His View: New Saint Andrews flirts with muscular Christianity

After learning that New Saint Andrews College is proposing a remodel of Cadillac Jack's, I thought I would check out its website. I had not done so since 2010, and I was in for a surprise.

Instead of pictures of macho guys (and only a few women) wanting to rumble, I found no machismo and almost double the number of young women. Has there been a change in the culture of the college? I don't think so.

In 2010 the recruiting headline was "Yo, Secularism, Why Don't We Step into the Alley?" The blurb described the NSA faculty as "not timid in a rumble," and they wanted to make the students "dangerous" so that they can "throw the lies of this age up against the wall, lifting wallets and the occasional gift card." It ended with "an invitation to a brawl." See for yourself at www.NickGier.com/NSAGangWarfare.pdf.

After the initial shock, my first thought was "How can they possibly recruit young women with this raw machismo?" Of seven images (two with real tough guys) only one included female students.

Silly me, I forgot some females might want to go to a college where they can meet "real" Christian men to whom they can be properly submissive. These religious brawlers would defend their honor in an alley or anywhere for that matter.

NSA men, however, would not defend their ladies' right to vote. According to NSA's founder, Douglas Wilson, misguided women might decide to cancel out their husband's wise choices in church and political matters. Wilson also believes only propertied males should vote.

The phrase "muscular Christianity" came out of the Victorian Age, where Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes encouraged young men to combine Christian ideals with physical conditioning. Thanks to muscular Christianity, I built up some pretty nice biceps at the local gym of the Young Men's Christian Association, but I still ended up with the Unitarians, who cannot fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

NSA does have sports teams, but rugby had replaced lacrosse (too feminine?), and there was a "girls" volleyball team, which I could not find on the current site.

In 1964, Douglas' father, Jim Wilson, wrote a small book "Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism." In an interview I told the elder Wilson that I thought the upraised sword on the front cover was rather provocative, but he just shrugged and said that it was only a symbol. A very dangerous symbol, I was tempted to add.

The elder Wilson assured me that this was spiritual, not physical warfare, but being thrown up against a wall sounds pretty physical to me.

Has Douglas Wilson's "Trinitarian skylarking" now turned into godly gang warfare? An example of the former was an outrageous April Fool's stunt. In 1999, NSA students stole University of Idaho letterhead and used the English department's fax line to announce a feminist scholar who would lecture topless. Wilson later admitted encouraging his students to do the deed.

As a "post-millennialist" Wilson believes there will be a 1,000 year Christian theocracy with strict enforcement of biblical law until Christ appears again.

I might prefer to get it over with more quickly in the "pre-millennial" Rapture. I'll paraphrase John Milton's Satan: I would rather fry in the Rapture and take my chances in Hell than serve oppressive Christian masters.

During the time that Wilson was taking my philosophy courses in the UI Administration Building, I found this inscription in the third floor men's restroom: "A long war is a small price to pay for eternal peace."

One might ask: What kind of peace is this when everyone who has not converted to your religion has been killed?

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read his articles on Pastor Wilson at webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/Wilson.htm.