This really shouldn’t surprise anyone, coming as it does from a guy who applauded in years past one of his elder’s jokes about offering classes in adultery and plagiarism to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King day. But this is odious and obnoxious all on its own, and like so many of Doug Wilson’s utterances, it deserves strong and public rebuke.
So — Wilson on national security, Muslim jihad, and airport screening, delivered with a breezy, snotty racism that begs apology from all but the thousands of his followers who await his every pronouncement. From January 16’s Blog and Mablog:
” . . . of course the media has been complicit in covering for crazed Muslims, the kind that should give everyone the creeps and willies. I don’t believe you need full body scanners in every airport to find out that somebody’s name is Abdul Muhammad, and that he is flying without a passport.”
We have here a pastoral reminder of the need to combat the crime of Flying While Muslim, a dismissal of the inherent worth and dignity of Muslim men, and a display of contempt for government. Normally, Wilson needs more than a couple of sentences to achieve all of that. And coming after Christ Church elder Dale Courtney’s admonition to the air-traveling Christian man — if you saw a group of Mid-Eastern looking men, couldya take ’em? — it confirms that the men of the Kirk reflect the worst of American conservatism and nothing that looks remotely like Christianity.
In this time of rampant hate, bigotry, and suspicion, a true shepherd would caution his flock to not succumb to it all — to not demonstrate the rotten fruit of this world, but to instead live in the Fruit of the Spirit, walking in meekness, justice, peace, and love. But Wilson is not a true shepherd, and the fruit of his public ministry reeks. That thousands of men and women hang on to his every word and stock their shelves with his tomes on cultural engagement, family relations, theology, and everything else for which he claims ultimate expertise is an indictment of the discernment and maturity of the American Church, too often fooled by the blustery know-it-all and charmed by the puckish contrarian.
I pray that Wilson’s heart is pricked by my rebuke, even as it initially becomes fodder for the mockery that pervades Anselm House. That these men continue to prosper is a result of God’s patience, not God’s approval.
“You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good . . . ” (Matthew 5:43-45, NRSV)