Thank you, Doug Wilson, for answering my email asking you if you were the “No Weatherman” posting, and posting venomously, on Moscow’s Vision 2020 forum. You say you’re not. I’m glad; thank you, Lord, that No Weatherman evidently isn’t a local pastor. I would have found that to be crushing.
However, someone IS posting mean-spirited, bigoted, slanderous innuendo about Barack Obama — without having the guts or whatever other body parts required to identify himself. N.W. has also said some fairly nasty things about me, but that’s par for the course; I didn’t start a blog and take on some of Moscow’s most powerful religious leaders without some idea that I’d catch flack. I have, and it happens.
I think that what makes me so sad about the whole Story of No Weatherman and his prolific cyber-thuggery is that many Vision readers assume him to be part of the Kirk, some of whose leadership has unfortunately put forth anonymous or pseudonymical comments on Vision that, whatever their value in the course of civic and civil discussion, have been judged worthless because of the sheer lack of integrity evinced by this kind of “Trinitarian skylarking.” There is a history there, a history replete with Shirley Pissdoff, Edna Wilmington, and other characters who don’t exist, including, it seems, the formerly ubiquitous Glenn Schwaller, who is curiously resistant to ever actually meeting anyone face to face. That No Weatherman, who refuses to identify himself or acknowledge my request that he do so, echoes much of Kirk leadership in his obvious contempt for both decency and Barack Obama, and employs the serrated edge of Doug Wilson regularly, although not as delicately, lends further credence to the notion that No Weatherman is likely familiar with Anselm House, New St. Andrews, or Christ Church. It’s possible, of course, as I’ve mentioned before, that No Weatherman is pleased to hide behind the assumption that he is a Kirker, and actually isn’t one. That’s disturbing for a couple of reasons: One, it’s obviously unfair to Wilson, et al., and two, it points out the less-than-stellar reputation of Christ Church and its ministers.
That reputation is well deserved. No other church in Moscow, and no other church organization I’ve ever known of in my 27-plus years as a Christian, engages with its community like Wilson’s men do. The stiff-middle-finger approach to living as neighbors, much less contending for the Gospel, is well documented. The Gospel is, in and of itself, an offense to people. But Christ Church’s offenses are not “of the Gospel.” They’re of a band of immature patriarchs, arrogant Calvinists, and wanna-be Oxford dons who show remarkable insouciance when insulting the sensibilities of “pagan” Moscow — that is, when they’re not actively, intentionally, set on poking their neighbors in the eye.
So I’m glad it’s not Wilson or anyone he knows, as he said in his response to me. That doesn’t mean it isn’t someone who’s acquainted with him, and it doesn’t lead me away from sadly concluding that if I were a betting woman, I’d bet that No Weatherman is a Kirker. And that, more than the obnoxious drivel from No, is the saddest and most discouraging aspect of this whole thing: A church whose past bad behavior makes it the automatic suspect when bullying, taunting, slanderous and stupid conduct rears its ugly head in Moscow.
The first century church enjoyed the favor — the goodwill– of all the people (Acts 2:47). Would it be asking too much that the 21st century church here could at the very least refrain from provoking the hostility of the people? Kindness, respect, and generosity of spirit are as freely available by the grace of the Holy Spirit now as they were then. The difference seems to be this: One church seemed dedicated to bringing people to the Lord Jesus; the other seems content merely to celebrate that they themselves got in.
And that’s the difference between eternal life and eternal condemnation. Not just for those “outside,” but in the Lord’s wisdom, for those at table Sunday mornings.