NPR digs into Moscow pastor’s view on slavery

A National Public Radio podcast about Christ Church reviewed the backlash Pastor Doug Wilson received for his opinions on slavery, and how it didn’t stop his church from growing in Moscow.

NPR and Boise State Public Radio partnered to create the podcast series “Extremely American: Onward Christian Soldiers,” hosted by journalists Heath Druzin and James Dawson. The third episode of the series, which focuses on Christ Church and its role in the rise of Christian nationalism, was released Wednesday.

The beginning of Wednesday’s episode discussed Wilson’s roots as the son of a Christian author and bookstore owner. It detailed his journey to the University of Idaho, where he studied philosophy and began leading a congregation called the Community Evangelical Fellowship group. That organization would eventually become Christ Church.

The podcast also discussed the public outrage that emerged in Moscow in 2003 after Doug Wilson’s booklet, “Southern Slavery: As It Was,” began circulating in the city. Wilson co-authored the booklet with Steve Wilkins.

Wilkins is the founder of League of the South, which is a neo-confederate hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Druzin said the booklet demonizes abolitionists and paints the North as the aggressor in the Civil War. It references a biblical passage that asks slaves to obey their masters the same way they would obey Christ. Wilson and Wilkins also claimed slaves existed with mutual intimacy and harmony with their owners.

This caused hundreds of UI students to protest Wilson, and leadership at the UI and Washington State University condemned the book. Wilson was compared to Holocaust deniers for his views, and the Christ Church-affiliated Logos School was criticized for celebrating the birthday of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Druzin asked Wilson about his thoughts on slavery now and Wilson reaffirmed his belief that slavery “wasn’t as bad as people think.” Wilson said he is not “a fan of slavery” but claimed that it is a “normal, social evil.”

When Druzin asked if the Christian America that Wilson envisions would allow slavery, Wilson could be heard giving a long response before eventually saying: “In a Christian republic, would we reboot slavery? No.”

Nick Gier, who had Wilson as a student when he was a UI philosophy professor, helped lead the protest against his former pupil in the early 2000s.

Gier said Wilson is “intellectually dishonest” and said he is ashamed Wilson is a graduate of the UI’s philosophy department.

“It became an embarrassment for us,” Gier said.

When asked why Christ Church continued to grow even after these controversies, Gier compared Wilson to former President Donald’s Trump, whose scandals “seems to have increased his credibility with his base.”

Wilson said his congregation continues to grow “because people are hungry for definition and leadership and they don’t like living in a relativistic fog.”

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.