His View: The principles of war and Moscow’s Christ Church

I got to know Jim Wilson several years before his son, Doug, the pastor of Moscow’s Christ Church, showed up in my philosophy classes in the late 1970s. Jim and I developed a friendship that centered around lively discussions about the Bible. I regret that I was not able to convince him that Isaiah’s suffering servant was not Jesus. See nfgier.com/jesus-as-suffering-servant.

In 1991, Jim Wilson wrote a small book entitled “The Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism.” He writes: “Not all warfare is waged on a battlefield: every Christian is called to be a soldier.” With Christ as Commander-in-Chief, Christians will wage battle with Satan, who is the major obstacle that evangelists face in converting unbelievers.

Some years ago, I had lunch with Jim and I asked him about the picture on the cover of his book. It was a Christian Crusader icon with an upraised sword. When I asked him if he regretted choosing such a provocative and militant image, he brushed the suggestion aside. I told him that the picture instilled fear, not Christian love.

Doug Wilson succinctly explains this military model for evangelism: “New York City is strategic but not feasible. Bovill is feasible but not strategic. But small towns (such as) Moscow and Pullman with universities are both.”

Greg Dickison once wrote about biblical government in the Christ Church journal “Credenda/Agenda” (vol. 3). After assuming that “we could have it our way,” Dickison proposes a theocratic state that would “require capital punishment for murder, kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one’s parents.” Is this what their motto “All of Christ for All of Moscow” means?

At the April 11 town hall, Doug Wilson reassured the Moscow community that it has nothing to worry about. Any evangelism, he said, will be based on persuasion not coercion, and all that he wants is to be “good neighbors.” After reading Dickison’s declaration above, the citizens of Moscow could have good reason to doubt this.

On Dec. 10, 2020, Christ Church initiated a campaign to “De-Mask Moscow,” and Gen. Wilson ordered a platoon of his followers into action. About 30 maskless Christ Church soldiers stormed Moscow’s Tri-State store. Fearing continued exposure to the virus, the store manager had to close because of this lawless, unneighborly invasion.

On a lighter, but still serious note, was the case of the topless feminist. Wilson ordered some of his acolytes to steal letterhead from the English Department of the University of Idaho. They then posted flyers about a purported lecture by a topless feminist scholar. Wilson calls this “trinitarian skylarking” but most would call it crass and a rude break with academic collegiality. A police report was filed but no action was taken.

When I heard a rumor that Doug Wilson had joined forces with Steve Wilkins, a neo-Confederate pastor in Louisiana, I initially refused to believe it. But news broke that Wilson and Wilkins had written “Southern Slavery as it Was,” a book that argued that Christians had a biblical right to own slaves, and that slaves were treated kindly. A petition drive led to a full-page ad in the Daily News entitled “Not in Our Town,” signed by 1,200 outraged residents.

Two University of Idaho historians, Shawn Quinlan and William Ramsey, weighed in with a devastating critique of the slavery book. Wilson’s idea of being a good academic neighbor was to write to Idaho’s governor requesting that the professors be fired.

Robert T. McKenzie, professor of history at the University of Washington and a member of a sister Christ Church in Seattle, urged Wilson to withdraw the book for another reason other than its discredited thesis. McKenzie had determined that about 20% of the book had been lifted from Stanley Engerman and Robert Fogel’s “Time on the Cross.”

At the April 11 town hall Doug fielded a question about the cruel treatment of southern slaves. He condemned the atrocities that happened, and he also rejected southern slavery as an “ungodly system.”

The issue of whether the slaves were treated badly or kindly is shadowed by a more fundamental question. As the writers of the Bible allowed slavery and never abolished it, one must conclude that, with Wilson’s view that the Bible is without error in all its teachings, slavery would be an institution ordained by God.

Neo-Confederates? Christian Crusaders? Not in our town!

Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read more about Wilson at nfgier.com/986-2. Email him at ngier006@gmail.com.