“As for Baldwin, one could not even dignify him with the name of stuffed shirt. He was simply a hole in the air.” George Orwell
Two years ago New St. Andrews College quickly and ignominiously terminated Dr. Roy Atwood’s employment. No one knows what Dr. Atwood did to lose his job, but NSA delivered the following announcement on its website, on a Monday morning, in the middle of a semester, three weeks before Christmas:
The board of New Saint Andrews College regrets to announce that Roy Atwood is stepping down from his role as president of the college, effective immediately. . . . At the same time, a resignation mid-year is not a trifle. Because of other recent administrative staff changes, the Board felt it needed to advance its timetable for appointing a new chief executive prior to Roy’s planned retirement at age 67. Unfortunately, because Roy is 62 and not yet in a position financially to retire at this time, he thought it best to resign, allowing the board to seek new leadership while he pursues other employment opportunities. (Joint Public Announcement)
This is a fairly typical Kirk execution. The twisted harpoon gives it away: “Roy is 62 and not yet in a position financially to retire at this time. . .” Someone (Doug Wilson) wanted to see Dr. Atwood writhe in public. This statement also telegraphed to Dr. Atwood the Kirk’s intent to ensure his financial pain. God knows Roy Atwood labored to keep others from finding employment. He sowed. Now he could reap.
In 2015 Dr. Atwood found work at Morthland College, which is a fundamentalist-revivalist school that is one anxious bench short of a Charles Finney department, though they have a football program. Morthland College belongs to the TRACS universe of schools. “TRACS” is an acronym that stands for Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. TRACS is an accrediting agency that offers made-up credentials to Bible schools, such as NSA. TRACS explains why NSA awards useless degrees. TRACS is to accreditation what Omnibus is to education.
Earlier this year Dr. Atwood left Morthland College to work for another TRACS school — Nehemiah Gateway University in Albania. Albania is a third-world Muslim country. Last April Dr. Atwood posted the following update to his Facebook page; please note his request for financial help:
Bev and I have accepted new academic and administrative positions overseas in Albania with Nehemiah Gateway University, starting next year (we’ll be teaching there in June this year, as previously scheduled, but we’ll be back to the states for a short time after that). Because this is a mission work to students from some of the world’s poorest countries, we need to raise some additional annual support (about $25k). [If you’d like to help us in that regard, you can contribute tax free online directly at the NG USA website, http://www.nehemiah-gateway.us/ Just mention our names in the “comment” section on the donation page to designate your gift. You can also mail checks to the US postal address in CO, found on the website, if you prefer.]
Thanks to the Morthland College community for a blessed year in southern Illinois. They sent out this announcement earlier this morning: “Dr. Roy Atwood, who served on the Morthland College faculty this year, has accepted the position of Deputy Head of Nehemiah Gateway University in Pogradec, Albania, in Southern Europe. NGU is a Christian University, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in education and business. NGU is part of a Christian International Relief Organization with its global headquarters in Nuremberg and Berlin, Germany, and a U.S. office in Estes Park, Colorado. The University serves the educational needs of promising students from some of the poorest regions of the world, especially Southern Europe, Africa, and Central America. NGU is accredited by the Albanian Educational Authorities, the German Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA), and the US-based Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS, the same body in which Morthland College is an accredited member). Dr. Atwood and Beverlee, the Morthland College Registrar, will begin working and teaching at the Albanian NGU campus in June. We wish Dr. Atwood, and his wife, all the best of luck in their future endeavors.”
No one on Team Truth feels sorry for Dr. Roy Atwood. Doug Wilson used him many times to visit economic hardship on others when they left New Saint Andrews College: “the Lord reward him according to his works” (2 Tim. 4:14). But Dr. Atwood’s fate should stand as a warning to NSA’s current faculty & administration. It doesn’t matter how many letters you have after your name or how much you did to advance NSA’s interests (Roy single-handedly bagged that precious building). One false move and he’ll send you to the back of beyond.
Apparently none of these people know how to consult an attorney or document a grievance. Either that, or they meekly submit to expulsion and exile because they’ve committed criminal, legally actionable activities on the CREC’s behalf and Doug has so much dirt on them that they’re unwilling to fight back. How truly amusing. What a bunch of scumbags. They all deserve each other.
Roy could end the purpose of this website right now (same with Doug Jones) because he knows everything, which includes where all the bodies are buried. Roy Atwood & Doug Jones were the inner circle — they weren’t part of the inner circle — they were the inner circle. They have written records and know every detail of every crime that DW committed — everything from Steven Sitler to Jamin Wight and every other scandal in DW’s career. But they can’t roll on Wilson without incriminating themselves, because DW is always very careful to spread the culpability for his crimes to the Kirk elders for self-protection, if for no other reason. (Have a post on Sitler in the hopper along these lines.) They have enough to destroy Wilson forever but anything they say would boomerang on them. We are aware that Wilson has these folks sign non-disclosure agreements, which I am sure are not legally binding, but the deal would include him agreeing not to completely poison their futures in exchange for their silence. Roy Atwood used to run the journalism department for the University of Idaho. He taught Governor Palin (google it). Now his employment opportunities are limited to TRACS schools. Doug Jones teaches at a women’s college in the United Arab Emirates. Both men deserve their fortunes or worse after the horrible things they did to others (for one example, both played instrumental roles in cornering the poor soul whom Wilson trapped with the Christ Church Commitment to Loyalty; I could give many other examples). I doubt either has the self-awareness to connect these dots, which is a consistent trait with the kinds of people Wilson chooses to surround himself with.
So in other words, they’re sniveling cowards who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions on behalf of the greater good, and they are refusing to take their lumps in order to prevent further harm to the community. Sounds about right. It’s incredible to me that they consider themselves any kind of actual “Christians” though. Surely they know themselves otherwise underneath all the BS.
Dash,
I’m not an expert on the various varieties of Christianity, but from doing a fair bit of reading (religion is a hobby of mine – so are people – I’m a writer), I’m going to take a wild guess.
CREC and Wilson are Reformed Calvinism. Calvinism is defined by the acronym TULIP.
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
You can read the definitions of those terms here:
http://www.reformed.org/calvinism/
Apparently many of the Reformed Calvinists, believe that if you are poor, God wants you that way. If a pedophile abuses a child, God wanted it too happen. It sounds like most Reformed Calvinists do not follow the New Testament all that well.
Jesus loved children and the poor. Doug Wilson does not care about either, after all, if something bad happened to them, God wanted it to happen. If they starve, become homeless, or get hit by a car, God wanted it to happen.
I may misunderstand exactly what Reformed Calvinists believe, and how they act, I don’t know if I’ve ever met one. I assume they are in Canada, but I’ll admit I don’t know.
If anyone who knows more than I do could tell me where I’m wrong, I’d appreciate it.
Is it known exactly what Atwood did to run afoul of Wilson?
No one will talk. Wilson pulled the trigger on Roy as fast or faster than anyone before him, and Wilson covered it up better than any cover up he orchestrated in the past — including Steven Sitler (whom Roy helped protect).
Hi Wayne — Yes, Wilson calls himself a Reformed Calvinist but every Reformed denomination in the world has repudiated his brand of “Reformed,” and his Calvinism doesn’t pass muster either. So let’s remove Wilson from the discussion up front. Also, this subject is too vast for the comments; volumes have been written on it. So I will answer with a broad brush to keep it concise.
Writing as a Reformed Calvinist, the words “Reformed Calvinist” in this context are redundant because generally they refer to the same thing. “Reformed” is the overarching system of theology that includes “Calvinism,” which is the soteriological system oftentimes described with the TULIP.
I think most Calvinists would disagree with your representation — “God wanted it to happen.” As a Calvinist, I would not tell one of Sitler’s victims, “God wanted this to happen,” any more than an Arminian (or pick your system) would say, “God knew this would happen but he had so much respect for Sitler’s free will that he refused to stop it.” Flip representations cut both ways.
Logically, everyone holds a system, even if that system is agnostic — “I don’t know”; or atheistic — “I deny the existence of God; therefore the question is moot.” In theism, there are not many options. To my knowledge, the most succinct argument for Calvinism is predicated on the omniscience of God.
Omniscience
God knows all things. This knowledge includes events that shall come to pass — good & bad. This is called “foreknowledge” — “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29, first epistle of the New Testament) St. Paul teaches that foreknowledge & predestination are inextricably bound. Each assumes and requires the other. An event cannot be foreknown unless it is predestined. Likewise, an event cannot be predestined unless it is foreknown.
Omniscience includes foreknowledge & predestination. Therefore, if you answer “no” to the following question, then you deny the omniscience of God: “Did God know that Steven Sitler would molest countless children over 8 or 9 years?” And if you deny the omniscience of God, then the conversation pretty much ends. Logically you worship a deity not revealed in Scripture. However, if you answer “yes,” as I do, then logically you affirm the omniscience of God, which includes foreknowledge & predestination.
If we get this far, and I grant that’s a big “if,” then the question shifts to what is called “the problem of evil.” All arguments about Calvinism and free will lead to this question, without exception, because questions about specific acts of molestation are really questions about the existence of evil and why God permits it: How can an all-knowing all-powerful God, who declares himself benevolent, allow evil? Choose any evil: Terrorists flying jumbo jets into skyscrapers or Steven Sitler sneaking into children’s bedrooms to rape them. It’s all unadulterated & incomprehensible evil that overloads our sense of right & wrong.
A Calvinist answers the question about the problem of evil with these words: “To the praise of his glory”:
Whereas an Arminian (or choose your system) would have to deny both the omniscience of God and the omnipotence of God. Or they would wax absurd, saying, “God allowed the act of molestation because he did not want to violate the free will of the child molester.” It’s safe to say that there’s a tension here that no one on this side of eternity can resolve perfectly without an appeal to faith — and I’m okay with that.
We steer clear of theological arguments on this site because they generally force polarizing answers, which is not consistent with the site goal. We are interested in exposing the wicked deeds that proceed from Moscow, Idaho; not explaining why God permits those deeds to happen. Ultimately, however, we understand that all roads eventually lead to the problem of evil — Why does God allow an evil monster like Doug Wilson to continue unabated? And the answer to that question is, “To the praise of his glory.” And when you ask, “Why then do you work to expose Doug Wilson’s wickedness if you believe God permits it for his glory?” I answer, “To the praise of his glory.”
To your original question about Wilson, there is no evidence that he believes the Christian religion, though evidence abounds that demonstrates he exploits the Christian religion to advance his self-interests. He is neither Reformed nor a Calvinist. He’s a con man making a ton of money by taking advantage of gullible Christians.
And when God Almighty finally brings Wilson down, whether in this life or the next, I am drop-dead certain that it shall be “to the praise of his glory.”