The iconic Christian magazine “Christianity Today” will feature a profile in April’s issue of Doug Wilson, written by freelancer Molly Worthen. Worthen’s NY Times article about New St. Andrews two years ago represented a fawning, poorly-written and shallow account of her discovery of “classical education” in the midst of Idaho, of all places — I mean, who’d have thunk it? I sincerely hope her NSA article, as well as the CT piece, isn’t representative of the future of journalism, given that she stayed with NSA chief Roy Atwood during her time in Moscow two years ago. (Some of us journalists remember the good old days, when such an ethical breach would render a freelancer as close to un-hireable as possible).
I’m disappointed that CT would highlight Wilson and his work with anything other than a hard-hitting, unflinching investigation by a real journalist, and I’m puzzled at how a dilettante like Worthen landed the assignment. What I’m most curious about, however, is whether or not Moscow’s male, ordained, and congregationally-supported pastors will suddenly decide that, by golly, they feel, finally, “led” to condemn the words and work of a man whose misdeeds evidently torment them in private but cannot be examined by them in public until God frees them to do so — or until Christianity Today comes a-callin’.
It’s amazing how wide exposure encourages good men to take up a fight that some of us have taken on and endured for years. My hope is that the amateurish and misguided work of Molly Worthen is not mirrored, much less affirmed, by the amateurish and misguided words of those she chose to interview.