Watch out for liars. When a man lies in the course of a church conflict (which needs to be distinguished from being simply mistaken), you know that you are dealing with a seared conscience. Douglas Wilson

At the time when 24-year-old Jamin Wight molested 13-year-old Natalie Greenfield, the “age of consent” in Idaho was 18-years old. That is, persons under 18 could not legally consent to sexual behavior.¹ This means that when the man seduced the girl to engage in sexual behavior with him, he violated Idaho code. Further, Idaho code makes no exceptions for its age of consent. It does not matter if the child says yes and it does not matter if the child keeps a diary. Idaho statute protects all children from sexual predators. To be redundant, Idaho code even protects children who are strikingly beautiful and a few inches taller than the man seducing them.

Douglas Wilson knows Idaho code and he knew it at the time when his protégé sexually abused the 13-year-old daughter of his then longtime friend Gary Greenfield. To be sure, Mr. Wilson has written extensively on the age of consent; we compiled an exhaustive list here. He cannot claim ignorance on this point. Indeed, ten years ago a local writer asked Doug Wilson point blank if he affirmed Idaho’s age of consent laws with regard to Natalie Greenfield, and he said yes:

I have received a couple of response to the question I posed to Joan Opyr about the age of consent. One question was from someone wondering if I have any trouble with our current age of consent laws. And the answer to that one is simple . . . no, I don’t. . . . But at the same time, Joan’s responses were generally reasonable, and I would answer just about all the questions she posed the same way that she did. “Was that 14-year old psychologically ready to engage in consensual sex with a man ten years her senior? In my opinion, no.” And so Joan and I agree completely. (Age of Consent, June 15, 2006)²

To be even more redundant, the state filed a motion with the court to remind Jamin Wight’s defense team that they could not argue his victim consented to her sexual abuse:

“Prohibiting the defendant from offering evidence of or arguing either express or implied consent of the victim or her parents. It is well settled in the State of Idaho that consent is not a defense to the crimes of Sexual Abuse of a Child Under the Age of Sixteen (Idaho Code 18-1506) or Lewd and Lascivious Conduct with a Child Under Sixteen Years of Age (Idaho Code 18-1508). State v. Oar, 129 Idaho 337 (1996).” (State’s Motions in Limine and 404(b) Notice)

Doug Wilson knows this too. He saw this motion ten years ago and he has seen it again since then. Last September his advocates in the CREC FOIAed the entire Jamin Wight record, so they have a copy of the record in hand, plus Mr. Wilson regularly trolls this site, so he has seen our references to it as well.

These facts bring us to today’s unhappy article in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, wherein the News published this quote from Mr. Wilson: “My understanding is that the reason they decided not to is because Jamin (Wight) had journals in his possession, written by Natalie, that he could have used in his defense in open court.”

Private Journals
Doug Wilson’s statement to the Daily News is false. It contradicts his well-documented position on the age of consent. It contradicts his affirmation of Idaho’s age of consent law regarding Natalie Greenfield. And it contradicts the State’s Motions in Limine and 404(b) Notice. Douglas Wilson knows that Idaho code blocked Jamin Wight from arguing that his victim consented to his sexual abuse. Despite this, he stated otherwise to the Daily News.

Further, Mr. Wilson knows that if Natalie’s private journal exonerated Jamin Wight of wrongdoing, then the perp would have had a legitimate defense because our justice system does not preclude defendants from offering exculpatory evidence. But to be redundant — our justice system denies that children can legally consent to sexual behavior, which is why the state barred Jamin Wight from offering Natalie’s journal. Doug Wilson knows this fact but he stated otherwise to the Daily News.

Additionally, the court sealed Natalie’s private journal to protect her from people such as Jamin Wight and pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, from using it to incriminate her. Again, Mr. Wilson knows this because last September he informed Natalie that he knew the court had sealed her diary but that he had access to it. He also informed her that he planned to publish her court-sealed journal if she did not stop telling people how he handled her case. However, when the Latah County Prosecutor learned of Doug Wilson’s threat, he notified Mr. Wilson’s attorney that the state would prosecute if his client acted on it. Doug Wilson knows these facts but he stated otherwise to the Daily News.

Advocacy
The Daily News also quoted Doug Wilson saying: “A plea deal was settled, which Christ Church had nothing to do with. The reason Jamin ‘got off light’ was entirely due to the arrangement the Greenfields made with the state of Idaho. . . . So if you want to blame someone for the sentence, then you need to limit your candidates to the state of Idaho and the Greenfields.”

Mr. Wilson does not tell the complete truth here; he omits salient facts. For example, he neglected to inform the Daily News that he served notice to the court of his intent to “labor” on Jamin Wight’s behalf, writing, “I also believe that it requires that I labor to see that justice really is done to Jamin (at the same time excluding injustice through severe penalties). . .”

Doug Wilson also neglected to inform the Daily News that he “urged” Natalie’s father to go easy on Mr. Wight, writing, “As Jamin is discovering, sinful behavior can have (and should have) destructive consequences. But different kinds of sins destroy different ways, and we would urge you to have a merciful heart toward him, just as you would have others show mercy to you.”³ This in addition to the enormous pressure Mr. Wilson applied to Gary Greenfield, which is a sad fact the CREC Review Committee should learn.

And Mr. Wilson neglected to tell the Daily News that the Kirk orchestrated a character-reference letter-writing campaign on behalf of Jamin Wight, just as they did for serial pedophile Steven Sitler. Please note that the following list includes the names of three Kirk pastors and one Kirk deacon:

• Debbie Chambers
• Keith Dimeler
• Peter Leithart⁴
• Erin Lystad
• Kimberly Lystad
• Patrice Lystad
• Jim Miller
• Toby Sumpter
• Douglas Wilson
• Mark Wintz

These people advocated for Jamin Wight. However, the court sealed their letters, just like Natalie’s journal (though for a different reason), so we will never know exactly what they wrote — though Doug Wilson has made his position clear: He does not believe Jamin Wight committed lewd & lascivious acts on a child in violation of Idaho code, and he blames Natalie for consenting to her abuse. Therefore, he calls it “sexual behavior.” But the larger point stands. Christ Church executed a remarkable PR crusade for Jamin Wight, to the victim’s family and to the court, which Mr. Wilson failed to mention to the Daily News, just as he failed to note that they got their way.

Two Confessions
Jamin Wight confessed in writing to the crimes he committed. He wrote two confessions. The first was incomplete. The second was more complete. The state used Mr. Wight’s written confessions to charge him with multiple felonies. Doug Wilson has read both of Jamin Wight’s confessions and he has copies of them. However, Mr. Wilson has never used these court records to vindicate Natalie and he has not threatened to publish them on the worldwide web, unlike her journals. And more importantly, Doug Wilson failed to inform the Daily News that he has these confessions in hand and that they would end this controversy right now, if he made them available.

Conclusion
Natalie Greenfield said, “I didn’t expect to be shamed. There were so many moments then where I wished I had suffered in silence.” And Doug Wilson appears unaware that his comments to the Daily News confirm her testimony. He continues to publicly shame her by his gross manipulation of the truth. Moreover, Doug Wilson’s comments to the Daily News confirm that neither he nor his filthy Kirk see anything wrong when a 24-year-old man sexually abuses a 13-year-old girl. He thinks this is normal. And Doug Wilson’s comments to the Daily News confirm one other thing: He is a classless jackass who has no shame.

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¹ Since then, Idaho has lowered the age of consent to 16-years old. Whether you argue past statute when the crimes occurred or current statute, the law has never supported Doug Wilson’s position.
² Apparently, when Doug Wilson says “yes,” he really means “no,” and he believes that if a 13-year-old girl says “yes” to a 24-year-old man, she really means “yes.”
³ Note Mr. Wilson’s use of the word “urge,” because he used the same term in his letter to Judge Stegner, writing, “I would urge that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited.” The city of Moscow needs to beware of Doug Wilson’s urges.
⁴ Last year Dr. Leithart apologized to the victims. In a Facebook post he wrote, “I didn’t appreciate how much damage Jamin did and I was naive about the effect that the abuse had on the victim’s family. I recently asked her and her parents to forgive my pastoral failures, which they have done.”