You have noted that you are so new to our community that you are “still educating [yourself] on the history of this rather unfortunate mess [Sitler], MSD’s woes, and many of the other community issues at large.” You have also noted that you are not Doug Wilson, have never met Doug Wilson, and are not familiar with the disingenuous machinations of Doug Wilson; so I want to help you in your education as it relates to the subject of Douglas Wilson; after all, I am the Unofficial Father of Vision 2020 History. Please bear with me.
You will recall that a member of Christ Church caught Steven Sitler molesting one of his children, and a few days later Douglas Wilson discovered the unthinkable took place on his watch in his church. Now let me place this historical fact in another context for you. In one of his books, Wilson wrote this:
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. . . 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. . . 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, Fidelity: What It Means To Be a One-Woman Man [Moscow: Canon Press, 1999] 82, 83)
Accordingly, Pastor Wilson affirms that “citizens turning on one another” and “violent rape” are “God’s judgment on a culture.” Further, he states, “when God’s hand of judgment is heavy upon a people, women are in far greater danger of sexual assault than at other times.” Now if you apply Wilson’s standard and argue from the weak to the weaker, i.e. from “women” (weak) to “children” (weaker), then you may argue that “when God’s hand of judgment is heavy upon a people, *children* are in far greater danger of sexual assault than at other times.”
Given this principle, you may conclude that a Kirk pedophile turning on Kirk citizens and having his way with Kirk children for 18 months falls into the category of “violent rape” and “God’s judgment,” at least by Wilson’s standard. And when you throw in Sitler’s West Virginia spree in summer 2003, the judgment appears much worse, at least as far as the CREC is concerned. Whatever you believe, Mr. Schwaller, I am confident that the Judge of all the Earth has done right, at least by Wilson’s standards.
But my point in calling these awful facts to your attention is not to rub your nose in “God’s judgment.” You have convinced me that you neither fear God nor regard man, and that you have no more concept of human decency than Sitler or Wilson. Indeed, I believe that if you knew the victims saw you right now, you wouldn’t give a rip. What do you care? IT’S ALL ABOUT DOUG.
Nevertheless, I think it’s important for the readers of Vision2020 as well as lurkers from the Kirk to have a little perspective. Douglas Wilson learned of Sitler’s crimes on March 11, 2005. After that, we don’t know when Sitler began confessing the names of his victims; we don’t know how long it took him to remember the names he confessed; and we don’t know when Wilson decided to conceal this information from the Kirk. But we do know this much.
On March 11, 2005, Douglas Wilson had good cause to examine his heart, his doctrine, and his manner of life, because by his standard “God’s hand of judgment” had just fallen on the Kirk’s “disintegrating culture.” We know that of all men, Pastor Wilson had an absolute obligation to exhaust himself searching for more possible victims of Steven Sitler, and that this obligation included an exhaustive search within the local community. Indeed, if any man had occasion to grow up and act mature, Pastor Douglas Wilson was that man.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. We know this because exactly 20 days after Wilson discovered that “God’s hand of judgment” had just fallen on the Kirk, or less than three weeks after he learned that a serial pedophile ravaged Kirk children for 18 months, Doug Wilson resolved for time and eternity to show the world exactly where his pastoral priorities lay. The great man of God found time to play an April Fools’ Day joke on the local community:
Big News Topic: Current Events
Now that the papers are all signed, and my attorney says that there is nothing that can be done about it, I suppose this would be a good time to announce that through the generous help of a third party my wife and I have bought the Moscow Food Coop. For me to have been involved in the negotiations publicly would have been obviously counterproductive, but now that the deal is done, I think there is no longer any sense in being coy. At the same time, despite local politics, I want to assure all the regular Food Coop customers that there is absolutely no intention of selling the Coop’s new downtown location to Christ Church, or of diminishing in any way the quality of service that our customers have come to expect.
Think about it, Mr. Schwaller, the fool had no idea how many more undiscovered victims remained in his church (just as he still does not), but 20 days after he learned a child rapist laid waste the lambs of the flock, Pastor Wilson found time to yank some locals’ chains, hoping to get a good laugh at their expense. In case your math is off, that’s almost one day per confessed victim. What a funny guy. Do you think the victims laughed, Mr. Schwaller? I don’t.
But perhaps I expect too much. Perhaps April Fools’ gags help Wilson reflect on his calling, or maybe April Fools’ Day is the Kirk equivalent of the Day of Atonement. I don’t know and I don’t care. Of this much, however, I am certain. When God delivers the final blow to the Kirk’s rotten culture (which is currently in motion), Pastor Wilson will have no occasion for laughter, he will have no one to mock or belittle, and he will have nowhere to run. In fact, he should know by now that God will make him the punch line that day, because Scripture says,
Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. (Proverbs 1:25–31)
Herodotus
