Christian Heritage News

  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 p

Posted at  Louisiana Huguenot: Doug Wilson says he dropped the label of Federal Vision. What those giddy for church unity fail to see is he maintains he is keeping the content. I suggested he should resign from the ministry and join a church body that holds him accountable. Repentance in the abstract isn’t real. The problem is that the CREC can’t hold people accountable. As Butler and Harris note, The McPresbytery may by two-thirds majority vote and pending judicial process, censure a member church or a CREC officer. A censure under this provision does not affect a member church’s voting rights or appeal rights in the broader assemblies. (IV.A.2.n) ... Read more here.  See also: The CREC Constitution (After Thought) Excerpt: "Here we see in blatant form that the Krek is not only not presbyterian, it is not even an instance of any form of church government. The local 'elders,' including the local 'pastor,' give the appearance of accountabi

By Bojidar Marinov - Posted at Christendom Restored: It wasn’t until very recently that some Presbyterians in the US started re-discovering their rich history of involvement in the formation and the founding of America, as we know her today—or as is the common perception of what she was supposed to be, originally. That rich history of Presbyterian initiative, involvement, and leadership in the political and judicial battles for liberty and justice in America has been hidden beneath several generations of government education of millions of American schoolchildren, and those Presbyterians who have cut their addiction to government schools have begun to actually study history and discover the historical truth about Presbyterianism. The process of discovery of that truth has been both glorious and painful. Glorious, because we have been learning that Presbyterianism has been a much weightier factor in the formation and the founding of the United States as a nation, polity, economic

http://crechurches.org/ By Natalie Greenfield - Posted at A Voice Regained: Nearly one full year ago, on October 3rd, 2015, Christ Church (located in Moscow, Idaho and pastored by Douglas Wilson)  announced they were launching an internal review to look into the possible mishandling of two sexual abuse cases that had occurred approximately a decade earlier. Within a few weeks of the announcement, two members of the review committee emailed me and asked several questions about my sexual abuse case and how the church had handled it. While I was uncomfortable answering those questions via private correspondence, and though I felt very strongly that an external investigation was required, I wrote a series of three blog posts addressing the questions I was asked. Those can be found here: Part I : http://natalierose-livewithpassion.blogspot.com/2015/11/on-october-3rd-2015-following.html Part II : http://natalierose-livewithpassion.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-response-to-crec-internal-

By Angela Wittman  " The PCA’s Nine Declarations Against The Federal Vision (2007)   In light of the controversy surrounding the NPP and FV, and after many months of careful study, the committee unanimously makes the following declarations: ... Dr. R. Scott Clark of the Heidelblog has posted "The PCA's Nine Declarations Against the Federal Vision" and I believe it is worth your time to read it. Perhaps you think the Federal Vision is a harmless teaching or it's not that important anymore, but when is it ever permissible for Christians to waffle on God's truth or tolerate false teaching? Is this how we show love for one another by tolerating evil? Shouldn't we follow Biblical example and warn others (especially those of the House of God) of false teachers? Please read Dr. Clark's article including the comment section - it's very enlightening! I live near the St. Louis area and I am familiar with some of the pastors mentioned. I&#

Posted at The Truth About Moscow : Image from The Truth About Moscow Former Moscow resident speaks on her abuse, shaming that followed By Samantha Malott, Daily News staff writer Natalie Greenfield, at the age of 13, met the man who would become her abuser while she was at a Christ Church function in Moscow. For the seven months following that first meeting, the 23-year-old pastor-in-training was grooming her, building trust and friendship, she said. “Then he moved in with us along with several other boarders,” she said. “Within weeks of moving in he started sexually abusing me.” Greenfield spoke Thursday night at the University of Idaho as the keynote speaker for sexual assault awareness month. She also sat down prior to her presentation for a one-on-one talk with the Daily News. Read more...

Image from Cicero Kirk Posted at Cicero Kirk : Leaving a church is a difficult affair. Sometimes it’s for happy reasons, a couple from two different churches wed and need to choose a congregation to belong to as a family. Work, school or another opportunity leads you elsewhere causing happy, tearful farewells back home and a joyful welcome at your new place of worship. More often than not though, it’s a struggle. A hard-thought, hard-fought decision that leaves you with no other choice but to leave old friends behind and hope they understand. It can be from not being comfortable with the direction your church is headed which moves you to take your family elsewhere. It could be a decision from the synod causes a mass-exodus that you feel you need to take a stand on and take part of. In the worst cases it’s that the leadership is corrupt and abusive, or covers up a member’s corruption and abusiveness to the detriment of the rest of the congregation, and you need to depart for you

An Important Message for Pastors, Elders and Parents: http://natalierose-livewithpassion.blogspot.com/

Posted at The Truth About Moscow : He’s in triage mode. The Kirk is hemorrhaging families and none of his usual tricks have stopped the bleeding. Moreover, people are leaving without telling him. They just go, which is good. To borrow one of his lines, he doesn’t deserve notice. He didn’t bother to notify kirkers before he “urged” Judge Stegner to go easy on Sitler and he didn’t think the Kirk worthy of notice before he blame-shifted Jamin Wight’s horrible crimes onto Natalie’s father. He’s always been able to control these things by pulling the trigger on one family or another. But this time it’s different. He has so many open wounds that he’s lost count of those who have left and, more importantly, he no longer knows what they’re saying after they go. This is a problem because normally he thinks that if he can’t completely silence them , then he can rebut their arguments to keep them from persuading you. But now he’s in the dark. Further, he knows that for every family who le

Posted at The Truth About Moscow : The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” EZEKIEL 34:1–6 Over the last several months, Douglas Wilson has referred to Greyfriars’ Hall ministerial student

Posted at The Truth About Moscow : Recap: How we got to this point For those just joining us What is wrong with Christ Church, Moscow? The short answer to this question is everything. A longer answer is that in 2001–2005 two child rapists freely preyed on Kirk children. Both men committed horrifying acts against their victims. Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, learned about the felonies in 2005 and urged the criminal courts to show leniency to the felons. The courts honored Mr. Wilson’s wishes and within a few years things began to unravel. To learn more about the first criminal — Jamin Wight — please visit Natalie Rose Greenfield’s blog, starting with these posts: “No more tape over my mouth” “Looking back again. . .” “Perpetuating Abuse (warning:explicit language)” “When Doug Wrote To My Father” “Yes, We’re Still Talking About This.” “For The Sake Of Clarity — The Timeline” “The Last Meeting” To learn about the about the second sex offender — Steven Sitl

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog : Years ago, in the second house in which Mrs Heidelblog and I lived, water seeped into the basement every time it rained and it rained frequently. As the ground became soaked water would push in and up through the basement. We had a pump under the stairs to keep the basement fairly dry but it could get a little damp. Even when it was completely dry we could see residue from the water. It left a mark. Before we could sell and move I had to chisel out all of the fine little cracks through which water seeped. Then I had to fill those cracks with a material that would prevent the water from getting in. The Christian life is a lot like our basement and theological error is much like the water that seeped in. Theological error, like water, seeks its level. We might think that we might be able to separate books on “social issues” from theological questions but when the books are written by proponents of a serious error, like the water in m

Posted at The Truth About Moscow: Pastor Covers for Perp: “I can observe what Jamin should not.” “Blame-shifting on his part would be utterly inappropriate, and we had Jamin acknowledge that he was in no position to absolve himself by pointing fingers at others. Having said this, I can observe what Jamin should not.” -  DOUGLAS WILSON The spirit of accusation possessed Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, to write this letter to Officer Green of the Moscow Police Department. He wrote it to bear witness on behalf of his ministerial student Jamin Wight, who faced the possibility of 40 years in prison for serial sexual abuse of a 13-year old. And this letter shares noteworthy similarities with the letter that Mr. Wilson to Judge Stegner : 1. Mr. Wilson wrote both letters within 3 days of each other. 2. Mr. Wilson wrote both letters on Christ Church stationary while acting in his capacity as the minister of Christ Church, Moscow. 3. Mr. Wilson wrote both letters b

By Natalie Rose Greenfield - Posted at My Naptime Journal : I've told my story broadly for years and little by little I've delved deeper into certain aspects of it. The long term abuse I suffered as a young teen has many layers and to address them all in detail would take up an entire novel, so I'll do it slowly and as seems fitting and needed in this grander scheme of raising awareness for these issues and helping others develop a greater understanding of a complicated and destructive problem in our society at large and especially within our churches. My story does not stand alone. It is far from an anomaly. You've probably seen the  statistics . We have a responsibility as a culture to know what to do when someone tells us they have been abused, and our words and actions in response to a victim of abuse has the power of great healing or great destruction. Speaking out about something as intimate and uncomfortable as sexual abuse takes so much strength and it pla

Posted at The Truth About Moscow: "Rod Dreher was upset that we differed with the recommendation of the probation officer. But we agreed with the judge, who made the determination to let the marriage proceed. Judge Stegner approved the wedding, and he said that “an age-appropriate relationship with a member of the opposite sex from Mr. Sitler is one of the best things that can happen to him and to society”(emphasis added). In addition to this, we also were in agreement with the treatment professionals that Steven was seeing. His pastoral counselor agreed, his professional counselors agreed, the judge agreed. Now where is the scandal in this?" DOUGLAS WILSON Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, frames a rhetorical question, and if you plan to send your daughter to New Saint Andrews College, then it behooves you to contemplate both the question and answer. Background In August 2010, Ed Iverson, Head Librarian of New Saint Andrews College, introduced an NSA gra

By Michael Metzler - Posted at Pooh'sThink.com : It is not my intent to start blogging again, at least not any time soon, certainly not of the kind necessitated in 2006. I have been writing two books since 2008, one of them a Memoir, and I have been able to do this largely in the comfortable privacy of my home, or, at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, minded by nothing more than a handful of seagulls. I plan to keep it this way. I find that this approach increases literary productivity. It also helps mitigate the effects of the PTSD that our pastor, Douglas Wilson, has blessed me with. Please be assured that my last post was not an easy task. However, I have been unable to put out of mind Douglas Wilson’s current bullying, shaming, threatening, and libeling of Natalie, a recent member of his flock. That alone I might have walked away from, but Wilson is offering all this as direct reprisal for Natalie’s public comments about the abuse she endured from one of his ministerial stud

By Rachel Miller - Posted at A Daughter of the Reformation : There are many articles right now about Doug Wilson and his role in the court cases and subsequent marriages of two pedophiles who attended New Saint Andrews in Moscow, ID. This is not the first controversy that Wilson has faced, and many of his supporters are adamant that he has done nothing wrong. I know that there are many people who are members of CREC churches who have chosen to align themselves with Wilson and his denomination. This question is not particularly for them. My question is for those in the Reformed, Presbyterian world who say they really like or appreciate what Wilson says/has written/teaches on various subjects. My question is: what exactly do you like about Wilson? Is it his credentials? Doug Wilson is self-ordained, has never been to seminary, founded his own denomination, publishing house, university, seminary, and classical school curriculum. He is the head of his denomination. He is under no aut

By Rod Dreher - The American Conservative : The last thing I read about the controversial Reformed pastor Doug Wilson, he was making a case for why Christian women are prettier than non-believing females . Excerpt from that: Unbelieving women either compete for the attention of men through outlandish messages that communicate some variation of “easy lay,” or in the grip of resentment they give up the endeavor entirely, which is how we get lumberjack dykes. The former is an avid reader of Cosmopolitan and thinks she knows 15K ways to please a man in bed. The latter is just plain surly about the fact that there even are any men. So there’s that. It’s apparently a rhetorical tic among the Moscow, Idaho, bunch; longtime readers will recall a younger pastor associated with Wilson’s church claiming that Protestants who convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy are the spiritual equivalent of perverts who masturbate to pornography. He calls himself “one of those grenade launching Protesta

Doug Wilson - Christ Church, Moscow, ID For The Sake Of Clarity - The Timeline By Natalie Rose Greenfield - Posted at My Naptime Journal : " It was a foolish parent-approved relationship which led to statutory rape, as was shown in the court ." - @douglaswils This is a recent tweet from Doug Wilson concerning the long-term sexual abuse I experienced as a young teenager. In light of the level of blame that is being placed on my parents, I feel that a timeline of the events might be helpful in offering some clarity for those that were not directly involved in the situation. Summer 2001: I met Jamin at a local nursing home where a group of church members were singing hymns for the residents. He introduced himself to me. I was thirteen years old. He was 23. A few weeks later: I sat at a local coffeehouse and Jamin showed up, sat down across the table from me and asked if I wanted to play cards. He flirted heavily and tossed pretzels into my mouth. Fall 2000: Jamin came

Posted at The Truth About Moscow : “Mr. Right” found “. . . much has been made of the fact that Christ Church approved of Steven’s wedding to Katie through the fact that I officiated at the wedding. First, it should be noted that in our community, weddings are not arranged or determined by the church.” -  DOUGLAS WILSON Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, posted “An Open Letter from Christ Church on Steven Sitler” to his personal website, on behalf of the Kirk elders, to address community concern over a serial pedophile who sired a child with whom he subsequently had “contact resulting in actual sexual stimulation.” The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported the story with this headline : “Prosecutor: New disclosures of conduct by Moscow sex offender are ‘state’s worst fears’”; and the Daily News followed it up with an editorial wherein the lede stated : “Disturbing isn’t nearly an adequate word to describe what unfolded Tuesday in Latah County 2nd District Court.” Mr.