About this time last year Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, took grief from Rod Dreher of The American Conservative for presiding over the marriage of serial pedophile Steven Sitler to a graduate of New St. Andrews College (NSA). Rod saw the shipwreck from afar but could not understand why no one in the Kirk appeared to care:

How did anybody in Christ Church think it was a good idea to encourage and enable a young woman in their community to marry a convicted pedophile? I cannot comprehend it. And I cannot comprehend the apparent unwillingness of the congregation to hold themselves and their pastor accountable for this catastrophe that has befallen the Sitler wife and child. Maybe someone from within that community can explain it in the comments section of this blog. From the outside, it does not testify to the integrity and spiritual health of that community. I could be wrong. (Scandal in Moscow, emphasis original)

Douglas Wilson published a number of blog posts to defend the marriage and his role in it. Mr. Wilson framed a two-point defense to Rod Dreher: (1) The State declared the marriage legal, therefore Mr. Wilson had no authority to oppose it; and (2) Mr. Wilson could not find a verse in the Bible to prohibit the marriage:

What precisely would Rod have wanted me to do? Would he want me to refuse to conduct the wedding, or would he want me to simply prohibit the wedding flat out? If I just refused to officiate, and Steven got married by a justice of the peace, what then? Would I have to excommunicate him for marrying? There is no biblical case for that. If his wife is fully apprised of all the facts, and she was, and she wanted to marry him, should I excommunicate them both for marrying? Don’t I need a verse or something? (From Where You Are, October 2, 2015)

Doug Wilson had a dilemma: Neither man nor God outlawed the matrimony, so Mr. Wilson had no choice — he had to perform the wedding. We answered the first point of Mr. Wilson’s argument with the Christ Church Book of Faith, Worship, and Practice. Today I want to help Douglas Wilson find “a verse or something” in response to his second point.

However, before we go there let me remind you that Mr. Wilson bills himself as an authority on marriage, family, and childrearing, having written such books as

• Father Hunger: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their Families ($16)
• Federal Husband ($12)
• Fidelity: How to Be a One-Woman Man ($15)
• For a Glory and a Covering: A Practical Theology of Marriage ($15)
• Future Men: Raising Boys to Fight Giants ($15)
• Her Hand in Marriage: Biblical Courtship in the Modern World ($12)
• How to Exasperate Your Wife & Other Short Essays for Men ($12)
• My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home ($15)
• Reforming Marriage: Gospel Living for Couples ($15)
• Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing ($15).

Additionally, Doug Wilson describes himself as “one of today’s leading defenders of the Christian faith.” Consistent with this delusion, he told The New York Times, “We are trying to save civilization.” He founded a ministerial training program called Greyfriars Hall to prepare men to teach Scripture to others, among other things. Yet for all his expertise, Douglas Wilson could not find one verse in the Bible to illuminate his path: Should I or should I not officiate the marriage of a fixated pedophile who intends to father children?

So I found a verse for him.

On May 29, 2011, exactly 13 days before Doug Wilson presided over the marriage of serial pedophile Steven Sitler (June 11, 2011), Mr. Wilson posted these words to his personal website:

“Then said he unto the disciples, ‘It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him” (Luke 17:1–3).

Scandals will come, the Lord says. Nevertheless, the one who brings them is held responsible, and cannot appeal to the ‘way things are,’ or to his own valiant efforts to fulfill the Lord’s prophecy. 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. (Blog & Mablog, May 29, 2011, emphasis original)

Less than two weeks later Douglas Wilson officiated the marriage ceremony for a fixated pedophile. Mr. Wilson knew the couple planned to raise children and he knew Judge Stegner had ruled that Steven Sitler would have to leave the home if they did have children. Despite this, Doug Wilson prayed this prayer along with the wedding guests:

“Heavenly Father, Thou art also the wellspring of life. Bestow upon these Thy servants, if it be Thy will, the gift of heritage of children. Grant that they may see their children brought up in Thy faith and fear, to the honor and glory of Thy name. . . . through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.”

Four-and-a-half years later Katie Sitler gave birth to a son and here we are: That little Sitler boy — “one of these little ones” — was scandalized at birth. The offence begins with his name. Steven & Katie Sitler named their child after a cursed king in the Old Testament. The curse specifically applied to his descendants. Scripture marks a catastrophic OT judgment with this king’s life. The curse and the judgment belong on Steven Sitler, and he knows it, which makes his choice of this name look like a taunt at everyone offended by his fatherhood and an insult to his son.

The Sitler child was born into skandalon and he has fallen over one stumbling block after another every day of his life. The boy’s father admitted he had “contact resulting in actual sexual stimulation.” His father’s probation officer described “issues involving his deviant sexual fantasies regarding the infant.” The State ordered the boy’s father “off of his residence property and ordered him to have no contact with his son.” The State did this to protect the child from his father because Steven Sitler dreams of scandalizing his son (the child’s pastor still hasn’t found a verse). The boy’s mother shows limited maternal instinct to protect her child. The State allows her to chaperone her husband on the condition that she submits to random polygraph tests. The State doesn’t trust Katie Sitler not to scandalize her son. The boy’s grandparents fight the State to give the pedophile access to their grandson. The grandmother is subject to random polygraphs as a condition of her chaperone agreement; the grandfather has not been reapproved. The State doesn’t trust Dave or Roxanne Sitler not to scandalize their grandson.

Judge Stegner stated the horrible “offence” these people represent to this “little one,” when he said, “I can’t guarantee Steven’s son’s safety; I’m not sure anyone can guarantee Steven’s son’s safety.” Judge Stegner can’t guarantee it because these people insist on breaching it. These people, who should love the child most, labor diligently to trap him within reach of a pedophile. And Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow — the man who is “trying to save civilization” — could not think of one verse in the Bible to stop this scandal from happening. Therefore, he set in motion the chain of events that created it.

Doug Wilson snits, “Don’t I need a verse or something?” but now we know that he had a verse then just as he has one now, because two weeks before the wedding he wrote,

“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.”

He has a verse. It’s written on millstone inscribed with his name. He should use it.