===douglas wilson===
Douglas James Wilson (born 1953) is a conservative Reformed and evangelical theologian, pastor
at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and author and speaker. Wilson is known for his writing on classical Christian education, Reformed theology, as well as general cultural commentary. His most controversial work is Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he coauthored with Steve Wilkins. He is also featured in the documentary film Collision documenting his debates with anti-theist
Christopher Hitchens on their promotional tour for the book Is Christianity Good for the World?. Doug Wilson’s father had a vision for taking over towns in the name of Christianity, and Doug Wilson has followed his lead in Moscow, Idaho.
at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and author and speaker. Wilson is known for his writing on classical Christian education, Reformed theology, as well as general cultural commentary. His most controversial work is Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he coauthored with Steve Wilkins. He is also featured in the documentary film Collision documenting his debates with anti-theist
Christopher Hitchens on their promotional tour for the book Is Christianity Good for the World?. Doug Wilson’s father had a vision for taking over towns in the name of Christianity, and Doug Wilson has followed his lead in Moscow, Idaho.
|
A look inside Christian nationalism — with an Idaho emphasis Moscow — a college town that skews to the left of Idaho’s political mainstream — is an unlikely vanguard in the debate over Christian nationalism. But the preacher of a fundamentalist church is determined to transform the politics of the Palouse, as part of a bigger campaign to make America an explicitly Christian nation. Schools are the centerpiece of Doug Wilson’s crusade. In National Public Radio’s “Extremely American” podcast, Boise-based journalist Heath Druzin takes an in-depth look at Christian nationalism. The series focuses largely on Wilson, his Moscow-based Christ Church and its inroads in the region’s education ecosystem. In this email interview, we ask Druzin about what he learned — and how education is at the heart of the Christian nationalism movement. (Favs 9/21/24) READ MORE>>>>> |
 Kevin Richert
The most important thing to know about Doug Wilson is he believes he is in a spiritual war and that he has a vision for weaponizing Christian education and preaching to create a figurative army to change America into an explicitly Christian nation. When I interviewed him, he called his students “munitions.”
Now Wilson was in the Navy, as was his father, Jim Wilson, who wrote an influential book on evangelizing called Principles of War. So Doug Wilson says his sometimes violent language is simply drawing from his background and is 100% figurative. And it’s true, as far as I can tell, Doug Wilson has never called for actual violence. But the language certainly unsettles some people. --Kevin Richert; Favs News; A look inside Christian nationalism — with an Idaho emphasis 9.21.24 |
Douglas Wilson
"From the time Ephesians was written up to the time of Constantine, there were intermittent persecutions of the church by the Roman authority, some of them quite savage. So it's not as though the Christians in that era or the next century or the century after that were living in small-town America, Mayberry. That wasn't their situation, nevertheless, they were called to faithfulness. I'm very optimistic about the future of human history. That doesn't mean that I don't have eyes in my head. I can see things disintegrating around us now. I believe that we really are in clown world now, but if you take human history and look at it in 500-year increments, I'm really optimistic. If you take human history and look at it in 5-year increments there are periods where things are looking pretty bad. It looks like everything's falling apart. Revolutionaries have a central characteristic, and that is that they are impatient...What do we want? XYZ. When do we want it? Now.' They want dramatic, revolutionary, sometimes violent change, and they want it now. Christians are reformational, not revolutionary. We've got big plans, and God has great designs for this sorry world of ours, but he wants the yeast to work through the loaf gradually. He wants the mustard seed to grow up gradually. He wants the water that's going to fill the earth like the knowledge of the Lord, he wants the water to fill up the earth gradually. So consequently, we need to develop a different mindset." --Douglas Wilson; 1819 News: From 'clown world' to Christendom — Pastor Doug Wilson explains what it takes to re-create a Christian civilization through education 6/9/24
One unanticipated outcome of all the attention on Wilson is that Examining Doug Wilson and Moscow seems to finally be attracting awareness to the undercurrent of abuse within Wilson’s world. One admin, whom I referred to with the biblically inspired pseudonym “Priscilla and Aquila” in Disobedient Women due to safety concerns stemming from threats for EDWAM’s efforts, told me, “Really, I think I’ve felt all along that eventually enough data will be out there that people will have no choice but to get it.” Priscilla and Aquila added that they hoped “so many horrified, normal Christians will be looking in, that the ones who were kind of mesmerized by him will start to kind of wake up. And I think I’m seeing that.” |
That Moscow Mood
This year, it started with a flamethrower. At the start of November, 70-year-old Moscow, Idaho, evangelical Christian pastor Douglas Wilson was featured in a video promoting this year’s “No Quarter November,” Wilson’s annual monthlong offensive against enemies of his ministry and his views, pursued mostly through the publication of sharply worded blog posts aimed at ruffling extra feathers. In that promo video, Wilson appears carving a Thanksgiving turkey while promising ways to “apocalypse-proof your family.” He touts half a century of “culture war and culture building.” He warns against “being a wuss.” A red-alert alarm sounds, prompting Wilson to head outdoors and strap on a flamethrower to spray fire at cutouts of social media logos and Disney characters. As flames consumed the feminine silhouettes of Ariel and Elsa, the viewer might conclude this guy was a winner in the culture wars. (Sarah Stankorb/Slate 12/2/23) READ MORE>>>>> |
In dialogue with Doug Wilson and the ‘pop Calvinists,’ at least Wilson is consistent
Twenty-three years after John Piper called Doug Wilson an “absolute genius at sarcasm and irony,” pop Calvinists are still wringing their hands over how to respond to the conservative Reformed pastor from Moscow, Idaho. “You’re very clever, really clever. And I think we need you like crazy,” Piper said of Wilson back then.
(Rick Pidcock/Baptist News Global 12/14/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
Twenty-three years after John Piper called Doug Wilson an “absolute genius at sarcasm and irony,” pop Calvinists are still wringing their hands over how to respond to the conservative Reformed pastor from Moscow, Idaho. “You’re very clever, really clever. And I think we need you like crazy,” Piper said of Wilson back then.
(Rick Pidcock/Baptist News Global 12/14/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
Douglas Wilson
The primacy of worship: I have already mentioned the importance of worship in our thinking. The late Andrew Breitbart used to argue that culture was upstream from politics. This is exactly correct, but we would also add that worship is upstream from culture. Henry Van Til once said that culture was religion externalized. If that is the case, as we believe it is, then America is currently worshiping some pug-ugly gods. As we work on our response to all of this, we distinguish the church from the kingdom. To use the metaphor of a medieval town, the church is at the center of the town, and the kingdom would be all the shops and homes. The church is the ministry of Word and sacrament, but the worship conducted there shapes and informs everything else. Church and kingdom are distinct, but they are all under the authority of Christ and His Word. And worship on the Lord’s Day is the most important aspect of our lives.
Biblical absolutism: We have rejected the Enlightenment project, root and branch. We do not want the Bible to occupy a position of authority that is limited to some private devotional space. We want that at a minimum, of course, but we also believe that the Word brings everything under judgment, which means that we do not subject it to our judgments. Human reason is a gift from God, but reason has to be understood as the rods and cones of the eye, and not as the source of light. Reason sees light, but does not create it. Our reason enables us to search out what God is telling us through His Word, and through the way He created the world. Eyes can see a flashlight without aspiring to become a flashlight.
Chestertonian Calvinism: Our desire is to learn how to take the truth of God seriously without taking ourselves seriously. What we are after is historic Reformed theology, but with a crisp citrus-like aftertaste.
Not wilting under criticism: It probably does not come as a shock to discover that not everyone thinks we are wonderful. Some of what we get is good faith criticism, which we always want to welcome, and want to answer in kind. But many of the incoming attacks are bizarre, outlandish, off-the-chain, and slanderous. We welcome this kind also, but mostly because Jesus requires us to (Matt. 5:11-12). And what this has actually done is create a very robust immune system for us. As mentioned earlier, many people have decided to move here, and in order to do so now they almost always have to wade through a torrent of abuse that has been directed at us. That means that those who sign up have already seen all sorts of allegations. The fact that we have weathered this kind of hostility, and the fact that it is taken in high good humor, has been particularly attractive to those Christians who discovered over the last three years that their pastors and elders had the ecclesiastical equivalent of a glass jaw.
Practical Christian living: We have sought to imitate the pattern that the apostle Paul used in his epistle to the Ephesians. There are the first three chapters that are crammed full of indicative statements, which we believe embody the fullness of Reformed theology. What we find there is credenda—things to believe. But with that foundation poured, the apostle goes on to instruct the saints on how to live. The last three chapters of Ephesians provide the agenda—things to do. Pursue unity. Love one another. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, respect your husbands. Children, obey your parents. The end result is rich doctrinal teaching that has a very practical bent.
Emphasis on thoroughgoing Christian education: From the earliest days of our ministry here, we have emphasized the importance of Christian education for our covenant children. The result of this emphasis is that virtually no children in our community are in the government school system, and approximately 30 percent of the children in our entire town are receiving a private Christian education. One goal, and it is not an outlandish goal considering, is to see government education drop below 50 percent.
Worldview thinking: Owen Barfield once said of C.S. Lewis that what he thought about everything was contained within what he said about anything. That is as succinct a definition of worldview thinking as anyone could ask for. We believe that everything is connected under the Lordship of Christ, and we seek self-consciously to make those connections in our minds as we engage with the culture around us. We want people to remember that they are Christians all the time, and there is never an appropriate time to “switch it off.” As Abraham Kuyper once claimed, there is not one square inch of the universe over which the Lord Jesus does not lay authoritative claim.
Postmillennial optimism: One unique doctrinal characteristic of our community is the eschatological optimism. Most evangelicals in North America are premillennial in their convictions, which means that it is often assumed that when the surrounding culture goes to blazes, this is only to be expected, and is yet another sign that the end is near. But our understanding of scriptural prophecy is different, in that we expect that before the Lord returns, the world will be successfully evangelized, and that includes America. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9; Hab. 2:14). This is the reason why clown world doesn’t have us quite as discouraged as it does some others.
A biblical aesthetic: We believe that Christians need to do better than to cultivate merely two-thirds of the triad of “truth, goodness, and beauty.” Christians historically have contributed a great deal to the treasury of the world’s aesthetic glories—from the music of Bach, to the lines of Salisbury cathedral, to the poetry of George Herbert—but we believe that for the last century or so, we have unfortunately started to mail it in. We believe that Christians need to be called back to their responsibility to see aesthetics as an essential part of our apologetic to the world. The reformation and revival we pray for will absolutely need to include a reformation of the arts. So much of the modern and postmodern world is just mud-fence ugly.
Masculine authority: Because we are not taking our cues from the world’s egalitarianism, but rather from Scripture, we believe that God’s pattern for life between the sexes is that men are to provide for and protect their wives and families. The husband is to serve as the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church (Eph. 5:25). And in the church, the Bible absolutely forbids women to teach or to exercise authority over men (1 Tim. 2:12). Not only do we accept all of this on Scripture’s authority, we are also resolved not to feel the least bit sheepish about it. What this has resulted in is that our men are not made to feel ashamed of their masculinity, but rather are exhorted to pursue the honor of Christ with it, and to use it as an instrument with which they love their families.
Feminine glory: Far from this resulting in downtrodden women with exasperated looks on their faces, this has had the effect of liberating our women, not from the men, but from the lies of feminism. Scripture teaches that when husbands love their wives sacrificially, the end result is that the wives flourish in loveliness. The husband is the head, but the wife is the crown. But we do not believe that feminine loveliness is of the porcelain doll variety, but rather is a Christian version of the sort that knows how to “make a dress out of a feed bag, and make a man out of you.” It turns out that women are much happier striving to be first-rate women, rather than trying to struggle along as third-rate men. And the same truth, flipped around, applies to the men also.
--Douglas Wilson; American Conservative; What’s Going On in Moscow, Idaho? 10/16/23
Biblical absolutism: We have rejected the Enlightenment project, root and branch. We do not want the Bible to occupy a position of authority that is limited to some private devotional space. We want that at a minimum, of course, but we also believe that the Word brings everything under judgment, which means that we do not subject it to our judgments. Human reason is a gift from God, but reason has to be understood as the rods and cones of the eye, and not as the source of light. Reason sees light, but does not create it. Our reason enables us to search out what God is telling us through His Word, and through the way He created the world. Eyes can see a flashlight without aspiring to become a flashlight.
Chestertonian Calvinism: Our desire is to learn how to take the truth of God seriously without taking ourselves seriously. What we are after is historic Reformed theology, but with a crisp citrus-like aftertaste.
Not wilting under criticism: It probably does not come as a shock to discover that not everyone thinks we are wonderful. Some of what we get is good faith criticism, which we always want to welcome, and want to answer in kind. But many of the incoming attacks are bizarre, outlandish, off-the-chain, and slanderous. We welcome this kind also, but mostly because Jesus requires us to (Matt. 5:11-12). And what this has actually done is create a very robust immune system for us. As mentioned earlier, many people have decided to move here, and in order to do so now they almost always have to wade through a torrent of abuse that has been directed at us. That means that those who sign up have already seen all sorts of allegations. The fact that we have weathered this kind of hostility, and the fact that it is taken in high good humor, has been particularly attractive to those Christians who discovered over the last three years that their pastors and elders had the ecclesiastical equivalent of a glass jaw.
Practical Christian living: We have sought to imitate the pattern that the apostle Paul used in his epistle to the Ephesians. There are the first three chapters that are crammed full of indicative statements, which we believe embody the fullness of Reformed theology. What we find there is credenda—things to believe. But with that foundation poured, the apostle goes on to instruct the saints on how to live. The last three chapters of Ephesians provide the agenda—things to do. Pursue unity. Love one another. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, respect your husbands. Children, obey your parents. The end result is rich doctrinal teaching that has a very practical bent.
Emphasis on thoroughgoing Christian education: From the earliest days of our ministry here, we have emphasized the importance of Christian education for our covenant children. The result of this emphasis is that virtually no children in our community are in the government school system, and approximately 30 percent of the children in our entire town are receiving a private Christian education. One goal, and it is not an outlandish goal considering, is to see government education drop below 50 percent.
Worldview thinking: Owen Barfield once said of C.S. Lewis that what he thought about everything was contained within what he said about anything. That is as succinct a definition of worldview thinking as anyone could ask for. We believe that everything is connected under the Lordship of Christ, and we seek self-consciously to make those connections in our minds as we engage with the culture around us. We want people to remember that they are Christians all the time, and there is never an appropriate time to “switch it off.” As Abraham Kuyper once claimed, there is not one square inch of the universe over which the Lord Jesus does not lay authoritative claim.
Postmillennial optimism: One unique doctrinal characteristic of our community is the eschatological optimism. Most evangelicals in North America are premillennial in their convictions, which means that it is often assumed that when the surrounding culture goes to blazes, this is only to be expected, and is yet another sign that the end is near. But our understanding of scriptural prophecy is different, in that we expect that before the Lord returns, the world will be successfully evangelized, and that includes America. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9; Hab. 2:14). This is the reason why clown world doesn’t have us quite as discouraged as it does some others.
A biblical aesthetic: We believe that Christians need to do better than to cultivate merely two-thirds of the triad of “truth, goodness, and beauty.” Christians historically have contributed a great deal to the treasury of the world’s aesthetic glories—from the music of Bach, to the lines of Salisbury cathedral, to the poetry of George Herbert—but we believe that for the last century or so, we have unfortunately started to mail it in. We believe that Christians need to be called back to their responsibility to see aesthetics as an essential part of our apologetic to the world. The reformation and revival we pray for will absolutely need to include a reformation of the arts. So much of the modern and postmodern world is just mud-fence ugly.
Masculine authority: Because we are not taking our cues from the world’s egalitarianism, but rather from Scripture, we believe that God’s pattern for life between the sexes is that men are to provide for and protect their wives and families. The husband is to serve as the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church (Eph. 5:25). And in the church, the Bible absolutely forbids women to teach or to exercise authority over men (1 Tim. 2:12). Not only do we accept all of this on Scripture’s authority, we are also resolved not to feel the least bit sheepish about it. What this has resulted in is that our men are not made to feel ashamed of their masculinity, but rather are exhorted to pursue the honor of Christ with it, and to use it as an instrument with which they love their families.
Feminine glory: Far from this resulting in downtrodden women with exasperated looks on their faces, this has had the effect of liberating our women, not from the men, but from the lies of feminism. Scripture teaches that when husbands love their wives sacrificially, the end result is that the wives flourish in loveliness. The husband is the head, but the wife is the crown. But we do not believe that feminine loveliness is of the porcelain doll variety, but rather is a Christian version of the sort that knows how to “make a dress out of a feed bag, and make a man out of you.” It turns out that women are much happier striving to be first-rate women, rather than trying to struggle along as third-rate men. And the same truth, flipped around, applies to the men also.
--Douglas Wilson; American Conservative; What’s Going On in Moscow, Idaho? 10/16/23
How we speak does matter
Kevin De Young has written an important critique of the Moscow crowd led by Doug Wilson. Kevin’s offering is both irenic and castigating. Kevin’s stated purpose is less to address theological concerns coming from the Moscow of Idaho, but to explain the success of Moscow and why this ought to concern Christians.
(Murray Campbell 11/29/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
Kevin De Young has written an important critique of the Moscow crowd led by Doug Wilson. Kevin’s offering is both irenic and castigating. Kevin’s stated purpose is less to address theological concerns coming from the Moscow of Idaho, but to explain the success of Moscow and why this ought to concern Christians.
(Murray Campbell 11/29/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
On Culture War, Doug Wilson, and the Moscow Mood
“Each of the great world civilizations,” Christopher Dawson wrote in his classic work from the 1940s on Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, “has been faced with the problem of reconciling the aggressive ethos of the warrior with the moral ideals of a universal religion. But in none of them has the tension been so vital and intense as in medieval Christendom and nowhere have the results been more important for the history of culture.” At the heart of Dawson’s provocative thesis is the insistence that Western European culture was the coming together of two cultures, two social traditions, and two spiritual worlds. The cultural formation of Europe combined “the war society of the barbarian kingdom with its cult of heroism and aggression,” leavened by “the peace society of the Christian Church with its ideals of asceticism and renunciation and its high theological culture.” Arguably, the Crusades expressed the best and the worst of this synthesis. There were times when the fusion of warrior-heroism and Christian virtue produced something noble and exemplary during the centuries-long effort to reclaim the Holy Land. And there were times when the fusion failed and produced something ugly and lamentable. But even the failures teach us about the aspirational ideals of Christendom. We cannot understand the rise of Western culture without the religious unity imposed by the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, and likewise, we cannot understand the flourishing of Christendom unless we understand that it grew up out of the soil of warrior kings and barbarian kingdoms. (Kevin DeYoung/Clearly Reformed 11/27/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
“Each of the great world civilizations,” Christopher Dawson wrote in his classic work from the 1940s on Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, “has been faced with the problem of reconciling the aggressive ethos of the warrior with the moral ideals of a universal religion. But in none of them has the tension been so vital and intense as in medieval Christendom and nowhere have the results been more important for the history of culture.” At the heart of Dawson’s provocative thesis is the insistence that Western European culture was the coming together of two cultures, two social traditions, and two spiritual worlds. The cultural formation of Europe combined “the war society of the barbarian kingdom with its cult of heroism and aggression,” leavened by “the peace society of the Christian Church with its ideals of asceticism and renunciation and its high theological culture.” Arguably, the Crusades expressed the best and the worst of this synthesis. There were times when the fusion of warrior-heroism and Christian virtue produced something noble and exemplary during the centuries-long effort to reclaim the Holy Land. And there were times when the fusion failed and produced something ugly and lamentable. But even the failures teach us about the aspirational ideals of Christendom. We cannot understand the rise of Western culture without the religious unity imposed by the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, and likewise, we cannot understand the flourishing of Christendom unless we understand that it grew up out of the soil of warrior kings and barbarian kingdoms. (Kevin DeYoung/Clearly Reformed 11/27/23)
READ MORE>>>>>
Douglas Wilson
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower: The righteous runneth into it, and is safe”
Proverbs 18:10. In times of trouble, people naturally and instinctively resort to their god. If their God is the God of the Bible, they cry out to Him and are delivered. But if there is a natural disaster, say, and they cry out for FEMA to arrive, this shows that their faith is in the power of the state, in the power of government. In times of trial, people turn to their gods, and this is why times of trial are truly revelatory. Times of trial reveal the names of the gods. Only Jehovah is capable of providing the kind of protection that we most certainly need in a world like this one. As this proverb puts it, His name is strong tower. Notice that it is His name that is a strong tower. Remember that when the difficulty erupts into our lives, it is His name that we call out. His name is a strong tower." --Douglas Wilson
Proverbs 18:10. In times of trouble, people naturally and instinctively resort to their god. If their God is the God of the Bible, they cry out to Him and are delivered. But if there is a natural disaster, say, and they cry out for FEMA to arrive, this shows that their faith is in the power of the state, in the power of government. In times of trial, people turn to their gods, and this is why times of trial are truly revelatory. Times of trial reveal the names of the gods. Only Jehovah is capable of providing the kind of protection that we most certainly need in a world like this one. As this proverb puts it, His name is strong tower. Notice that it is His name that is a strong tower. Remember that when the difficulty erupts into our lives, it is His name that we call out. His name is a strong tower." --Douglas Wilson
April 28, 2023: 9 Marks: Book Review: Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America, by Crawford Gribben
Amidst growing societal pressure and a waning consensus on the best manner of Christian political engagement, American evangelicals face a torrent of suggestions for how to relate to the public square. Some opt for direct action on local, state, and national levels. Others avoid such activism. Some seek to build think tanks, schools, and other institutions in global centers of power. Others call for a strategic retreat in order to build a new society. Each movement has its arguments and growing body of literature. But it’s this last group that forms the subject of Crawford Gribben’s Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest. What’s appealed to survivalists in previous generations has now found a following among American evangelicals. In particular, hundreds of evangelicals have moved northwest in the hopes of building a better society. |
Gribben’s description focuses on a few growing communities in the Pacific Northwest. Most notably—and, in Gribben’s view, the most successful—is the one in Moscow, Idaho led by Douglas Wilson and others. Through careful research and personal interviews, Gribben describes some of the history, beliefs, and challenges facing these communities, as well as the troubling past of similar movements. |
March 8, 2023: Religion News Service: In North Idaho, religious and secular activists work to fight Christian nationalism
In Rehberg’s hometown of Moscow, Pastor Doug Wilson, a well-known purveyor of Christian nationalism who has helped found two churches in the area, as well as a K-12 school and a college, has talked about making Moscow “a Christian town.” With a public university campus and a tradition of independent thinkers, Moscow seems unlikely to fulfill Wilson’s vision. And some of the pastor’s biggest detractors are fellow Christians: Local Episcopal leaders, Rehberg said, have had “significant conversations” with other mainline Christian leaders about how to be an “alternative voice.”
In Rehberg’s hometown of Moscow, Pastor Doug Wilson, a well-known purveyor of Christian nationalism who has helped found two churches in the area, as well as a K-12 school and a college, has talked about making Moscow “a Christian town.” With a public university campus and a tradition of independent thinkers, Moscow seems unlikely to fulfill Wilson’s vision. And some of the pastor’s biggest detractors are fellow Christians: Local Episcopal leaders, Rehberg said, have had “significant conversations” with other mainline Christian leaders about how to be an “alternative voice.”
Feb 22, 2023: Religion News Service: How big Christian nationalism has come courting in North Idaho
Many churches in northern Idaho refused to close even as the pandemic peaked here. In September 2020, at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, founded by Reformed pastor Douglas Wilson, members staged a protest outside City Hall, singing Psalms maskless in defiance of local ordinances, resulting in three arrests.
National Republicans were watching this rebellion among these ardent right-wing Christians and tried to make it an election-year issue. “DEMS WANT TO SHUT YOUR CHURCHES DOWN, PERMANENTLY,” then-President Donald Trump tweeted.
Far from shutting down, Wilson’s congregation has doubled over the past four years. “A lot of the fomented discontent of the last two years, I would say, is 80% of the reason people come here,” said Wilson in a recent interview in his office. The pastor himself, while claiming his take on pandemic rules is more nuanced, has made dismissive fun of masking and argued in favor of fake vaccine cards for the unvaccinated.
Many churches in northern Idaho refused to close even as the pandemic peaked here. In September 2020, at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, founded by Reformed pastor Douglas Wilson, members staged a protest outside City Hall, singing Psalms maskless in defiance of local ordinances, resulting in three arrests.
National Republicans were watching this rebellion among these ardent right-wing Christians and tried to make it an election-year issue. “DEMS WANT TO SHUT YOUR CHURCHES DOWN, PERMANENTLY,” then-President Donald Trump tweeted.
Far from shutting down, Wilson’s congregation has doubled over the past four years. “A lot of the fomented discontent of the last two years, I would say, is 80% of the reason people come here,” said Wilson in a recent interview in his office. The pastor himself, while claiming his take on pandemic rules is more nuanced, has made dismissive fun of masking and argued in favor of fake vaccine cards for the unvaccinated.