Because of our compromises with individualism, and because we use the word discrimination like a scarecrow, we tend to dislike generalizations. But Jesus generalized about the Pharisees, and Paul did the same thing with the Cretans. That being the case, “here goes” with regard to the young men. Taking one thing with another, there is no way to lead men away from poverty, away from crime, away from self-destructive habits, away from a life of laziness, without leading them to a woman. A woman is not the reward for being responsible. Almost all men need to marry before they are entirely responsible adults. A suitor should be a reasonable candidate for future responsibility, but he needs a woman to get there. In this world, a woman is God’s chief instrument for making a man responsible. He uses her to get him there. Just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, so also is the love of a good woman the beginning of male responsibility. Humanly speaking, you cannot get much masculinity without femininity.
Douglas Wilson
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That’s the stupidest thing I have ever read.
Yuck. This implies that if a man is irresponsible, it’s somehow his wife’s fault. If she were more ‘feminine’, he’d be an adult.
Blech.
Funny considering my experience in CREC churches has taught me the exact opposite: that a man must be a fully responsible adult before he can get married. At least that’s how most fathers treat courtship.
I think this qualifies as a heavy burden like the Pharisees laid on people — Wilson says just find some godly and cute girl and hitch up before 23, but the girl’s daddy is supposed to “protect” her from courting any guy who doesn’t already measure up– including sometimes lengthy checklists.
Methinks the takeaway from this quote is that Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, will mentor the irresponsible scoundrel in his lawless, dissipated, and immoral ways; and whereupon being satisfied with the degenerate’s advances in corruption, he will happily wed the reprobate to a charming young lady upon whom rests the responsibility of breaking the sinner of the wickedness he learned from Doug Wilson, in order to make him a productive member of society.
Exhibit A: The marriage of serial pedophile Steven Sitler to a graduate of New Saint Andrews College (NSA).
Did I miss anything?
UPDATE: I’ll add this tweet to my comment because it’s right on:
That’s a perfectly reasonable interpretation. I myself prefer the one where it’s the disordered ramblings of a deranged lunatic. What a nutjob, seriously.
Today he brings us 7 reasons young men should marry before their 23d birthday (not old men?). One astute commenter summarizes the article as “sitlerism”.
It especially rings of Sitler when Wilson tries to argue that marriage can cure a porn addiction.
@Phred Rogers — Found it:
Not being in such an important position as Mr. Wilson, I can only assume that when one (such as “Pastor” Wilson) wears the unimaginably heavy mantle of being God’s Sole Representative on the Palouse and Beyond, one feels the equally heavy responsibility, being also The One Who Knows Everything (just “Ask Doug), to pontificate daily on The Way Things Are to those not blessed with the magnificence that is Douglas Wilson. And being mortal (I make a rash assumption, perhaps “Pastor” Wilson is more than a mere mortal), one even as magnificent in his magnificence as “Pastor” Wilson has days where his pious informing of the masses of The Way Things Are is, at best, so-so. Perhaps even nonsensical. He may have being one of those days when he wrote this. Perhaps Nancy wasn’t there to ensure that he was being responsible.
“Almost all men need to marry before they are entirely responsible adults.”
I guess Jesus and the apostle Paul were clueless according to The Douglas.
“In this world, a woman is God’s chief instrument for making a man responsible.”
Not like, the Holy Spirit or the Bible, or you know, the example of Christ. There is absolutely no Scriptural support for this out-of-the-mind-of-Doug drivel.
I’m so old I remember when Doug taught that marriage would not solve your problems, so you should get yourself straightened out before marrying.
I’m so old I remember when Jim Wilson taught young men, in effect, that love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. He said to never tell a woman you love her without wanting to marry her, and to never propose marriage without loving her and telling her so first. Sort of a “husbands, love your wives” thing. But for Doug — post Sitlerism — it’s being loved by “a good woman” which is the means to the “male responsibility” end.