@DianeLangberg, PhD
No system, no matter how godly its goal sounds, that carries within it oppression, silencing, de-humanizing, violence, abuse and corruption is healthy.
— Diane Langberg, PhD (@DianeLangberg) November 17, 2017
No system, no matter how godly its goal sounds, that carries within it oppression, silencing, de-humanizing, violence, abuse and corruption is healthy.
— Diane Langberg, PhD (@DianeLangberg) November 17, 2017
And yet, instead of trumpeting my loyalty to this most reasonable cause, Brightbill drags me into the fray, pretending that I think that a parent-approved courtship in a situation like the one in the case she mentions mitigates anything. It mitigates nothing. ‘Mitigates’ would mean that Crime X becomes, as a result of this mitigation, crime x. Rather, my hostility to this kind of thinking meant that I thought that Crime X was actually Crime Y. It means ‘statutory rape’ instead of ‘lewd and lascivious.’
Douglas Wilson
“This brings us to a broader point, one we cannot emphasize enough: A pastor is walking into a minefield, and runs a high risk of causing harm to victims, confusion to the public, and doubt about his own ministry, when he ventures into legal questions, especially in criminal cases. Presuming to raise issues as to whether a defendant is a ‘sexual predator,’ or whether he is properly charged with ‘L and L’ is wading into the deep end where it isn’t prudent for pastors to go. The legal system is its own world, it operates according to its own definitions, and it often uses terms quite differently than ordinary citizens would. Weighing in on whether a defendant is a ‘sexual predator’ or whether he is properly charged with a certain crime is almost certain to cause unintended harm. For example, it can easily suggest to victims, even as it did in both the Wight case and the Sitler case, that the crimes against them are being minimized by the church. And to what end? An opinion from a local pastor will typically be accorded no weight at all by the legal system, especially in a criminal case. Moreover, a criminal defendant will be represented by counsel (even if he cannot afford one). In the Wight case, Wight was represented by competent counsel, fully conversant with the criminal law, who was more than capable of ensuring Wight was appropriately charged. By far the best practice for pastors is to refrain from interjecting themselves into the legal system; if they are asked to respond to a certain question or speak to a certain issue, they should stick to the facts, if any are known to them, and beyond that, say nothing.”
Presiding Ministers’ Report, 9
Prominent conservative Reformed theologian Doug Wilson has a documented history of mishandling sexual abuse cases within his congregation. Nevertheless, he continues to be promoted by evangelical leaders such as John Piper, whose Desiring God site still publishes Wilson’s work. When a 13-year-old girl in Wilson’s congregation was sexually abused, Wilson argued that she and her abuser were in a parent-sanctioned courtship, and that this was a mitigating factor.
Kathryn Brightbill, LA Times
This is one who cops the attitude of quisling males who somehow decided that, provided their politics were in order, they could be pigs in their treatment of all the women around them. . . . So let us call it the year of the pig.
Douglas Wilson
A system can be so powerful and controlling that the actions of people look like insanity to an outsider.
— Diane Langberg, PhD (@DianeLangberg) November 10, 2017
But in what we are seeing now, even when particular incidents are denied or explained, the weight of the acknowledged and cumulative story is grotesque. In other words, it is beyond safe to say that certain places in this fair Republic have been crammed with dirty deeds for quite a while now, and it has started to fester. The Hollywood pus is starting to ooze.
Douglas Wilson
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.
Douglas Wilson
Violent rape is a judgment of God upon a people. . . . Here the rape is not being perpetrated by foreign soldiers, but is the result of citizens turning on one another. Douglas Wilson
One of the fundamental laws of life, and therefore of business, is that you get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you penalize. In every social context, certain behaviors are rewarded (in some way), and other behaviors are not rewarded. Once the calculus of blessings and curses, rewards and disincentives, is done, you will have less of what you chastised, and more of what you blessed.
Douglas Wilson
“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” Titus 1:15–16
And last, it should be noted (yet again) that all moral claims require a moral foundation. Misogyny is a sin because God hates it, and He will judge those guilty of unrepentant continuance in this sin on the Last Day, along with those guilty of other sins against His Word. But if there is no God, or no judgment, or no fixed moral standards, then everything reduces to a matter of personal preference. And if you are an enraged Hindu, whose personal preference was to have received a larger dowry, Melynda has outlined for us what happens then. True relativistic multi-culturalism will have to swallow an awful lot. Open wide!
Douglas Wilson
Claiming to represent Jesus while silently targeting and wounding those made in His image is a darkness that will eventually come to light.
— Boz Tchividjian (@BozT) October 18, 2017