Readers may recall last May, when Rachel Shubin systematically took down Joseph Bayly, on the Bayly Blog, after he expressed unhappiness with Rachel Miller for discovering cover-to-cover plagiarism in the Omnibus textbook series. Rachel Shubin logically approached Joseph Bayly, using “careful deferential language which made him feel in control” — and then she dropped the hammer. It was a thing of beauty.

Rachel Shubin recently published a report titled Analyzing Douglas Wilson’s Handling of the Steven Sitler and Jamin Wight Cases. This report is a comprehensive discussion of Pastor Doug Wilson’s response to the crimes of Steven Sitler & Jamin Wight. With her permission, I call it “The Shubin Report.”

The Shubin Report is 491 pages at 42 megabytes and worth the download. It splits into two main parts: “Overview and Analysis of the Sitler Case,” pages 1–29; and “Overview and Analysis of the Wight Case with Supporting Documentation,” pages 30–108. The remainder is an exhaustive collection of primary-source documents that systematically presents the facts regarding Steven Sitler & Jamin Wight, as well as Doug Wilson’s interpretation of those facts. This work breaks new ground at several points. For example, Rachel exchanged 77 emails with Doug Wilson over a 6-week period, which he abruptly ended when he realized that she pinned him. Rachel also exchanged emails with Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson that led to interesting discoveries. And amazingly, Rachel extended her research to include John Bradbury, the original sentencing judge in Jamin Wight’s first felony conviction.

Rachel says she worked “400+ hours” on this, but methinks this an understatement (I speak from experience). However long it took, The Shubin Report is magnificent in scope & content. Everyone on Team Truth applauds her for her remarkable effort. Here is her Abstract & Introduction from Analyzing Douglas Wilson’s Handling of the Steven Sitler and Jamin Wight Cases, by Rachel Shubin:

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Abstract

In 2005, New Saint Andrews (NSA) student Steven Sitler was discovered to have been molesting the children of the family he boarded with while attending school as well as numerous other children, including many in other states. Also in 2005, Greyfriars Hall (GH) seminary student Jamin Wight was discovered to have been sexually abusing Natalie Greenfield, the young teenaged daughter of Gary and Patricia Greenfield, in whose home he boarded. The victim families in both cases were members of Christ Church (CC) in Moscow, ID, and the perpetrators each attended sister churches Christ Church and the nearby Trinity Reformed Church (TRC). In both cases, Douglas Wilson was the primary pastoral contact, and the church handling of the two cases continues to have ongoing direct effects or significant ripple effects today. Douglas Wilson’s response and handling of the two molestation/sex abuse cases are the subject of this document. To a lesser extent, the response from Christ Church/Trinity Reformed Church is included as well. This paper is intended as a reference for those who wish to have a clearer understanding of what occurred; it will aid readers in cutting through the spin and formulating their own opinions.

This document includes:

• a synopsis of each case
• an explanation and analyses of Mr. Wilson’s response to each
• a lengthy email discussion between Rachel Shubin and Mr. Wilson about the two cases
• questions and answers regarding each case from Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson, who prosecuted both cases
• an extensive primary source documentation section.

 

Introduction

My name is Rachel Shubin, and I have been a member in good standing at Reformation Covenant Church in Portland, OR (a Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches [CREC] member church) for the past 17 years. When the whole Sitler/Wight mess came up in September, I began watching very closely. My husband and I have six children, four of whom are girls between ages 10 and 15, so this issue concerns me. I have watched with increasing alarm at the escalating attacks Doug Wilson has levied toward both Natalie Greenfield, who was the victim in the Wight case (now an adult), and her family (including her father and, inexplicably, her husband Wesley) as well as at the insults directed toward several other Christians, even prominent ones, who have criticized his handling of either or both cases (Rod Dreher, Andrew Sandlin, Boz Tchividjian, etc.).

To date, I have put in 400+ hours over the last nine months researching the whole situation, read mountains of court and other primary source documents, spoken on the phone and emailed with Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson who prosecuted both the Sitler and Wight cases, spent two months emailing back and forth with Mr. Wilson himself trying to clarify several things that still didn’t make sense to me (he answered a total of 77 questions), emailed with John Bradbury who was the judge in the Wight case, emailed with Christine Jensen who is Mr. Sitler’s parole officer, and spoken with innumerable people, many of whom were quite concerned that they remain anonymous after seeing Wilson’s public responses to criticism. Yes, that is a lot of time. However, the issue seemed and still seems grave enough to me to warrant that time; and after a monster amount of research, the problem seems even larger than it initially appeared rather than smaller. (pages vii–viii)

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