FAQ

Why are you confronting Doug Wilson publicly instead of implementing Matthew 18? Because this is no private matter. What Doug has said publicly can be publicly condemned. When the Apostle Paul publicly named false teaching in the Bible, there is no evidence that he first confronted them privately (Gal. 2:11ff; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 3:17; 4:20). But to be above reproach, Nate did meet with Doug on several occasions, even though we do not believe this was a biblical requirement due to the public nature of Doug’s teachings. Doug himself says: “Now I know and understand that in public controversies it is not necessary to follow the Matthew 18 process. When Paul confronted Peter at Antioch, he did it on the fly. Public error can be publicly rebuked in real time, and we do need to stop being pansies about this kind of thing.”¹

Why are you slandering Doug Wilson? The Cambridge Dictionary defines slander as “a false spoken statement about someone that damages their reputation, or the making of such a statement.”² The operative word being false. True statements, particularly those simply repeating a person’s own words, are not slander and even a discussion of those words is not slander. We are seeking to interact biblicaly with direct quotes from Doug Wilson–words that he fully intended to be heard by everyone and therefore open for discussion and critique. So, we are not slandering Doug Wilson.

Have you talked to Doug Wilson? Yes. However, we find it enlightening that we have never been asked, “Have you talked to the victims?” We have only been asked if we’ve heard Doug’s side of the story. Nate has personally talked with Doug on several occasions about his beliefs and yes, we have spoken to numerous witnesses who have been harmed directly by him or through his teachings.

But what about context? Yes, context is important, and this is one of the reasons Nate spent innumerable hours reading Doug’s books in their entirety and why he met with Doug in person–so that there would be no question regarding context. We have done our best to ensure we are not taking Doug out of context and we also provide citations for every quote to allow for further investigation.

Are you misunderstanding Doug? This is actually one of the problems that we will be addressing: Doug’s writings are some of the most confusing and convoluted literature we have ever encountered and whether intentionally perplexing or not, this unclarity has often successfully insulated him from accusation. However, words have meaning and we believe that Doug should be held accountable for his words, including any potential ambiguity he creates, especially since multitudes of individuals and even entire denominations have condemned his unbiblical teaching for over twenty years.³ As Scripture warns, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1, ESV).

What about those who have had a positive experience at Christ Church? We have met many followers who feel blessed by Doug and his church. No one has called the elders on them, the husband is respectful and helpful, and the children seem to be thriving. Because they have not personally experienced any of the horrible things that others have encountered, they are not concerned and seem to dismiss the many accounts of abuse as mere gossip and slander. Most do not seek out the people who were harmed to ask for their side of the story. Doug’s side alone is sufficient. They seem to live in an ignorance is bliss reality and some have even admitted they refuse to read Doug’s blog because they do not fully agree with his content or tone. But they attend Christ Church or another CREC church. While our experiences influence our perspective, we believe it is important that our experiences not trump the Word of God. And if someone communicates a message that is contrary to Scripture, they should be called out and corrected in love, rather than excused simply because we have not personally seen any bad fruit from their teaching. And in the case where there is no repentance, publicly warning others is appropriate (Gal. 2:11ff; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 3:17; 4:20).

Who are you? Nate served as a missionary to Cambodia for several years before returning to the States to attend The Master’s Seminary, graduating with a BTH in 2009. Nate met Christiana at his home church during that time. We met, married, and left for Cambodia in 2010 with our three-month-old daughter. After eight years on the field (and two additional sons), we made the difficult decision to return to the States. We left the field for many reasons, but primarily because we were burned out and both Christiana and our oldest son were suffering from health issues. Our family moved to Moscow, Idaho in 2018. We chose Moscow because of two close friend connections, both families holding membership in CREC churches, the denomination that Doug Wilson helped to establish.⁴ We knew about Wilson and almost didn’t move to Moscow because of his growing, concerning influence.

When we arrived in Moscow, our friends kindly organized meals for us through their churches and arranged for a dozen or so helpful guys from New Saint Andrews (NSA, a college founded by Doug’s church)⁵ to unload our moving van. One of those friends went above and beyond by generously providing affordable housing for us for over two years. We remain incredibly thankful for the remarkable benevolence of these friends and strangers. By God’s grace through his people, Nate was able to continue his translation work remotely with his team in Cambodia (and continues to this day, annually traveling to Asia).

One of our close friends in Moscow was a member of Doug Wilson’s church and felt that if Nate met with Doug, any misconceptions would be answered. Nate agreed and asked questions based on our limited knowledge at the time. While we were amazed that Doug would meet and cordially answer questions, nothing from that meeting changed our previous reservations, as his beliefs were not in alignment with our convictions, specifically in regard to how he and his church dealt with sexual abuse cases⁶ (especially as Christiana had a history of childhood sexual abuse) and also his view on American slavery.⁷ Around that time, we were hospitably invited to the weekly Sabbath Dinner with Doug Wilson and his family. It felt like we were being courted by our Christ Church friends to convince us to join their church. They invited us to several dinners with other Doug-followers, otherwise known as “Kirkers” as well as several Christ Church events, even though they knew we had concerns with Doug’s teachings.

But as time progressed, our concerns only deepened as we encountered more and more people who had been wounded through the teaching and counsel they had received at Christ Church. We did not seek these people out, but met them through the normal course of our lives here. Eventually, some did seek us out, asking for advice and counsel. Stories of marital rape, mishandled sex-abuse scandals, occurrences of pedophilia, child pornography, and a consistent retelling of a church culture built on fear and outward conformity to a man-made standard of behavior were alarming. So many hurt, so many abandoned by their church and pastor, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. Some questioning the goodness and grace of God because they felt his earthly representatives had failed them.

We sent our kids to Logos School for a time (a school founded by Doug and two others),⁸ and the school generously offered us a significant scholarship. After Logos, our children attended The Jubliee School, founded by Kirker families. After five years in Doug Wilson-approved Christian schools, our children now attend public school. We also donated financially to NSA in exchange for Nate attending a computer programming class.

When speaking with non-Christians in town about our kids attending Logos, the conversation was quickly cut short because of Doug Wilson’s notorious reputation here in Moscow. Not because he is a Christian pastor, but because many in the town feel that he and his followers persist in maintaining an antagonistic attitude toward them, arguably culminating during the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to us removing our children from Logos (among many other reasons). At Logos and within Kirker families, we observed children being treated as though they were saved because they had been baptized as infants and therefore children confidently believing they were saved, simply because they were baptized. Other issues we observed were that slander and gossip were incorrectly used to label and squash any dissenting opinions. There was only one voice: Doug’s. “Have you asked Pastor Doug about that?” “Pastor Doug said…” “You should talk to Pastor Doug” was the oft-repeated answer among those in the Christ Church community when questions were asked or even when simply discussing life in general. The sad reality was that we rarely heard, “What does God say?” from his followers. Doug’s opinion seemed to matter the most.

These experiences led Nate to more closely examine Doug’s theology and teaching. He started reading Doug’s books, seeking to discern if this was all just bad practice, or if there was something deeper going on. After reading over twenty of his books and meeting with Doug two additional times, it became clear to us that there are concerning errors within Doug’s theology. As Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously said: “False teaching leads to false living.” We have therefore decided to publicly make a stand in the form of this blog and in the words of Martin Luther: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen.”

A final note about us: We do not hate Doug Wilson and we do not hate his followers. It is from a heart of love that we are choosing to write this blog. Christiana was a devout member and defender of an unhealthy church for a decade (from the age of 15-25), and despite a myriad of people warning her through those years, she completely dismissed the opposition because she truly believed that her beloved pastor alone possessed the Truth (except for a very few like-minded churches spread around the country). It took one lone voice after ten years, to gently, boldly speak the actual truth in love–that her pastor and church were in error–to open her eyes and she is forever grateful for that gift. We have extra grace toward those who adhere to Doug’s teaching because of her experience. We know that only God can change hearts, but we do pray that he will use our words to plant a seed, if only to encourage you to return to Scripture and examine for yourself to see if these things [are] so (Acts 17:11, ESV).

Footnotes

Footnotes

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240727103732/https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/mark-driscoll-and-problems-of-citation.html See also this helpful article by Keven DeYoung: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/bell-brouhaha/ ↩

2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230326080227/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/slander ↩

3. “On June 22, 2002, Covenant Presbytery of the RPCUS declared that certain teachings at a pastors’ conference presented by Steve Schlissel, Steve Wilkins, John Barach and, as the Victorians would have put it, the present writer, involved a ‘fundamental denial of the essence of the Christian Gospel in the denial of justification by faith alone.’ Consequently, the four of us were declared to be heretics.” Douglas Wilson, Reformed is Not Enough, Canon Press, 2002, loc 58, Kindle Edition.
   NOTE: The system of works-based salvation Wilson helped create is called the Federal Vision and has been widely condemned:
   “…the ‘New Perspectives on Paul’, and the ‘Federal Vision’, are in conflict with the teaching of Scripture and as such they are unacceptable.” - Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church: https://web.archive.org/web/20221006145752/http://arpchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Minutes-of-Synod-2009-Web.pdf
   “That the General Assembly recommend that presbyteries, sessions, and pastors be proactive in addressing teaching of the New Perspective on Paul and of the Federal Vision and other like teachings that compromise the purity of the gospel.” - Orthodox Presbyterian Church: https://web.archive.org/web/20220524152347/https://opc.org/GA/justification.pdf “…the teachings of the Federal Vision herein reviewed and critiqued seriously undermine the testimony of the Gospel and are substantially at odds with the Christian gospel…if Wilson is going to be clear of heresy he must renounce his errors and confusion and truly affirm the historic protestant doctrine of justification by means of faith alone apart from works of any kind – including the work of baptism!” - The Reformed Church in the United States: https://web.archive.org/web/20240509165428/https://rcus.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/RCUS-Position-Federal-Vision-2006f.pdf
   “Our concern is that some of those who are baptized will simply presume on God’s grace, ‘continuing in the covenant’ without ‘apostatizing’ but also without justifying faith (cf. Matthew 22:1-14)” - The Presbyterian Church in America: https://web.archive.org/web/20231211234041/https://www.pcahistory.org/pca/studies/07-fvreport.pdf “…we humbly but resolutely stand against the theological errors now current, propagated by certain teachings of what has become known as the Federal Vision” - Mid America Reformed Seminary https://web.archive.org/web/20231207134042/https://www.midamerica.edu/uploads/files/pdf/errors.pdf ↩

4. https://web.archive.org/web/20240529232313/https://greyfriarshall.com/faculty/ ↩

5. https://www.zoominfo.com/c/new-saint-andrews-college/371633230 ↩

6. See https://heidelblog.net/2023/07/hohn-cho-on-missing-the-point-of-sexual-abuse/ for one examination that includes some of the details about mishandled abuse cases by Christ Church ↩

7. See https://thecripplegate.com/the-bible-condemns-american-slavery/ for a complete critique of Doug Wilson’s view on slavery ↩

8. https://web.archive.org/web/20240513031535/https://logosschool.com/about/history/ ↩