“When the wicked perish, there is joyful shouting.” Proverbs 11:10
Russian immigrants in the US dished out free borscht to celebrate Josef Stalin’s death. Iraqis cheered in the streets when Saddam Hussein hung from a rope until dead. People around the world rejoiced at the death of Osama bin Laden. Libyans greeted Muammar Gaddafi’s demise with elation. And today Cubans in every free land (which excludes Cuba) shout with joy upon hearing the news that Fidel Castrol perished last night:
Wearing a green military uniform, a somber Raul Castro, 85, appeared on state television on Friday night to announce his brother’s death.
“At 10.29 at night, the chief commander of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died,” he said, without giving a cause of death. (Reuters)
At age 90, Fidel Castro died easy compared to those he brutalized.
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The wicked dictator’s death relates to MoscowID.net through politics, because Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, is a political animal first, before anything else. We have not covered this ground yet, because we eagerly await the CREC Review Committee’s final report. So to establish the point generally, here are some historical facts:
- In 1985 Doug Wilson ran for Moscow City Council — he finished dead last.
- In 1990 Doug Wilson encouraged his attorney to run for state senate — he lost.
- In 1991 Doug Wilson founded the Idaho Taxpayer’s Party (he split the state GOP to achieve this goal).
- In 2003 Doug Wilson declared his intent to “take” Moscow & Pullman:
In the 60s, my father wrote a small but enormously influential book called The Principles of War. In it, he applied the principles of physical warfare to what he called strategic evangelism. This idea of warfare is necessary in order to understand a central part of what is happening here, and by this I mean the concept of the decisive point. A decisive point is one which is simultaneously strategic and feasible. Strategic means that it would be a significant loss to the enemy if taken. Feasible means that it is possible to take. New York City is strategic but not feasible. Bovill is feasible but not strategic. But small towns with major universities (Moscow and Pullman, say) are both. (“The State of the Church 2003”)1
- Douglas Wilson uses politics to justify his affinity for the Confederate States of America, defending the CSA and race-based chattel slavery as a matter of states’ rights.
- He believes in the total authority of the state to hold an entire race of human beings in slavery.
- He brags that he would vote to elect Jefferson Davis for president, though he has never identified the alternative universe where this vote would take place and he neglected to say if blacks would enjoy the right to vote. After all, they would have a vested interest in the outcome of such an election.
Doug Wilson is a political animal — a total political animal. In 2003 two historians from the University of Idaho wrote an unfavorable book review of Southern Slavery As It Was. Doug Wilson wrote a letter to the governor of the State of Idaho in which he specifically asked the governor to compel the University of Idaho to apologize to him for this “gross misuse of the resources of a public university.” (Click the image on the right to enlarge.) No civil complaint. No trial. No verdict from a jury of peers. Mr. Wilson declared guilt and demanded satisfaction in the form of an apology — this from the man who performed in a short film that condemns “the weaponizing of apologies.”2 He created the weapon and he deploys it regularly.
Two years later he drafted the Christ Church Commitment to Loyalty:
Commitment to Loyalty
I pledge to conduct myself in such a way that no one could ever question my loyalty to the peace and purity of Christ Church. This includes refusing to speak to any unauthorized person about grievances I might have, and includes refusing to hear any such criticisms as well. If commitment to this standard in any way compromises my conscience, then I understand that my resignation will be accepted, without notice, and without prejudice.
Douglas Wilson took this page from every totalitarian who preceded him. The terms of this agreement define political & religious oppression. He grants unrestricted freedom to his subjects, as long as they agree with him. Doug Wilson champions freedom of speech for himself. Others, not so much.
The Christ Church Constitution utilizes a clever rule to confer all authority on one man by requiring a unanimous vote of the Kirk elders to remove said man. This explains why he gets away with so much. He’s untouchable, just like a dictator. Pity the fool who appeals to Scripture. May as well plead Fidel to show mercy.
I hear the rejoinder, But Doug Wilson has not tortured or killed anyone! which is true. He only earnestly prays for the miserable death or physical harm of others and he teaches his followers to do the same. The desire to inflict pain & misery is present; to our knowledge he has not acted on it. Presumably, it’s a matter of opportunity.
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I have many other examples that demonstrate Doug Wilson the total political animal but they must wait for another time. Today MoscowID.net rejoices with Cubans everywhere at the death of El Comandante. He terrorized Cuba for half a century. Now he shall rot (Prov. 10:7). MoscowID.net also rejoices that all dictators, wherever they exercise totalitarianism — in church or in state — shall one day rot with him.
1 Note how he characterizes his neighbors as enemies: “Strategic means that it would be a significant loss to the enemy if taken.” Tough to describe this as evangelism.
2 The Shubin Report, page 217.
This may be a quibble, but I will shout for joy when Raul Castro is gone and Cuba becomes a democratic republic.
Regarding your first footnote, it’s possible DW was referring to the devil and his minions as “the enemy”, though that will not be of comfort to the rest of Moscow and Pullman after reading Doug’s words of dominionism.
I take significant pride in being a Moscow resident whose family has been in my hometown much, much longer than Wilson’s family, as being an “enemy” of the man who would presume to “take” Moscow-Pullman. And the good “Pastor” is beginning to get a little long in the tooth, time is not on his side in his ambition. Pity.