Jayson Grieser, Fellow of Literature at New Saint Andrews College, wrote today’s letter to the editor. Dr. Grieser graduated from NSA and married into Kirk royalty before his father-in-law, Dr. Roy Atwood (then President of NSA), gave him a job at NSA. Douglas Wilson subsequently terminated Dr. Atwood for reasons only insiders know, and Mr. Wilson hired his son-in-law Ben Merkle to replace Dr. Atwood. Dr. Grieser is in an awkward position:
More appeal hearings not needed
In a “Her View” column on July 12, Tina Hilding called for more public hearings regarding New Saint Andrews College’s expansion on north Main Street. However, to make each appeal an additional public hearing would make for an impossible process; it would go on and on.
In fact, the public hearing for New Saint Andrews already happened. It was held back in April. Folks came and expressed their views, pro and con, and NSA was granted a conditional use permit.
Ms. Hilding said she worries this decision may hurt downtown business, yet business owners in downtown Moscow have repeatedly expressed their support of the CUP. How could attracting an additional 200 creative, educated, respectful young people (who perform Bach cantatas on weekends) to downtown be anything but good for both the economic and artistic climate of our town? Students, their families, and community concertgoers will patronize downtown businesses and help revitalize the north end of Main Street. Many of NSA’s students will settle down here and start families and contribute to our economy and the arts. NSA students and grads already own or manage or work for many downtown businesses and produce all sorts of creative work — as musicians, writers, painters, photographers, restaurateurs and so on.
So if you are pro-business and love the arts, you should support the idea of turning a rundown nightclub into a refurbished — to the tune of an estimated $4 million — bustling concert hall and college.
Jayson Grieser
Moscow
Jayson Grieser
We cannot know if Dr. Grieser really believes the dribble he wrote or if he felt compelled to write it out of fear of losing his job, like his father-in-law. Indeed, we can’t even be sure if Doug Wilson didn’t write the letter for Dr. Grieser to sign (note the similarities to this). Whoever wrote it and whatever their reason for writing it, we know this much: Douglas Wilson requires not only absolute loyalty from his employees but fawning obeisance. And Dr. Jayson Grieser gives both.
Here are some previous letters to the editor from Dr. Grieser:
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January 16, 2012
Every American has equal access to marriage now
In a recent Daily News editorial (Opinion, Jan. 10), Devin Rokyta, writing for the editorial board, preaches that same-sex marriage is the “morally right” thing to support. But on what moral ground is he standing?
Does he believe his position is “natural” or “biblical” or what? (Notice that everyone imposes morality and that moral relativism is impossible. Why is that?) Gov. Chris Gregoire says discrimination by the state is wrong. Does this mean if a woman’s “orientation” is to marry two women or to marry her brother or to marry her beloved dogs — no, seriously — the state shouldn’t discriminate?
When we strip away the pious talk about morality, what the well-intentioned Rokyta is saying is this: there’s no natural family to affirm; natural differences between men’s and women’s bodies point to nothing significant; procreation is neither here nor there; kids having a mom and dad is not important or worth defending. Marriage on this nihilistic view is nothing more than a legal fiction, a tool of the state, a policy, which means “marriage” can be whatever we want it to.
It is important to point out that every American has equal access to marriage now; what Rokyta and Gregoire are asking for is not greater rights for individuals but greater empowering of the state; politicians, not content to affirm marriage, will now be in the business of redefining it for everyone. Marriage will now be nothing more than a union of some sort; it will no longer be the ideal that nature and God intended: a stunning work of complementary colors, a mysterious joining of opposites, a celebration of the goodness of being different, of being male and female — an affirmation that some things exist to be, like life itself, simply received as gift.
Jayson Grieser
Moscow
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February 26, 2014
To be more winsome
Rebecca Rod recently (Letter to the Editor, Feb. 20) expressed her frustration with some in the Christian community when it comes to homosexuality.
In an attempt to be more winsome on this issue, local Christians have invited to Moscow Sam Allberry, a Christian minister from the United Kingdom who speaks personally and thoughtfully on this issue. He himself knows same-sex attraction and is the author of “Is God Anti-Gay?”
He will be speaking at the University of Idaho Student Union Building Ballroom 7:30 p.m. March 5.
I hope to see you there.
Jayson Grieser
Moscow
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July 4, 2015
Wilson’s grasp of essentials
It should be noted that the late American historian Eugene Genovese, author of “Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made” (winner of the 1975 Bancroft Prize) and “Slavery in Black and White” (Cambridge University Press, 2008) — and many other books on the American South — gave the following endorsement to Douglas Wilson’s 2005 book “Black and Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture, and Scripture in America”:
“The Reverend Douglas Wilson may not be a professional historian, as his detractors say, but he has a strong grasp of the essentials of the history of slavery and its relation to Christian doctrine.”
Genovese goes on to say that Wilson has a better grasp of the essentials than many professional historians who, he thought, distorted and trivialized the issues surrounding the South, slavery and Scripture.
Jayson Grieser
Moscow
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