His View: What part of the community is really in decline?

Headlining the Daily News this week was MSNBC’s interview of Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, and founder of New St. Andrews College. And along with that was the published, predictable response of former mayor of Moscow, Nancy Chaney.

The crux was the same as it has been for at least the last 30 years I’ve lived here — Wilson writing a book that slavery was benign. I can’t bear to dig for the exact date of Wilson’s book — it is simply so tedious. I’ve actually debated Wilson in public, back when I was much younger, and dinosaurs literally walked the Earth. News to the liberal community in Moscow — most of us have moved on.

Dwelling once again in the condemnatory argument against Christ Church is the idea that slavery is wrong. And that somehow, though it’s hard to see in any kind of reality on this plane of the multiverse, that racism is rampant in this community. And is propagated by white guys like me, who then need to be condemned with stickers in windows of local businesses. So bold.

Yawn again. I decided to Google the percentage demographics of African-Americans in our community. It seems to hover around 1%. And once you leave the football teams of our universities out of it (lots of Samoans there) the biggest problem that any African-American likely faces in our community is loneliness. I’m not belittling this problem — I think that my African-American colleagues are expansive enough in mindset to have all sorts of different friends. But the problems with race I’ve witnessed in my 34 years in this community were really directed toward the Hispanic community. And even those were a long time ago, borne by students. And largely gone. We now even have taco trucks, with hungry people of all races, colors and creeds lined up at the windows.

Both the American Taliban (the label coined for Christ Church and its adherents) and the Intoleristas (Wilson’s own term coined to describe the liberal community in Moscow) labor on. Though, quite frankly, the liberal community is losing, as their issue with Christ Church fades into profound irrelevance. If it’s their full-Bible creed you’re worried about, between Moscow and Pullman, we already have at least four megachurches. They’re your neighbors, like it or not, and I’ve found most are generally nice people. Because of them, we have better restaurants, and more prosperity. People want to send their kids to Logos School. And the school complex behind Mountain View Park continues to grow.

While others are going on, living their lives, the liberal community, profoundly aging, continues to engage in what is called schismogenesis — defining themselves as a polar opposite against their perceived enemies. It’s great for tribal warfare. But it doesn’t build community. And community is what we live in, and what we live here for. I’m all for the notion of “hate has no home here.” But where’s the hate, Intoleristas? Who’s creating it?

Meanwhile, life goes on. New Saint Andrews approves a zoning exception so a bar can be placed upstairs of Mingles. Young lefties stand up and declare New Saint Andrews has to be destroyed. Give me a break. They own too much real estate. They’re not going anywhere.

One of the things I’ve found moving around the world is that someone can learn something from just about anyone. If the left wants to fix itself, they might listen to Wilson just a bit. “You can’t have culture war unless you have a culture.” The left has spent especially the last seven years working to destroy an American culture that anyone can functionally use. From CRT to the latest, billionaire-driven thrust to force radical definitions of “trans” culture down people’s throats, Americans are exhausted. And lefty young people are not having kids, as one of my favorite opinion columnists, Lenna Harding, has noted. Why would they if they believe their own elders? Who is the real group of people waiting for the Apocalypse?

All my lefty adherents might consider that a bit. You’re on your way to irrelevance, by your own hand. Can you self-arrest?

Pezeshki is a professor in mechanical and materials engineering at Washington State University.