We unfortunately live in a time when child abuse is common, and given the way things are going, tragic instances of it are likely to increase. . . . In the first place, when plausible suspicion arises that child abuse has occurred or is occurring, the first priority is to ensure that it does not continue in the present circumstance, and that it does not continue into the future, in any other circumstance. . . . No conscientious pastor can be willingly complicit in a child having to spend one more minute under the control of his abuser. . . . There are times when an anemic response of a church to a child abuse tragedy is a response that simply makes the blast radius bigger. . . .
Douglas Wilson
October 2016 Monthly Archive
The CREC Review Committee Nears Completion
Doug Wilson could commit a felony at high noon in the town square before 10,000 eyewitnesses and the CREC has no constitutional authority to discipline him. Continue reading
“The child actually has a problem dad”
Over the years, I have seen many hard cases of difficult kids not effectively loved by their fathers. Because I don’t see the problem disappearing, I thought I would post a series of short pointed exhortations to a dad who has a problem child. The child actually has a problem dad, but the child doesn’t think that. He is too confused, lost, and hurting to think about much of anything. I am going write these posts in the second person. I have no particular people in view; these problems should be taken as a composite. But I trust that some of those who read these posts here will see the applicability to their own situations. When I am talking about a boy I will call him Jon, and when she is a girl I will call her Mary.
Douglas Wilson
Moscow-Pullman Daily News Letter to the Editor
“Carl believes that true government protects the most innocent.” Continue reading
No Remorse. No Regrets
Moscow-Pullman Daily News Letter to the Editor
Textbook Kirk: Say one thing, do another — and when called to account, lie, mislead, obfuscate. Continue reading
“Jesus pronounced a solemn warning against anyone who would stumble the little ones, and this is a warning that ought to be heeded in our circles far more thoughtfully and submissively that it is.”
Whenever these two things are found together — strong Calvinism and pietistic conversion — children are regularly mangled by the covenant people of God instead of nurtured by them. Jesus pronounced a solemn warning against anyone who would stumble the little ones, and this is a warning that ought to be heeded in our circles far more thoughtfully and submissively that it is.
Douglas Wilson
The man without a verse: “Don’t I need a verse or something?”
“Such a man is held responsible in a striking way. If he scandalizes ‘one of these little ones,’ it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea. In other words, what is actually going to happen to him is going to be a whole lot worse than that.”
— Douglas Wilson Continue reading
“The protector must not be one that the protected needs protection from.”
The protector must not be one that the protected needs protection from.
Douglas Wilson
On skandalizō
A dead man lying drowned at the bottom of the ocean has the advantage over a living person who has scandalized a child. Continue reading
Better off dead
“And whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:5–6
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.” Mark 9:42
“He said to His disciples, It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.” Luke 17:1–2
“Bearing false witness is therefore civil war — warfare against one’s neighbor, one’s brother”
This commandment strikes at the heart of falsehood and lies, which in their turn are the native language of the devil. Without truth and trust, biblical culture is an impossibility. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16).
First, what is the context of false witness? The commandment prohibits lying against one’s neighbor. Paul tells the Colossians not to lie to one another, because they had put off the old man with his deeds (3:9). Trust is essential to all community, and false witness makes trust impossible. False witness can exist in such a society, but if it is not punished severely that society will not be a society long. At its base, deception is an act of war — “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow (Prov. 25:18; cf. 12:17–18). The psalmist recognizes this — “false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence” (Ps. 27:12).
Bearing false witness is therefore civil war — warfare against one’s neighbor, one’s brother. It is an act of violence directed against someone with whom you should be at peace.
On Official Kirk Protocol & the Marriage of Serial Pedophile Steven Sitler
“. . . our focus here is on setting protections in the extreme cases. . . . The elders will investigate the situation, counseling any and all as possible. If the elders discover no good grounds to hinder the relationship from proceeding toward marriage, then the elders can refuse to bring disciplinary action against the couple seeking marriage, in effect, granting them permission to be married without the threat of negative ecclesiastical discipline.” — Christ Church Book of Faith, Worship, and Practice Continue reading