In a Wilsonian Frame of Mind

Published on by D. G. Hart

That is Doug as opposed to Woodrow (to whom Mencken is giving it good and hard in my morning readings).

Our Pennsylvania correspondent sent me a piece that Doug Wilson posted about church officers who voted for President Obama:

Any evangelical leader — by which I mean someone like a minister or an elder — who voted for Obama the second time, is not qualified for the office he holds, and should resign that office. Unless and until he repents of how he is thinking about the challenges confronting our nation, he should not be entrusted with the care of souls. A shepherd who cannot identify wolves is not qualified to be a shepherd. . . .

Neither am I saying anything about the average parishioner. No doubt, he should be up to speed on biblical engagement with the issues of the day, and I would want to urge him to grow in his abilities to do so. But shepherds of God’s flock have a moral responsibility in this that is directly connected to their ability to discharge the responsibilities of their office. If a man is a pastor, and he voted for Obama in 2012, then his cultural astuteness is about as sharp as a bowling ball.

A generation later, it is easy for us to cluck our tongues at the German leaders who did not see what Hitler was doing, but it is very hard for us to see our complicity in things that are every bit as atrocious.

See, I did it. I mentioned Hitler, which is going to cause someone to appeal to Godwin’s Law. In Internet debate, according to the law, the first one to make the Nazi comparisons loses. This is apropos and funny in multiple situations. But if we live in a world in which genocide can and does occur — and we do — a supercilious appeal to Godwin when someone invokes the Holocaust when talking about Cambodia’s killing fields, or to the Rwandan slaughter, is to be too clever by half.

In Northern Ireland, that sort of assertion coming from the likes of Ian Paisley could reignite the troubles. Heck, I don’t think Doug could have gotten away with this during Woodrow’s administration. So perhaps a minister of the gospel should refrain from throwing verbal Molotov Cocktails?

But on the plus side, what a great country we live in even though Wilson is loathe to express proper gratitude. We may have Protestant ministers who are capable of Paisleyan fustigation, but Americans are loathe to shoot guns at each other for a group cause. As I write I can hear the snickers from Canada and Europe about Americans and their love and use of guns. But for a country that lacks Europe’s traditions of culture and settlement, this greatest nation on God’s green earth remains remarkably free from ethnic and religious civil war. (The real Civil War was different and may have spooked Americans from ever taking up arms against each other.)

In other words, Wilson can get away with this kind of verbal gun play because he enjoys a relatively peaceful and liberal society that gives everyone the chance to spout off (Wilson couldn’t get away with this in China or Turkey). In fact, he benefits from the full protection of the secular government that he so often denounces. Meanwhile, his denunciations are just so many words that government officials can ignore. The only things words like these break are not my Democratic neighbor’s bones but the endurance of Christians who might be better advised to live and act like they are in exile.

23 thoughts on “In a Wilsonian Frame of Mind”

  1. ..A shepherd who cannot identify wolves is not qualified to be a shepherd…..

    This from the guy who gave Leithart, the anti-protestant reformation-protestant, room and board. Amongst other transgressions. This all points to a deeper problem; some of these pastors are so piss poor that the best they can do are FOX News or contrastingly CNN, talking points. Who exactly is it, again, that is parroting the culture? No wonder Maher and Stewart get so much traction, the low-hanging fruit is endless.

    Like

  2. Some of those in exile obviously desire to shoot their way out, certain that the grass is greener on the other side of hte cultural fence. They should watch out for that lush, spongy patch over the septic line, though.

    Like

  3. first date with my wife, we went to hear Ian Paisley rant against the antichrist. Two and half hours. The second date we went for a walk on the beach. In January 1978.

    On 18 June 2010, Paisley was created a life peer as Baron Bannside, of North Antrim in the County of Antrim, and he was introduced in the House of Lords on 5 July 2010.

    In 2007, aged 81, he became First Minister of Northern Ireland. Paisley became the oldest sitting British MP. On 2 March 2010, it was announced that Paisley would step down as a member of parliament in the next general election; held on 6 May. His son Ian Paisley, Jr. was elected to succeed him in the seat In November 2011, Lord Bannside announced his retirement from the pastorate at his congregation, which he had led for over 60 years. He delivered his final sermon to a packed attendance at the Martyrs’ Memorial Hall on 18 December 2011.

    Paisley agreed with Bob Jones about what “regeneration” looks like.

    The slippery slope from “two kinds of grace” leads to Doug Wilson: “Special election IS covenantal election for those who by grace persevere. For those who fall away, covenantal election devolves into reprobation.”

    The Canons of Dordt, 1:9—Election was not founded upon the foreseen obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality or disposition in man, as the prerequisite, cause or condition on which election depends…Therefore election is the fountain of every good.”

    Like

  4. Woodrow Wilson (who was born in Staunton Va where my folks live) believed in some kind of god and was a member of a church, but that did not keep him from acting like god. (Read Richard Gamble!)

    If a “Christian” feels at home here in the empire, and not like a stranger, it still does not mean he thinks his god had given him a vocation to kill strangers (not my people)

    My paraphrase of George Steiner (My Unwritten Books, p 122): The Christian does well to keep his bags packed. If he is forced to resume his wondering, he will not regard this experience as a lamentable chastisement. It is also an opportunity. There is no society not worth exploring. And no nation not worth leaving if we need to. Exile means exodus, and new beginnings. Let us survive, if we survive, as guests among men. We will not kill them, but if they kill us, our hope is that the earth belongs to the Lord, and the Lord will resurrect us, even from death.

    Like

  6. MM – first date with my wife, we went to hear Ian Paisley rant against the antichrist. Two and half hours. The second date we went for a walk on the beach. In January 1978.

    Erik – The fact that you got a 2nd date means your wife is qualified for some kind of sainthood.

    Like

  8. wife qualified for a prize

    i get that a lot

    from people who don’t know her

    but do know me

    the insult reminds me that I must have been
    once upon a time
    a smooth talker

    Like

  9. I understand Doug’s position. And I think the wrong reaction would be to discount what he says. At the same time, he made statements and analogies that put a great burden of proof on himself and so that is what we should request of him, that he proves his case.

    Like

  10. @Curt
    What biblical or confessional basis is there that would require me to vote for Romney over Obama or face discipline from my church? What sort of evidence would be brought to bear in a church trial. I’m genuinely curious.

    Like

  12. SDB,
    IMO, the Biblical evidence points to voting for neither candidate. But for whom we should vote, or not vote, depends on the trustworthiness of the candidate and the policies they propose. And what we see is that Obama is not that different, and sometimes even worse that, from George Bush. So the question becomes, what’s the difference between voting for one over the other? And as I wrote, this is Doug Wilson’s task, not mine.

    Like

  13. Doug Wilson: “If a man is a pastor, and he voted for Obama in 2012, then his cultural astuteness is about as sharp as a bowling ball.”

    “Cultural astuteness” is now a biblical qualification for church office? Must have missed that verse.

    Phariseeism involves adding man’s traditions onto the requirements of God’s Word, often with the well-intentioned motive of fencing God’s Law. While I did not vote for Obama either time, and personally have trouble understanding why a confessional Reformed believer would want to vote for him given the policies and ideology for which he stands; nonetheless to claim that voting for Obama is a sin worthy of church discipline (in the case of church members) or defrocking (in the case of church officers) seems to me to be an example of phariseeism on steroids.

    But, perhaps I’m just not sufficiently “culturally astute” and should just resign my office.

    Like

  14. Doug Wilson rejects the distinction between law and gospel, at least after you are a Christian. It’s not so much that the law is now for us, as that–for Wilson–the law is now gospel, and the gospel is now law. It’s a little bit like being born in the covenant of grace but also at the same time being under the conditions of the covenant of works.

    http://ceaselesswanderings.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/a-short-credo-on-law-and-gospel-by-douglas-wilson-2/

    Doug Wilson—“I believe that to the believing heart, the Word of God in its entirety comes as gospel, bringing the sinner to salvation. This is particularly evident with the declaration of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, the heart of the gospel message. But it is also true of the Ten Commandments, which are words of joyful deliverance and salvation (Ex. 20:1). The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Psalm 19:7). Moses declared that the law was not too hard for Israel to keep.”

    Like

  15. Snicker? More like a snort.

    Indeed, no group causes in the land of individualists; instead, y’all just have the odd, predictable as clockwork nutbar who enters his workplace / school and starts shooting up the place.

    But freedom! Because ‘Merica, morans!

    USA!

    USA!

    USA!

    Like

  16. Also careless (dishonest?) of Wilson to identify Obama as a wolf from which the shepherd must protect the sheep, no? Since the a wolf in the NT is (always?) a false teacher within the church rather than an official of state.

    Like

  17. How is anyone 5% confident they have a clue what Doug Wilson could possibly mean by his public statements?

    This isn’t even the consistency of nailing jello to the wall.

    Like

  18. http://www.judgenap.com/books/theodore-and-woodrow/

    Fox news vs PBS

    In contrast to the Old School was the New School. New School Presbyterians were much looser with regard to the rigor by which they enforced ministerial allegiance to the documents. The New School became dominant in the North after the Civil War, but not in the Southern Presbyterian Church. There, the Old School was dominant from the denomination’s creation in 1861, when the Civil War began, until the early 20th century. There was a third group. These were the liberals

    Woodrow Wilson’s mother had a brother, James Woodrow. James Woodrow was by far the most prominent liberal in the Southern Presbyterian Church in the late 19th century.. His nephew Woodrow agreed with him. ….When Woodrow became president of Princeton University in 1902, replacing an Old School minister, Francis Patton, he oversaw a complete transformation of the university.

    Like

  20. When I read
    Owen
    Luther
    Calvin
    Bunyan
    Dathenus
    Ursinus………all of these, and more,
    I feel hope, comfort, love, and security, and that the Christ who died for me is working in my life by His Design and Providence to conform me to His image………giving me the desire to do His Will through the writings of these men of the scriptures……..even when I don’t necessarily feel that way all the time…….and the God who made me is using everything in my life (sin, mistakes, and all) for His glory and purpose

    When I read
    Trueman
    Phillips
    Piper
    Washer
    Wilson
    Reeder
    DeYoung
    Mahaney
    Adams
    Priolo
    Warren
    Byrd
    all of these, and others of similar persuasions,
    and,
    not to forget their most heralded icon – Jonathan Edwards
    ……I feel discouraged…..I look inward……..I feel like I am going to be shut up in a prison……….I feel that everything about who I am and how I am put together is not enough or will ever be enough……..and that I can never be good enough……until I heed all of their counsel and babbling…..and even then, there will be yet something else that I violated, or have not done, or did not do correctly……

    Even so, I trust in Scripture Alone, by Faith Alone, through Grace Alone, in Christ Alone, To the Glory of God Alone…..

    …….and still purpose to love my brothers and sisters in Christ in disagreement, even when they make me feel like I’m second class……….which I’m not, because I’m in Christ

    Like

  21. @ sean: I feel for you Brits; frankly, I think you’re hooped. Your country has let in the most unassimilable immigrants, failing to heed Enoch Powell’s sage concerns, for which he was criticized, when he was right. And instead of dealing with the situation, they go after ‘racists’, i.e. people who are rightly upset at the changes in their society, about Muslims on Brit soil who openly boast of bringing Sharia to the U.K. – and quisling like Rowan Williams who favours allowing a parallel court system for Muslims, as if English common law isn’t good enough for them…

    And unlike Canada, which manages to have a fair bit of long guns (rifles, shotguns) while not having the gun crime problems of America, the U.K. has a complete gun ban, and higher crime, same as Australia has, with its similar policies. (Frankly, we Canucks have the sweet spot, between the two extremes that both result in higher gun crime, in increasingly heterogeneous societies, thanks to unchecked immigration of undesirables… Canada’s cities may be ‘diverse’, but our rural areas are still overwhelmingly not especially so, thank goodness…)

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.