Standing By Your (Preacher) Man

I understand that Wilson's recent rants have caused some stirring in the congregation.

It's one thing for people to be told what to do, what to think, and how to act from a man whose presumed expertise is as wide and full as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and as insubstantial and incomplete as a near-empty box of crumbled corn flakes, but there are some Kirkers who draw the line at being insulted. Particularly if the insult comes in the form of Wilson's "piglets at the teat" view of Christians who receive, even in an emergency, social services from the State. Besides evincing a really disturbed understanding of taxation, social policy, and government, it's unfair to the young couples whose early marriage and prolific fecundity he encourages, and whose career prospects are bleak when armed with a degree from his privately accredited classical Christian college, to call "sinful" their receipt of food stamps, Medicaid, or WIC.

Moscow's Bishop of Bluster has spent much of the summer mocking food-conscious moms, dieters, and everyone else who doesn't load his breakfast plate with bacon AND sausage; authoritatively smacking down those with tattoos and "rebellious" piercings; announcing that "father hunger" is the root cause of whatever someone does that he finds unacceptable; analyzing President Obama's policies largely through the scratchy lens of hate and suspicion; and filleting the "feminized" evangelical church with his serrated edge of pastoral love and perspective.

So yesterday's Blog and Mablog featured an admonition from Paul's words in 2 Timothy, where the apostle laments that all his followers, stricken with cowardice, have deserted him in his fearless proclamation of the Gospel. Here's the nauseating way Wilson compares himself to Paul -- and, by implication, any shirking Kirkers who might, finally, get that he's a detriment both to their faith and to the Faith:

(Blog and Mablog, August 11, 2009): "This was a problem in the first century, and it is a problem now. Christians are more concerned with respectability than with righteousness. They are more concerned with putting up a fine show for man, than with lifting up pure hearts before God. Let a public controversy break out, and many Christians -- "all who are in Asia" -- will head for the tall grass, and will blame the Christian who is standing in the arena facing the lions for being too provocative."

"Amen" to Paul, and "shame on you" to Wilson, for whom "provocative," applied to him, means he's been just as obnoxious as he intended to be. And he his a man with great intentions, "great" being measured by the sheer height of his own ego and the depth of the damage he inflicts. There's a clear intent in quoting from Paul's letter about people drifting away from him. I just pray it's thwarted.

The Holy Spirit is at work among the people of Christ Church (and Logos, NSA, Trinity Reformed, Canon, etc). Yet my heart is heavy, and I say this with tears in my eyes to any Christ Church members who read this blog:

The stirring in your heart, the vague, uneasy feeling you have when you hear him preach, and the grimace that crosses your face when you read that any of your brothers and sisters who receive social services are adulterous, idolatrous, piglets sucking at the teat of Evil Government -- that's the Holy Spirit, prompting you to recognize just how shipwrecked the ministries of Doug Wilson have become. And where the Spirit prompts, he provides.

There IS a way out. You know, because you've seen it when others "leave the Covenant" by leaving Christ Church, that you'll suffer for it. You'll lose friends, and you'll be told you've lost your understanding of covenant commitment -- if not your mind. Your business could well dry up, and your kids will wonder why you may have to leave Moscow. That's usually what happens (which is not the experience of people who leave, say, Trinity Baptist Church -- and that says something). But our Lord is faithful, and when he calls you away from Douglas Wilson, he'll bless your response so that eventually you'll see this time in your life not a "moving away," but a "coming to."

And what you'll be coming to is, with God's grace, a community of people who love Jesus by loving you, who don't define their church or their role in the community by what they deny or oppose, and who believe that if you have food phobia, father hunger, or a cowardly, compromising love for your homosexual cousin Dave, God will tell you. I expect that what he tells you will affirm love, wise stewardship, and the inner strength he's given you. And it'll sound odd -- and off -- at first.

You'll discover, slowly at first, that you're actually quite able to understand things, be healthy, and enjoy God -- there's nothing wrong with you that Christ won't gently deal with -- apart from the cacophany of accusation, judgment, and guilt you've been dancing to for as long as you've been in the Kirk. You won't be pressed into a rigid, unchanging mold that reflects Femina, but not YOU; instead, you'll come to understand that your Lord delights in you as he made you, and the things that make you delightfully, unabashedly YOU aren't ragged edges to be smoothed off, like a rotted piece of wood, but facets that reflect the Artist who made you, like the sparkle of a crystal vase. And if there's abuse in your home, removing yourself from the man who preaches patriarchy, hierarchy, and power within the family will clear your head and strengthen your resolve.

And you are strong. Stronger than you think, and stronger than he's lead you to believe.

If you walk away from Doug Wilson, you won't be a coward, running for the tall grass at the first sign of controversy. Let the Spirit lead you. If I can ever be of any help at all, contact me at kjajmix1@msn.com, and I'll do what I can for you.

And those of you who laugh and snort and howl when you read this? You can't keep drowning out the still small voice, no matter how loudly you laugh.