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Doug Wilson: 'The Man Who Would Be King'


 By Katie Botkin, with St. Tara (special thanks to anonymous research assistants)

Originally published February 17, 2016.

Silencing dissent for “peace and purity”

Moscow, Idaho’s Doug Wilson has spent much of his pastoral career sparking controversy and feeding off the backlash. In a recent documentary put out by congregant Darren Doane of Razzie infamy and also featuring Ted Cruz,[1] Wilson gets the dubious honor of being labeled “the most hated preacher” in America.[2]

Wilson is perhaps best known — or least liked — for co-writing Southern Slavery As it Was, a partially-plagiarized pamphlet stating that southern slavery was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both of the races in question.[3] But this is hardly a solitary incident — wherever Wilson goes, controversy is sure to follow, and from that controversy Wilson milks growing web traffic and name recognition. Making the rounds on Twitter most recently is Wilson’s claim that “women who genuinely insist on ‘no masculine protection’ are really women who tacitly agree on the propriety of rape.”[4] Wilson, a self-described advocate of patriarchy, has a large following in Moscow and has fans spread across the United States — fans who routinely insist that Wilson is misunderstood and, moreover, has really helped them personally.

With a little help from friends, Wilson founded his own denomination, the CREC, complete with a seminary located in Moscow. He also started a K-12 classical Christian school in Moscow, started a college in Moscow that now heavily features his own family members as faculty and dean, and started his own publishing house, Canon Press, which has similarly featured numerous books he and his family members have written. Although Wilson has gained a bevy of disgruntled ex-congregants and is considered a cult leader by many members of the Moscow community, he plays every new scandal off as persecution by liberals and “intoleristas,” a term he coined to describe his detractors.

Controversy is key to his goals, as is his own brand of empire-building — he finds it in his best interest to insert himself in the legal and business affairs of his congregants. Locals question his motives for doing this, often referring back to a 2003 sermon where he addressed the state of the church. In the sermon, Wilson discusses the “strategic and feasible” move of taking over a small college town like Moscow: “When it came to spiritual activity and energy, in the mid-seventies Moscow and Pullman were typical and sleepy Northwest towns, with no conservative Reformed presence at all. Today it is the home of an international association of classical and Christian schools, a Christian school with an international reputation, a thriving Christian liberal arts college, a remarkable publishing house… and hot controversy surrounding virtually all of it. What happened? Not only are all these things happening, but the influence they are having is disproportionate to the actual numbers… [the] idea of warfare is necessary in order to understand a central part of what is happening here.”[5]



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  1. AnonymousNovember 13, 2022 at 8:09 AM

    DW Derangement syndrome strikes again. #GetHelp

    ReplyDelete

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