiers beneath his command, prepared to conquer all “adversaries” in its path. <i>“We are formidable.”</i> Whatever else is true, these are not the words of a peacemaker (i.e. a “son of God,” Matt. 5:9); they are the blustering taunt of an angry, insecure bully: “WE ARE FORMIDABLE.”<br /><br />Finally, the clause “and nowhere else” modifies the first clause, “It is <i>here”</i> (emphasis original), to exclude everywhere else in the world. In other words, the Fearless Leader singled out Christ Church, Moscow, as the ONLY place where the “It” was taking place, and he defined the “It” as “faithful Christian worship that will determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world.”<br /><br />Behold the madness. <i>“And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”</i> His inner fantasy could not recognize the external reality. The Fearless Leader sold (and his blog post <i>was</i> a sales pitch) his liturgy as a world-changing event while he concealed from the world the truth about his church. He refused to acknowledge the true state of his congregation, which was directly connected to his sacerdotalism, at least according to his theology, so that he could insist that the Kult’s form of worship — <i>led by him</i> — would “determine the future of our town, our state, our nation, and our world.” To say that he had high expectations for the Trinity Fest is an understatement. But the only noteworthy event in Moscow during the summer of 2005 was the Fearless Leader’s desperate attempts to keep his two child molesters hidden from the public eye.<br /><br />The Trinity Fest did not die because of economic pressures. It died the slow, reluctant death of a man suffocated underneath a mountain of lies packaged as history and an unspeakable millstone named Steven Sitler. It died because one man confused the bishopric with the battlefield and could not discern the difference between children and soldiers. The Trinity Fest died because God is not mocked and men reap what they sow. If you’re going to sell your carnival as THE event for the kingdom of heaven, you better be sure you understand the basics, such as not offending the little ones, because it doesn’t matter if you serve them the most potent wine ever fermented when their physical bodies are in harm’s way. And this doesn’t make you “formidable”; it makes you sick.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUE9_ey0Yk9XwOahzChaIs99_PGeRBRPBDP9peOfR5KhmvQAEajRlrlQ1-n-6wHEt-YJ0c9Wfnaw-0kV5s1ktLg54pQJEM8NmGK4J3QEcygSmsyVR3MQev2gioJMlmO1YDlg1ku7Ul4ZQ/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUE9_ey0Yk9XwOahzChaIs99_PGeRBRPBDP9peOfR5KhmvQAEajRlrlQ1-n-6wHEt-YJ0c9Wfnaw-0kV5s1ktLg54pQJEM8NmGK4J3QEcygSmsyVR3MQev2gioJMlmO1YDlg1ku7Ul4ZQ/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218442279856856802" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br /><a name="appendix"></a><b>A P P E N D I X</b><br />The following article is republished from the July 28, 2005, edition of the <i>Moscow–Pullman Daily News</i>:<br /><br /><blockquote><b>Church will serve communal wine at UI</b><br />By Megan Doyle, <i>Daily News</i> staff writer<br /><br />Christ Church in Moscow has been given approval to serve communal wine at a Sunday worship at the University of Idaho Kibbie Dome. The service will be in conjunction with the church’s history conference and Trinity Festival that begins Aug. 7. UI President Tim White signed the permit Wednesday. It includes an addendum that grape juice instead of wine will be available for minors.<br /><br />Sodexho, the food service provider at the Kibbie Dome, will monitor the service of alcohol “in a manner that assures minors do not have access to alcohol,” it states in the permit. Christ Church is responsible for meeting insurance requirements.<br /><br />Two Moscow women have raised concerns with the university that Christ Church should not be allowed to give alcohol to minors on state property. Though Moscow residents Saundra Lund and Rosemary Huskey did not file an official complaint regarding the serving of alcohol for the event, they have sent correspondence to the university expressing their views on allowing the permit. “Quantity doesn’t matter,” Lund said. On private property during the regular Sunday worship, alcohol requirements are different, they said. “The prohibition of alcohol consumption by minors is a method that least burdens religious practices while protecting the state’s compelling interest,” the women wrote in a June 10 e-mail to the university.<br /><br />Mike Lawyer, administrative assistant to Christ Church Pastor Douglas Wilson, said he was unaware of the requirement that Sodexho monitor the event and did not want to comment on it. “It’s purely worship, it has nothing to do with recreation or selling,” Lawyer said. “The whole thing is about whether we can worship or not,” he said. UI just happened to get stuck in the middle of the debate. The wine used has an alcohol content of 13.5 percent. “We put the wine in little tiny cups. They hold 1.5 teaspoons,” Lawyer said. “We always have grape juice available. Every Sunday we have a ring of cups on the trays with grape juice,” he said, adding that children are not limited to grape juice.<br /><br />Huskey said she and Lund are not trying to deny children the opportunity to participate in communion, but grape juice would serve the same purpose. “For me it’s a significant issue because — what does the research show?” Lund said, citing negative impacts of alcohol.<br /><br />About 1,500 people are expected to attend the worship service at the Kibbie Dome. The regular Sunday service for Christ Church’s 700 members is at Logos School. <br /><br />“(Doug Wilson’s) hoping that some publicity of him being persecuted will be a rallying point,” Lund said.<br /><br />The featured speakers at the event are J. Steven Wilkins, Doug Wilson and Peter Lillback. Wilson is the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow and co-author of a controversial pamphlet with Wilkins titled <i>Southern Slavery, As It Was</i>, which discusses pre-Civil War slave life. Wilkins has attended previous Christ Church conferences. Lillback is an author of theology and history books and is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an organization dedicated to educating Americans on faith and values of the nation’s founding fathers.<br /><br />The deadline to register for the conference is Monday. For more information on the Trinity Festival, visit the Christ Church Web site at www.christkirk.com.</blockquote>Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-45179460480318427582008-06-29T17:14:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.723-08:00The End of the Trinity Fest Part 1: First BlastThe untimely and unheralded demise of the Christ Church Trinity Fest marks such a critical point in the slow, continuous, and inevitable fall of the Kirk that we must take time aside from our two ongoing series (“Make Them Say They’re Sorry” & “The Kult Police State”) to consider it in further detail. I call it critical because in the Fearless Leader’s mind the Trinity Fest represented much more than an ordinary summer carnival. Sure, he originally billed it as an act of humble faith, but as we shall see, he believed the Trinity Fest was proof of the Kult’s faithful worship of God and it was proof that God was working in the Kult in wonderful ways. He advertised the Trinity Fest as a platform to “celebrate” in the midst of his “culture wars.” He promoted it as “a table in the presence of [his/their] enemies.” And as the ad in <i>C/A</i> put it, the Trinity Fest gave him a chance to make people “like him even less” (at least he achieved one goal).<br /><br />It follows, therefore, that when the Trinity Fest went belly up, maybe his humble faith was not so great and maybe God was not working in the Kult in wonderful ways — at least to the extent that he pointed to the TF as proof of these things. It follows that perhaps God did not take pleasure in their celebrations or their culture wars, and that He had not prepared a table for the Kult in the midst of their enemies. I understand the Fearless Leader won’t see things this way — he’s hardened his heart and fixed his course — there’s no turning back for him. To be sure, I am certain that, like Madonna, he will find another look — he’ll repackage himself in order to remarket himself to the evangelical and Reformed church. Like a virgin. But for now, the Trinity Fest is dead and I want to spend some time reflecting on its short-lived life.<br /><br />You may or may not know this, but the Trinity Fest is the direct descendant of the Christ Church History Conference, which they held every February in Moscow. Things went sideways, however, during the Southern Slavery scandal of 2003–04, which presumably became the cause of action for the Fearless Leader to reinvent his event. Nevertheless, if my math is correct, Christ Church, Moscow, held its first annual History Conference in 1996, which is not especially noteworthy except for one fact: that year Wilson and Wilkins (I have no idea if George Grant participated) addressed the subject of slavery in the antebellum South and published a monograph to commemorate their historical findings. They titled it <i>Southern Slavery As It Was</i>. I know this because five years ago, during the Southern Slavery scandal, my UPS driver told me he attended the history conference that triggered the controversy. Here’s a direct quote from that conversation: “I couldn’t believe the stuff they were saying and thought to myself, ‘This one’s going to come back to bite them.’” Then he put his head down and chuckled, “I guess it bit them.”<br /><br />So for <i>C/A</i>’s inaugural “History Conference,” Wilson and Wilkins sterilized one of the most horrific points of American history — the unbiblical subjugation of an entire race of mankind — to portray the most anti-Christian culture of American history — the antebellum South — as the most noble society the world has ever seen. In other words, Wilson & Wilkins established their revisionist agenda during their first conference and I can’t think of a more delusional way for anyone to begin teaching history. Interestingly enough, however, Beelzeblog indirectly accounted for his knack at revising history in his blog post that announced the first annual Trinity Fest:<br /><blockquote>History is story telling. Faithful history is faithful story telling. And it is amazing how many little errors and emphases can go wrong in just the course of one generation. . . . This being the case, then where do we get off having a history conference every year? If I am not exactly sure what <i>I</i> was doing in 1959, then why would I undertake to talk about events in the 18th century? But for a decade now, we have had an annual history conference in February. None of the speakers at this conference are trained historians. And this coming year, the history conference will be moved to August, rolled into a bigger event called the Trinity Festival, and we will do it all again. What are we doing? We are telling stories, and the reason we are doing so is that we believe that God requires it of us.<br /><br />History depends on the dedicated historians and archivists who sort, assemble, and work through the mountains of material available to them. And when they have done their work, they present to the layman . . . mountains of material. Not only does it appear that we need specialists to deal with the raw material, we also need specialists to sort out the finished products. . . . Historical laymen should read broadly enough to make sure they are not reading some truncated account or other, but neither should they be embarrassed by the necessity of popularizing the material. . . . Everyone who undertakes this kind of task is in way over his head, and this includes the trained historians. And we cannot protect ourselves by means of our own prowess.<br /><br />This means that we walk by faith, faith in the God who orders all history to His own perfect ends. . . We are not omnicient [sic], and so we must trust the God who is.<br /><br />One other element has to be mentioned. Just as we trust Him, we also read the story with our loyalties intact. In other words, we cannot love God without loving those whom we believe to be His sons and daughters, and our brothers and sisters. I read the story of Latimer and Ridley while identifying with them. I am pulling for John Knox, and not for Mary, Queen of Scots. We are a people, and so we must tell the stories of our people to our children. We are not given the option of being silent. And to step out in faith like this is not hubris, but rather humility. (<a target="_blank"href="http://dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=527">“History for Everyman”</a>; October 9, 2004)</blockquote><br />Before we consider Wilson’s methodology, please note his candid admission that he’s not a trained historian, which would be a remarkable statement if not for the clever sleight of hand that accompanied it. Observe: First, he paid tribute to <i>“the dedicated historians and archivists who sort, assemble, and work through the mountains of material available to them.”</i> But then he pretends as though historians don’t deal with conclusive evidence but only pile “material” that the present to laymen: <i>“And when they have done their work, they present to the layman . . . mountains of material.”</i> This in turn allowed Wilson to create a special category for himself — the layman — to sort through the material, which is where he identified himself as a “specialist”: <i>“Not only does it appear that we need specialists to deal with the raw material, we also need specialists to sort out the finished products.”</i> Notice that his specialty requires him to “sort out the finished products” of trained historians, and notice also that he places the difficulties of his specialty on the same par as that of a trained historian: <i>“Everyone who undertakes this kind of task is in way over his head, and this includes the trained historians. And we cannot protect ourselves by means of our own prowess.”</i> And with a wave of the hand Douglas Wilson dismisses the science of history to justify his brainless revisionism. <i>Voila!</i><br /><br />This brings us to his self-taught method for studying history. According to this post it’s a three-point process:<br /><ol><li>“History is story telling. Faithful history is faithful story telling.”</li><br /><li>“Historical laymen should read broadly enough to make sure they are not reading some truncated account or other, but neither should they be embarrassed by the necessity of popularizing the material.”</li><br /><li>“. . . we also read the story with our loyalties intact. . . we cannot love God without loving those whom we believe to be His sons and daughters, and our brothers and sisters. I read the story . . . while identifying with them. I am pulling for . . . and not for . . .”</li></ol>The Fearless Leader’s three-step process explains a lot. In fact, as this series develops we shall see that his methodology is really a subset of his psychosis — his mental detachment from reality — but for now we want to concentrate on the so-called specialist’s discipline as it applies to history.<br /><br />First, he says, “History is story telling. Faithful history is faithful story telling.” This is true. The noun “story” derives from the Latin <i>historia</i> so in its most elementary sense history <i>is</i> story telling. It’s the modifier <i>“faithful”</i> that should concern us, as we shall see.<br /><br />Second, he says, “Historical laymen should read broadly enough to make sure they are not reading some truncated account or other, but neither should they be embarrassed by the necessity of popularizing the material.” This is true as well. There’s certainly a place for popularized accounts of history. Not everyone has the time or the budget to read <i>The Story of Civilization</i>.<br /><br />But now we come to the third and most troubling step in his methodology where he writes, “We also read the story with our loyalties intact,” and he defines “loyalties” as “loving those whom we believe to be His [God’s] sons and daughters, and our brothers and sisters.” Moreover, he defines “loving” as “identifying with” and “pulling for” them. He says, “I am pulling for John Knox, and not for Mary, Queen of Scots.” But he never specifies exactly how his “pulling” affects his “story telling,” i.e. his version of history. Moreover, he never explains <i>when</i> he starts “pulling”; is it <i>before</i> or <i>after</i> he’s done his research? Or does his “pulling” influence his research? Even worse, does he believe that by “pulling” for one person against another he may alter the past? And I’m curious what litmus test he uses to determine a historical person’s status before God. For example, Mary I of Scotland was baptized, which means that, according to the objectivity of the covenant, she was/is a child of God. So why would he pull for Knox over Mary? I suppose that technically he answers this question when he refers to “loving those whom <i>we</i> believe to be His sons and daughters,” etc. The “we” means <i>him</i> — Beelzeblog — which means it’s not so much the objectivity of the covenant as the arbitrariness of the Fearless Leader, because there’s nothing objective about this. Regardless, I believe these are important considerations for anyone who might rely on Wilson’s story telling.<br /><br />You can see a good example of the Fearless Leader keeping his “loyalties intact,” or “pulling,” for someone in his biography of the aforementioned reformer, <i>For Kirk and Covenant: the Stalwart Courage of John Knox</i>. When discussing Knox’s best-known written work, <i>The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women</i>, Wilson never noted that Knox wrote the book anonymously, which historic fact obviousl rubs Beelzeblog the wrong way. After all, the last thing he’d want to affirm about Knox is that he was ashamed of his baptized name, or that he was an anonymous coward making anonymous accusations, or that he was so ashamed of his accusations that he wouldn’t even sign his name to them, or that he was a dead rat behind the fridge, or that he may have left a soiled prophylactic in Wilson’s mailbox, etc. But you can’t tell the story of Knox without mentioning this historic fact. <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/04/anonymous-reformers.html">Anonymity played a role in the Reformation</a> whether the Fearless Leader likes it or not (I wonder what that monstrous woman Edna Wilmington would say). To be sure, <i>The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women</i> was a prototype of the fully documented anonymous attack blog, though I’m not sure if Knox fully documented his blast. I am sure, however, that if Knox had had access to the Internet he would have uploaded a website to excoriate that monstrous regiment of women — Bloody Mary and her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. And the bottom line is that the Fearless Leader “pulled” for Knox and expunged this well-known fact from Knox’s story. In other words, he recreated Knox after his own image.<b><a title=""name="_ftnref1"href="#_ftn1">[1]</a></b><br /><br />We see another example of the Fearless Leader “pulling” for Knox in the same biography when he described the reformer’s 19-month captivity in the French galleys. In order to sympathize with Knox, Wilson leaped a full century out of Knox’s lifetime to find a vivid description of the galley slave’s horrors:<br /><br /><blockquote>Warren Lewis, brother of C.S. Lewis, makes the point bluntly. “Until the coming of the concentration camp, the galley held an undisputed preeminence as the darkest blot on Western civilization; a galley, said the poetic observer shudderingly, would cast a shadow in the blackest midnight.” (FN: W.H. Lewis, <i>Essays Presented to Charles Williams</i> [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1947], 136.)<br /><br />Lewis was writing of life in the galleys a century after Knox rowed in them, but from all accounts, the time Knox spent there was a time of horror just as it was for his Huguenot brothers 100 years later.<br /><br /><blockquote><i>Life on board when the galley was at sea was a sort of Hell’s picnic, for there was really no accommodation for anyone. For the convicts, there was, of course, no question of sleep . . . Cooking facilities were primitive, and, as no one ever washed, the ship crawled with vermin from stem to stern. From below came the constant clank of chains, the crack of whips on bare flesh, screams of pain, and savage growls. At each oar all five men must rise as one at each stroke, push the eighteen-feet oar forward, dip it in the water, and pull with all their force, dropping into a sitting position at the end of each stroke. “One would not think,” says a Huguenot convict, “that it was possible to keep it up for half an hour, and yet I have rowed full out for twenty-four hours without pausing for a single moment.”</i> (FN: Ibid., 141–2. Quote uses “feet” instead of the American “foot” for length description.)</blockquote><br />Constant rowing did not bring about the despair of the galley slaves. Had it been, they would all have died in short order. Nevertheless, the whole time, including the respite provided by winter, had to have been the most severe trial. Knox speaks of it as a time of “torment.” Years after, he spoke of the “sobs of his heart” and how he was “sore troubled by corporal infirmity.” (FN: Henry Cowan, <i>John Knox</i>, 83–4.) For those who have not experienced such things, all such words should be taken as understatement.<br /><br />Knox was for two years a <i>galerien</i> in the French galleys, a very common and expendable form of cheap fuel. (Douglas Wilson, <i>For Kirk and Covenant: the Stalwart Courage of John Knox</i> [Nashville, TN: Highland Books, 2000] 33, 34)</blockquote><br />I have no doubt that Knox suffered immensely in the French galley. My point is the great distance Wilson traveled in order to lionize Knox’s imprisonment, his “most severe trial.” Wilson never had the decency to tell his readers <i>when</i> he was “pulling” for Knox, though he alluded to his yank job toward the end of the book:<br /><br /><blockquote>But in discussing history, a moment comes when one has to make a decision, a judgment call. In studying the War Between the States, was the South right? Or wrong? In studying the American War for Independence, did Romans 13 require the colonists to submit to the usurpations of Parliament? Or not? In writing this book, I must either appreciate Knox or attack him. He lived his life in such a way as to leave a biographer no other option. (Douglas Wilson, <i>For Kirk and Covenant: the Stalwart Courage of John Knox</i> [Nashville, TN: Highland Books, 2000] 220)</blockquote><br /><i>“In writing this book, I must either appreciate Knox or attack him. He lived his life in such a way as to leave a biographer no other option.”</i> What kind of twaddle is this? Where’s the crime with presenting the facts, warts and all, and offering a historical assessment? Why must he reduce the life of Knox to a false dilemma? History may be “story telling” but that does not mean that “story telling” is history and in Wilson’s case we never know when he grounds his stories in history and when he grounds them in his imagination. But they sure are entertaining.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglc16zCLEuN7JFt_rqxXm9uAsbedb7wF6rkDfuf-lC2zsm1DsbEgi2woI0RK_msTYHcn-HzAp2k2VJ0bUYhhTa42aVwaDbgOg4Oj3_cE2qOaqBI46vq3GhKARCCcGb0hnZp77KQ9d00IU/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglc16zCLEuN7JFt_rqxXm9uAsbedb7wF6rkDfuf-lC2zsm1DsbEgi2woI0RK_msTYHcn-HzAp2k2VJ0bUYhhTa42aVwaDbgOg4Oj3_cE2qOaqBI46vq3GhKARCCcGb0hnZp77KQ9d00IU/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217071437888068898" /></a><br />And don’t forget that we’ve seen <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2008/01/federal-vision-family.html">the whole “loyalty” thing</a> before. That’s the word he uses to describe the virtue of ignoring the reprehensible behavior of his friends so that they may maintain a unified front in their war against the Christian church. It goes something like, “Faithful are the <i>loyalties</i> of friend” because “loyal” friends don’t <i>“wound”</i> one another.<br /><br />But if you look carefully there’s something else going on with the word “loyalty.” In the second sentence of the post, Wilson wrote: “Faithful history is faithful story telling,” and by “faithful” he really means “loyal.” He’s blurring the distinction between “faithful story telling” and “loyalties-intact story telling,” or if he’s not blurring he’s definitely melding the distinction. Obviously, he doesn’t make this direct connection (why would he admit the obvious if it would thoroughly undo his already-tattered credibility?) but it certainly closes the loop and it’s consistent with his moral values. How else do you resolve the obvious conflict of interest that emerges between “faithful” as in <i>“truthful”</i> and “loyal” as in <i>“love for God obligates me to pull for them”?</i> This accounts for his bizarre revisionism — in the end he’s demonstrating loyalty to <i>his</i> pets and to <i>his</i> sympathies and, like everything else, Wilson’s approach to history is a self-serving exercise unrelated to truth or accuracy.<br /><br />If you don’t think that there’s something wrong with Wilson’s “loyalties intact” bias, then compare it with the loyalties of a real historian. Dr. Scott Clark recently made this observation vis-à-vis the discipline of history:<br /><br /><blockquote>As a historian I realize a little more each day how hard it is to know the truth, even when that is the goal. My vocation as a historian is to “tell the truth about the past as best I can.” That’s a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes the truth about a given question doesn’t seem to want to be found. If that’s the case when documents are to hand, how much harder is it to tell the truth in the midst of conflict when emotions are running high and when there is hurt and frustration on all sides? (<a target="_blank"href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/a-word-to-students-in-the-midst-of-controversy/">“A Word to Students in the Midst of Controversy”</a>)</blockquote><br />As a historian, Dr. Clark is committed “to tell the truth about the past,” contra Wilson who is committed to “loving those whom we [he] believe to be His [God’s] sons and daughters, and our brothers and sisters,” which is code language for <i>shading the truth</i> to make them appear better. Love for the truth moves Dr. Clark’s history; loyalty to a perverted, unbiblical love moves Wilson’s. This brings us back to the first annual History Conference.<br /><br />How in the world could Wilson and his fellow incompetent gush so much about the antebellum South? Beelzeblog answered this for us. In their minds they were keeping their “loyalties intact.” They were loving those whom <i>they</i> believed to be God’s sons and daughters. They were pulling for those saintly slave masters who bought and sold human beings like they were trading cattle, and they were pulling against the ungodly North who persecuted those God-fearing slave-traders. Therefore they wrote,<br /><br /><blockquote>Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence. There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world. The credit for this must go to the predominance of Christianity. The gospel enabled men who were distinct in nearly every way, to live and work together, to be friends and often intimates. This happened to such an extent that moderns indoctrinated on “civil rights” propaganda would be thunderstruck to know the half of it. (Wilson & Wilkins, <i><a target="_blank"href="http://southernslavery.blogspot.com/">Southern Slavery As It Was</a></i> [Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 1996] 22)</blockquote><br />Behold the fruit of unfaithful story telling, the fruit of misguided loyalty. And I’m sure that from 1996 to 2002, they had a pretty good show during their History Conferences. But God is not mocked and in <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/search/label/DUMB%20and%20Tan">2003–2004</a> Christ Church, Moscow, began reaping what it sowed. In the words of one former Kult member, <i>“That was the beginning of the end”</i> (he would know). And it didn’t matter if they moved the event to summer and changed its name to honor the godhead. The Fearless Leader used his stage to deceive those in his care, and he did it in the name of the gospel. Pastor Doug Wilson erred, however, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ proclaims “liberty to the captives” and “sets at liberty those who are oppressed.” It doesn’t misinform the masses under the guise of “faithful story telling.” It doesn’t justify cruelty to make light of human suffering, whether the suffering of galley slaves or Southern slaves. And if you don’t believe me, just ask John Knox.<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTbCZcqL50j76upWZcMC-FpwkX0gNUUTjmhBb7Di_VooFFel3KX2rGpoakFQNrPlotg2_aUgh69SZVSyGNFBEEulu5Iiq4haDQXYmJPvKImuS-PIzp3xMh8D4Kxr6x52Kw4gOfMC-TZ0/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTbCZcqL50j76upWZcMC-FpwkX0gNUUTjmhBb7Di_VooFFel3KX2rGpoakFQNrPlotg2_aUgh69SZVSyGNFBEEulu5Iiq4haDQXYmJPvKImuS-PIzp3xMh8D4Kxr6x52Kw4gOfMC-TZ0/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217071544650104834" /></a><br /><br /><div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"><div id="ftn1"><b><a title=""name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a></b> I thumbed through the book yesterday morning and saw that there’s lots of that going on; Wilson constantly imputed to Knox his own self-perceived personality traits without as much as a shred of evidence. The second half of the book is essentially an autobiography of Wilson’s perception of himself with a few anecdotes about Knox to support it.</div></div>Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-59447239818476615652008-06-24T18:34:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:29:07.751-08:00Dave GlasebrookDear <a target="_blank"href="http://federal-vision.blogspot.com/2007/10/disposable-sheep.html">Mr. Glasebrook</a>,<br /><br />At least once, perhaps twice, I offered you front-page attention if you can correct or disprove any of my posts. You, however, ignored my invitations and chose to harass other men for reasons I cannot explain. Therefore, I sincerely ask you to leave them alone. Please keep the toxic waste in Moscow.<br /><br />If you want to engage me I will be more than happy to answer your concerns as long as you respect the conditions I delineated to you, which appears to be a stumbling block. And in light of your 2090-word treatise (of which I read about 200 words), I now add another condition to the terms. You are only allowed to address one point at a time. This will keep the distinctions cleaner.<br /><br />If you can produce evidence that demonstrates a factual error on my part, I will be glad to correct the error and apologize for it, which is much more than your leadership has ever done. If, however, you cannot produce evidence that contradicts me, then I echo the words of the Managing Editor for the <i>Spokesman Review</i>, “We are not going to engage any further in this conversation.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4BHp_IMVcDLUuQhnZhpqcM_3DvUqm12M6RiC6pijpEPt70s3CWyMaH25KfLUEYouaVNsyd3c3pPVgTHdw7qGSxQF2UxKh77ReofX_gfi9ANSZviqgtYmkygF_YrBQmomNkE9JNp1Yd8/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4BHp_IMVcDLUuQhnZhpqcM_3DvUqm12M6RiC6pijpEPt70s3CWyMaH25KfLUEYouaVNsyd3c3pPVgTHdw7qGSxQF2UxKh77ReofX_gfi9ANSZviqgtYmkygF_YrBQmomNkE9JNp1Yd8/" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5215630428587541490" /></a><br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-62720839572233433082008-06-23T17:12:00.000-07:002008-06-23T17:18:07.246-07:00Some Schools Have Real Standards<blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><a target="_blank"href="http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=4724&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en">Columbia U. Fires Teachers College Professor Accused of Rampant Plagiarism</a></span><br />Columbia University’s Teachers College announced today that it planned to fire Madonna G. Constantine, a tenured professor, for plagiarism. The announcement, which came in a memorandum delivered to faculty members, said Ms. Constantine would be suspended immediately and would be dismissed, subject to a review by a faculty committee.<br /><br />A law firm hired by the university to conduct an investigation reported in February that Ms. Constantine, a professor of psychology and education, had committed more than two dozen instances of plagiarism. Ms. Constantine has vehemently denied the accusations and has, in turn, accused others of plagiarizing her work. She has also accused colleagues of envy and racism.<br /><br />Last October, Ms. Constantine said a noose was placed outside her office door. The New York City Police Department’s hate-crime unit investigated the incident, but months later still had no suspects. — <i>Thomas Bartlett</i></blockquote><br />We’re still trying to confirm rumors that New Saint Andrews College has recruited Ms. Constantine to fill an empty faculty position. Her moral flexibility combined with her deft ability to reverse the charge while simultaneously playing the victim makes her a virtual lock at the burgeoning school, despite lingering questions about her skill at revising history.<br /><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9097408555576085021.post-19470580931113883192008-06-19T15:07:00.000-07:002008-06-19T15:11:39.997-07:00Fascinating DevelopmentThis is a fascinating development in the treatment of cancer:<blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/18/scicanc118.xml">Cancer patient recovers after injection of immune cells</a></span><br />By Roger Highfield, Science Editor<br /><br />A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed.<br /><br />The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure.<br /><br />After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs.<br /><br />Doctors took cells from the man’s own defence system that were found to attack the cancer cells best, cloned them and injected back into his body, in a process known as “immunotherapy”.<br /><br />Experts said that the case could mark a landmark in the treatment of cancer.<br /><br />It raises hopes of a possible new way of fighting the disease, which claims 150,000 lives in Britain every year.<br /><br />Ed Yong, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s very exciting to see a cancer patient being successfully treated using immune cells cloned from his own body. While it’s always good news when anyone with cancer gets the all clear, this treatment will need to be tested in large clinical trials to work out how widely it could be used.”<br /><br />However, the treatment could prove extremely expensive and scientists say that more research is needed to prove its effectiveness.<br /><br />Genetically altered white blood cells have been used before to treat cancer patients but this is the first study to show that simply growing vast numbers of the few immune cells in the body to attack a cancer can be safe and effective.<br /><br />Normally there are too few of the cells in a patient’s body to effectively fight cancer.<br /><br />Dr Cassian Yee, who led the team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, said: “For this patient we were successful, but we would need to confirm the effectiveness of therapy in a larger study.”<br /><br />The work raises hopes that this approach could not only offer a more effective treatment for skin cancer, or melanoma, which kills around 2,000 people in Britain alone, but be applied to other cancers too.<br /><br />The patient was one of nine with metastatic melanoma, that is skin cancer that has spread, who were being treated in a recently completed clinical trial to test bigger and bigger doses of their own white blood cells.<br /><br />Larger, more elaborate, trials are now under way.<br /><br />Almost 9,000 new cases of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, are diagnosed every year in Britain, and nearly 2,000 patients die from the disease.<br /><br />Prof Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “This is another interesting demonstration of the huge power of the immune system to fight some types of cancer.<br /><br />“Although the technique is complex and difficult to use for all but a few patients, the principle that someone’s own immune cells can be expanded and made to work in this way is very encouraging for the work that Cancer Research UK and others are carrying out.”<br /><br />Immunotherapy, in which a patients own immune cells are used to treat cancer, is a growing area of research that aims to develop less-toxic treatments than standard chemotherapy and radiation.<br /><br />Because cancer occurs when the body’s own cells grow out of control, the immune system only responds weakly.<br /><br />The ability of the body’s own defences to tackle cancer in this case is all the more remarkable because most deadly feature of the disease is its ability to colonise other parts of the body, when it becomes much more difficult to treat.<br /><br />A dramatic example of immunotherapy was reported two years ago by one pioneer of the field, Dr Steven Rosenberg of the US National Cancer Institute, who eradicated cancer from two dying men using genetically modified versions of their own cells.<br /><br />Both Mark Origer and “Thomas M” were suffering from advanced melanoma but the hope is that such methods could be customised to attack other common cancers, notably breast, colon and lung.<br /><br />Dr Rosenberg told <i>The Daily Telegraph</i> the new work is an “interesting study that helps to confirm the effectiveness of cell transfer immunotherapy for treating cancer patients. We have now treated 93 patients with metastatic melanoma using their own anti-tumour cells with response rates up to 72 per cent. Mark Origer remains disease free now over three years after treatment.”</blockquote><br />Thank you.Mark T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09673762599798493263noreply@blogger.com0