Flashback 2005: “Arrogance Out of Moscow” Part 2

“Remarkable things are happening in Moscow”

“When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart, whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation.” Proverbs 26:25–26

The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches used to hold an annual meeting of bigwigs, much like a Baptist convention.1 (The CREC decentralized about 10 years ago and began meeting every three years.) This sets the context for Douglas Wilson’s Arrogance Out of Moscow blog post. Twelve years ago during the CREC’s annual meeting, a fellow CREC pastor informed Mr. Wilson that over the years a few of Mr. Wilson’s followers had told this man the way he should be doing things. Mr. Wilson posted Arrogance Out of Moscow to his personal website in response to this pastor’s feedback.

Doug Wilson’s Alternate Reality

Douglas Wilson believes that Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, is ground zero for a “new reforming movement,” or a second Reformation, in the Christian church. We documented the doctrinal side of this belief here, in relation to the Federal Vision (please note the grandiose rhetoric). And as recently as last month Doug Wilson likened himself to the prophet Elijah while simultaneously comparing the Presiding Ministers of the CREC to King Ahab:

And don’t bother trying to tell me that I am being a troubler of Israel. That is what Ahab said to Elijah. Right. The guy who imported all the idols and brought the wrath of Heaven down on his nation, he is the one who wanted to pretend that the man who opposed it all from the beginning should take responsibility. (Blog & Mablog, A Tether Ball in a Tornado, September 18, 2017)2

So Douglas Wilson believes he is a prophet of biblical proportions, and as noted above he has thought of himself this way for over a decade. Similarly, he uses inflated rhetoric in Arrogance Out of Moscow:

I just said that God has blessed us greatly in the CREC, and we have certainly experienced the same thing in Moscow. But with this kind of blessing comes a peculiar kind of testing. . . . The problem is one of arrogance, and it is arrogance out of Moscow. We . . . have done what we could to prevent it. . . . But we are not willing to deal with this problem by refusing or denying the blessing that some are foolish enough to be proud about. . . . Remarkable things are happening in Moscow, and we have been greatly blessed. . . . (Arrogance Out of Moscow, emphasis original)

Doug Wilson uses “Moscow” as a metonymy for “Christ Church.” Note the catalyst for the arrogance:

  1. “we have certainly experienced the same thing” (“blessed us greatly”)
  2. “this kind of blessing”
  3. “the blessing that some are foolish enough to be proud about”
  4. “Remarkable things are happening”
  5. “have been greatly blessed”

In October 2005 Doug Wilson really wanted people to believe that, despite the arrogance, something great and remarkable was happening in the Kirk.

“Remarkable Things”

August 2005Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, told the truth when he wrote, “Remarkable things are happening in Moscow.” Just six months before making this statement he discovered that a serial pedophile had been raping Kirk children for the past 18 months. This child molester — Steven Sitler — had committed abominations against 25+ children in at least 3 different states for the previous 7 years. This certainly qualifies as “remarkable.”

Additionally, one month before making this “remarkable things” statement Mr. Wilson discovered that one of his ministerial students — Jamin Wight — had sexually molested another child of the Kirk. This too qualifies as “remarkable.”

September 2005But Mr. Wilson neglected to state these facts when he wrote Arrogance Out of Moscow. Instead, he created a false impression3 by sketching a “remarkable” picture that ignored the horrors visited upon Christ Church in 2001–2005. These horrors still haunt a now-grown-up victim of sexual abuse; and they will haunt a 2½-year-old boy for the rest of his life. (Try to imagine growing up in a home where your father fantasizes about molesting you and your mother and grandparents want to protect him from the legal authorities at your expense.)

October 2005Douglas Wilson was neck deep covering up the sexual molestations of Kirk children when he wrote Arrogance Out of Moscow. At that time he still had not informed the Kirk membership of predation, and according to the Presiding Ministers of the CREC we have no idea what he told the Kirk elders.4 Click the images on the right to see the flurry of “remarkable things” that Mr. Wilson concealed from the Kirk, the CREC, and the community to mislead his readers about the true state of Christ Church.

Doug Wilson would have been much more honest if he had posted his letter to Judge Stegner alongside this crushing letter, which was written by two heartbroken parents. These two documents say everything everyone needs to know about the Kirk. The problem is not arrogance out of Moscow. The problem is the beast who dissembles when he laments arrogance out of Moscow.

Calendar Legend

1 The CREC calls itself presbyterian but its top-down denominational polity is independent — or Baptist. The CREC Constitution shields so-called “presbyters” from denominational accountability. “Presbyteries” in the CREC have no authority to discipline their members. This power resides in the local church only. For example, the CREC has no constitutional mechanism to excommunicate Douglas Wilson or remove him from the ministry. This explains why he could preside over the marriage of serial pedophile, pray for him to father children, and approve of the pedophile living in the same home as his child (children?). CREC ministers pretend to be presbyterians as they watch him commit evil.

2 He wrote this paragraph to defend his habit of objectifying women. The Presiding Minister of the CREC believes that his history of opposing idolatry confers privilege on him to ridicule ladies with impunity.

3 He did the same thing when Christianity Today interviewed him. He also worked in another reference to Elijah:

“I decided that if fire fell on Moscow, as upon Elijah’s altar, I wanted it to fall on an altar doused with water. I made a point of adopting certain unmarketable positions. I’m a televangelist with a blacked-out tooth — so if something happens, it’s God’s work.” (Christianity Today, The Controversialist, April 17, 2009)

If he truly wanted to douse the altar with water, then he should have told them about Steven Sitler. Few things are more “unmarketable” than serial child molesters.

4 “There were other communication breakdowns regarding the Sitler case. For example, Christ Church elder Ed Iverson, who helped bring Katie Travis together with Sitler, was unaware of the full extent of Sitler’s sexual crimes (specifically, he was unaware that Sitler had molested multiple children).” (PMR 11, emphasis original)