“Or, if you like, in another strategy of seeing things rightly, you could nickname these breasts of other woman as the ‘principalities and powers.’” Douglas Wilson
The other morning I put up a story about a woman seeking counsel from her pastor because of her husband’s obsessive preoccupation with other women’s breasts. I linked the key terms hoping no would miss the analogy and I linked the image at the end of the post to its source — Blog & Mablog.
Unfortunately, some people didn’t click the pic and possibly walked away thinking I didn’t ground the tale in reality. So, for those who did not catch the point: Yes, Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, held a meme contest to award the person who could put the best caption on this image:
And with a wink and a nod the Presiding Minister of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), Mr. Douglas Wilson, sent notice that nothing in the photograph was off limits.
Premeditation
Every full-time blogger maps his entries in advance, including Doug Wilson. He posts a few essays per week (these essays eventually make their way into his books). He regularly posts quotes from his books (he stockpiles these quotes in his drafts folder and schedules them for publication). He posts book reviews. And he posts his sermon notes and his weekly exhortations. He constantly keeps the site warm with fresh content, which requires planning site content ahead of time.
He did this with the meme contest. He planned three blog entries around that pic. First he used the image in a post called When Saruman Said Nyuck, where it served no purpose but to catch eyes, which it did. This was his point. He chose the provocative image on purpose. Second, the feedback from the image gave him a plausible reason to follow-up with a post titled About the Chick on the Piano . . . where he offered an explanation for the pic and, oh, by the way, he announced the meme contest. Third, he bled the pic dry with one last post — Trump Meme Contest. All according to plan.
When I saw him run the contest, I wanted to call attention to it but wasn’t sure how. The story sounded clever at the time but in hindsight it offered more confusion than clarity. Next time I’ll be direct. I’ll explain the matter, as I’m doing here.
Comments
Here are two comments about Mr. Wilson’s antics that are worth repeating:
Poor little Nancy.
A husband fixated on other women’s breasts.
How exactly does a church, a denomination, a human being think that a “pastor” running a contest about Donald Trump’s wife’s breasts is laudable, funny or pastoral?
And . . . silence.
— Terri Rice
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” — Ephesians 5:3
Doug Wilson has gone way past hinting at it. It’s impossible to imagine the apostle Paul, or men like John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon, talking about women’s breasts. Or having jokey meme contests. And certainly the Lord Jesus Christ never did. So again I ask the question, “When is the CREC going to put a stop to this?”
— Frank
One last thought: It’s pretty clear that if Doug Wilson didn’t personally teach Jamin Wight how to treat women like disposable objects intended for his individual gratification, he sure didn’t discourage it.
Funny thing is, I clicked on the photo of that blog post of yours and saw the various memes with texts. But it didn’t dawn on me at the time that Doug was having a contest for the most clever meme. Where’s Nancy? In LaLa Land? Most any pastor’s wife would be disturbed by this kind of voyeuristic behavior. On the other hand, perhaps I’m not being fair toward Nancy. It’s not as if she has any say in how her husband behaves publicly on his blog. Not in that patriarchal environment. More than likely, she just has to put up with it. It may be that she has become so used to his behavior that it no longer registers as disturbing behavior for her. Instead, perhaps living in Doug’s world, this sort of thing becomes normalized.
Hi Darlene — Nancy Wilson is the prototypical kirker. She accepts reality as her husband explains it to her and no matter how far detached from reality his explanation may be, she submits. Truth, logic, common sense, Christian decency — all get flushed down the toilet when you enter his universe. And you must submit.
“Instead, perhaps living in Doug’s world, this sort of thing becomes normalized.” Worse than that has been normalized. I expect the next pedophile wedding to be better attended.
Ok, this is the best picture with comment that you have posted! It felt good to laugh! The picture explains it all!!!! I will never be able to read anything from or about DW again without seeing the Boobie bird picture as really being him in my mind again. He will forever make me chuckle
Ha!! That was a special request!
Before you called attention to it, I wanted to bring it up here but yes, “wasn’t sure how.” His series of post was so surreal. I thought maybe I was the only shocked and disgusted, so I kept giving it time. When your story was posted, I understood it perfectly. So grateful! Finally somebody said something! The comments over there were tense and terse at times. I found it hilarious that a long time minion complained about the site’s Disqus ads being “unwelcome”, but the same commenter couldn’t bring him or herself to understand those few that found the meme junk “unwelcome”.
Anyway, your story was clever and appreciated. I was able to breathe again and not feel so alone in the crazy!