We are confronted with the same kind of issue when it comes to defining the sex toys you might want to prohibit. Suppose you use a broad definition, like ‘any artifact or substance that you weren’t born with, but which you use to enhance sexual pleasure.’ This gets rid of the dildos and whips and chains, which was your admirable goal, but it also gets rid of perfume, oil, classy lingerie, and a romantic dinner for two at Angelo’s. But if you go narrow in your definition, then somebody is going to ask where you get off legislating with such specificity. Nobody should want the kind of Talmudic process that could conceivably result in banning pink vibrators but okaying all the others. Nobody should want a sexual magisterium. This laudable desire is what creates pressure for an express warrant approach.
Douglas Wilson
Quotes
“slapping the bitch around to put her in her place”
Suppose we went out and found some old school missionary who wanted to insist on the missionary position for everybody. Without defending his views, I nevertheless guarantee that he would be mercilessly harangued as an oppressor of women, and a hazard to the public weal. However, comma, if that same man changed direction suddenly, lurching, shall we say, and started writing about fur-lined handcuffs, blindfolds, and slapping the bitch around to put her in her place, we could probably find a place for him on the New York Times best seller list. And if he got himself some bling and an over-sized white windbreaker, shot a few people, and put a seething hatred of women into metrical rhyme, we could probably get him an invite to an Obama fundraiser.
Douglas Wilson
“make her tits bigger”
Someone might say that these scenarios are not realistic, because nobody in those categories is (currently) demanding to be served. The Moonlight Bunny Ranch guy knows not to call the ad agencies that have that little fish on their web site. Right. But the issue is the principle. Suppose he did come into my little graphics shop, and I am being advised in the back room by Powers and Merritt. They are willing to show me the way Jesus would have done it, had He been a graphic designer. My customer thinks my first draft was okay, but he came back in because he wants me to “make her tits bigger.” That’s what draws most of their clientele, he explains. Wait, I say, because I have to do a quick consult on the back room — I fortunately happen to have a couple of experts back there. What, in the column they have written, would give me the right to go back out to my almost customer in order to tell him to put an egg in his shoe and beat it?
Douglas Wilson
@KirkCEO
It’s so hard to protect rape victims. I usually start by writing letters to judges urging leniency for their abusers.
— Not Doug Wilson (@KirkCEO) October 22, 2015
Is your pastor bold enough to insult as many people in the name of Christ as I do every day? I bet not.
— Not Doug Wilson (@KirkCEO) October 22, 2015
I’m trying to take over Moscow, ID for Christ by mocking the victims of rapists in my church & seminary.
— Not Doug Wilson (@KirkCEO) October 20, 2015
“of course it is rape”
So do I believe that if some girl goes to a frat party with a hardened resolve to drink way too much, with a t-shirt on that says ‘No Means No,’ but after three beers she takes that shirt off because all the boys wanted her to, and then the next thing she knows she wakes up in the morning having been raped . . . do I somehow believe that is not rape? No, of course it is rape. It is the rape of a dope, but it is still a rape. Should the man or men involved be punished? Of course they should, however unlikely it is that they will be in this life. But they will be dealt with at some point. God is not mocked.
Douglas Wilson
“A Different Kind of Spine”
But if a place can be made hallowed by ‘a widespread belief’ then Mecca is as sacred as Ground Zero. In fact, it is more sacred than Ground Zero because a ‘widespread belief’ about a false transcendent faith is going to necessarily displace a ‘widespread belief’ about a false immanent faith. Despite his not existing, Allah still outranks the pushme-pullyou baals of consumerism and entertainment. If this is all we have, rape outranks masturbation. In order to answer the transcendental claims of the Koran, we need to appeal to the transcendental truth. It is not until we put Allah and the Lord Jesus Christ side by side that the one that actually doesn’t exist will then appear at a disadvantage. Until then, if we are forced to choose between an idolatry that knows what it believes and an idolatry that is never quite sure, the latter will always give way to the former.
Douglas Wilson
“But, of course”
But, of course . . . the fact that a repentant sex offender can repent and can be truly forgiven does not mean that his professed repentance is genuine. We are not required to live in la-la land. Forgiveness and trust are two very different things, and so when a convicted sex offender is brought into fellowship with the rest of the congregation, it must be done in such a way that no parent has any reasonable cause to be worried about what could happen. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that a registered sex offender is made a Sunday School teacher, any more than a convicted embezzler is made the church treasurer. And one of the ways true repentance is manifested is that the person involved is not at all offended by this necessity, and understands completely that although his sin is forgiven, certain consequences necessarily remain.
Douglas Wilson
Non-church, nonbad-pastor
@NatalieGfield A negative × a negative = a positive. Being denied communion by a non-church is a divine RESCUE (sorry it hurt, though).
— Jeff Hutchinson (@jdhutch64) October 14, 2015
There is never a reason for a pastor to be alone with a female asking about details of her sexual behavior. Never. https://t.co/BXU7yThkY9
— Boz Tchividjian (@BozT) October 14, 2015
“a dangerous man”
I believe that if Steven is returned to our community, he should be welcomed as a criminal and serial pedophile and a dangerous man. . .
Douglas Wilson
No, No, Not This Kind of Creep. That Kind of Creep.
Gore Vidal has come out with a ringing defense of Roman Polanski — he says the 13-year-old recipient of Polanski’s attentions (back in the day) was a hooker. And this makes everything better . . . how exactly? Polanski hired a 13-year-old hooker? And then drugs her? Most men who hire prostitutes just pay them — they don’t have to dope them up also. Polanski must have been quite the charmer.
Douglas Wilson
“Persecutors always feel persecuted”
One of the things that Girard noticed about the Scriptures, not to mention human history, is that oppression is always respectable, and that the victim who protests that oppression is not respectable. He is told to shut up. Persecutors always feel persecuted. The oppressor feels oppressed, and is highly indignant when the victim won’t shut up. When the victim writes a psalm of lament, he is not playing the dutiful role that he was assigned. The victim is therefore the troublemaker, and must be dealt with.
Douglas Wilson
Churchill
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
Winston Churchill
Æschylus
In war, truth is the first casualty.
Æschylus