One thing (among many) that I dislike about twisted Christians such as Mr. Wilson is the misappropriation of genuine Christian sentiments. I have said something like “all of Christ for all of the world,” but by it I mean the Christian praxis of loving my neighbors needs to extend at least as far as my sharing of the gospel does.
I knew nothing of Doug Wilson until recent years, but I did grow up with the same brand of bad and dangerous teaching about women. Reading this is triggering all those memories for me. So much damage is done when a girl is taught these things. We grow up fearing our womanhood, wanting to please God, not understanding what a healthy relationship between a man and woman looks like as God designed it. Everything we do is based on fear not on the gospel and certainly not on the person of Jesus Christ.
The use of “whore” is a Biblical allusion…to the “whore of Babylon. “ I think my church interpreted it as something else, not the church.
Something that blows me away lately is watching how these extreme fundamentalist beliefs are quietly going mainstream. It seems more common than ever for men to voice a random “preference” for a “traditional woman”…nobody wanted that in the 90s, not where I lived. Wasn’t part of mainstream culture. Amazing to see how it’s all changed.
Peter Bell and Sarah Bader of the Sons of Patriarchy podcast have launched a nonprofit to educate and materially help (even escape or cross state lines) victims of domestic abuse in the CREC and other domineering/authoritarian religious communities. Resistance to Doug Wilson’s empire is growing in Idaho.
I remember reading one of Rachel Jankovic’s books when my boys were little. At the time we were in a nondenominational but looking back, Wilson-influenced church. I remember liking the book at the time because it made me feel like if I just had the right attitude I’d be able to control the two terribly busy and lovely toddlers I had. I did, however, spend time as a pre-teen in an extremely fundamentalist church and was once told off by my handbell choir director (lol) in front of all of my peers for wearing dress pants in lieu of a skirt on a Sunday night. I’ve never forgotten that. As a result I don’t at all police what my kids wear to church, even though my husband is a pastor. ANYWAY, this was a very thoughtful article and I keep reading about DW even though I’m already well convinced of his insanity and danger. Thank you for spreading the truth.
I want to know what it looks like to dress like you will be a wonderful wife and mother, and to look like you have been forgiven. Like, by making it this vague, they reserve the right to tell any girl that she's being immodest. "Everleigh, does that skirt say 'strength and dignity' to you? Because it sure doesn't to me. Looks like you're not a very good Christian."
I don’t remember anyone talking about Doug Wilson when I was growing up in my uber-conservative homeschool community back in the early ‘00s, but the paragraph about how girls should refrain from touching each other made my jaw drop. That was EXACTLY the type of thing I was taught as a teenager. (I literally had female friends tell me that I shouldn’t touch any of my friends, male or female, because of “how it might look”.)
It’s taken me years to realize that my “not physically affectionate” persona isn’t naturally me, it was a defense mechanism against being touch-starved as a teenager.
Substack showed me your post and I appreciate it a lot. I come from a Gothard background, so yeah -- it's frustrating to see people falling over in shock at Wilson's ideas as if they haven't been spreading into the mainstream like a toxic algae bloom for decades. I've seen ads for the Jankovic (can't check spelling on my phone) book and wanted to know what it's like while not wanting to upset my equilibrium by reading it, so thanks for taking that one for the team. :) I didn't know she was his daughter. That explains why she gets to be so sassy in a way that other women can't. Anyway, sorry for the long comment from a stranger. Thanks for this post.
Like him or hate him, what Mr. Wilson is essentially saying is this:
“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” - G.K.Chesterton
That’s the hard pill.
There is no neutral ground. To reject Mr. Wilson’s desire for Capitol Hill to bow the knee to Jesus is to accept the alternative, i.e. the government becomes God! And THAT is a much, much more scary prospect to me than Mr. Wilson’s Christian nationalism.
The elephant in the room which no one wants to talk about in the public square - with the exception of Doug Wilson it seems - is this:
“The common contemporary rhetoric of conflicts between religion and politics obscures the reality. Conflicts are never between politics and religion. Conflicts are always between rivals that are both religious and both political.” - Peter Leithart (Delivered from the elements of the world)
Naysaying Doug Wilson’s desire for a Christian nation only replaces one religion for another. Either way, a religion is being imposed.
I think this way of framing the issue — “either Christ rules Capitol Hill or the state becomes God” — already presumes the very thing Christianity overturned: that divine power must mirror worldly sovereignty.
The resurrection didn’t enthrone Jesus atop the empire; it revealed the end of empire itself. Christ’s lordship is not another form of rule but the undoing of rule — the exposure of all coercive orders as forms of death. The empty tomb isn’t the founding of a new theocracy; it’s the announcement that God will no longer dwell in any system that requires victims to sustain its peace.
The tragedy of both “Christian nationalism” and “godless secularism” is that they share the same imagination: both believe the world must be governed by force. But Easter reveals that divine power is self-emptying love, not domination. Christ doesn’t replace Caesar; he abolishes the logic that made Caesar think he was divine.
The real alternative to Wilson’s vision isn’t another religion of control — it’s kenotic politics, the way of self-giving love that refuses to make God the mascot of any empire. Christianity’s public witness was never meant to sanctify the state, but to reveal its passing away.
Thank you Christian for your thoughtful response. In a large part, I agree with you. Grasping at power to rule is what got Adam and Eve in so much trouble - - for that is what the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolized - rulership without reference to God). And ever since, all hell has broken loose in God’s good creation due to fallen man’s desire to rule over each other; yea - even over God! In this way, the Bible teaches us all about politics and what went wrong. To your point, God’s order for a healthy society of people living together starts in a Garden - NOT a city (world sovereignty). The Garden is a sanctuary (i.e. church) where God meets with man the creature and from this fellowship, man is sent out to “heavenize” (garden) the earth by following the four rivers down into the untamed world. This is the pattern. It moves from Garden to city, worship to politics. Sin is a distortion of this pattern. Man wants the city NOW, and forgets the Garden. In this way, man rejects God in favor of power and rule.
From what I’ve heard Mr. Wilson speak on this point, I do not think he is advocating a Christian nation by storming Capitol Hill by force and “grasping” at world sovereignty through violent overthrow or political revolution. (This would only repeat the sin and impatience of Adam yet again on the modern stage.) But if he is desiring to return to the pattern of the Garden (the church) privileged before the city (politics), then his turn is a Godward turn, which means a turn to reality and the good of posterity.
NOTE: Even an atheist such as Richard Dawkins admitted that he’d rather live in a Christian nation than a Moslem one.
If we are faithful to God in patient evangelism, God will grant us “the robe of authority” in time, and advance the kingdom forward. In other words, “make America Christian again”.
As an aside, I think Constantine had the right goal in mind. Peter Leithart explained it this way: “Constantine played the long game. He shut down the most notorious pagan shrines, but generally left idolaters alone; they were Roman citizens and subjects, after all. But he gave massive support to the church, and paganism weakened over time.”
The Lord said that whoever blesses his people (church) will be blessed. And whoever curses his people (church) will be cursed. A nation which blesses and privileges God’s Covenant people will be exceedingly blessed. Isn’t that what we all want?
The first time I ever saw Doug Wilson was on that CNN interview and my first thought was--how soon until we find out he has been sexually abusing children. I think it is just a matter of time. The good news is that Doug Wilson's exposure was an awakening for so many Anericans who have no idea what Christian Nationalism is doing to our country, All of these articles help. Here's one I wrote after seeing him: https://annkramer.substack.com/p/the-weak-men-in-christian-nationalism
Sorry , as I’ve been reading the comments, I noticed this is more about Doug’s views on women than on his views on Christian nationalism. I think i commented on the wrong thread :)
With that said, I believe the biblical view of women is that women are a more excellent creation than was the creation of Adam :)
Adam was made of dirt, but the woman was “built” from glory proceeding to more glory.
When the woman came on the scene, Adam called her “Ishsha” which can also mean “fire”.
In this way, Adam was a “dirt-bag”, but the woman was “fire”! :)
So, I don’t believe in equality. Women are a more excellent creation than men!
But together, we “image” God.
God created man as an initiator, but He created women as glorifiers. A man may build a home, but a woman makes it a home. A man starts as “head” in the Garden, but the woman finishes it by transforming it into a glorious city. Theologically, man is “protological”, but woman is “eschatological”. Remember. Jesus fulfills the vocation of Adam to “serve and guard” the Garden. This includes “serving and guarding” the Bride. Jesus initiates and then tells His Bridal church (feminine), “you will do greater things than these!”
2002 when his cronies came to North Carolina and overtook the flailing Christian school I was attending and started a CREC plant. I wasn’t the most dedicated student so between that and being a teenage girl, I was treated horribly by people who supposedly were there for the good of the children. I could go on, but it makes me sick that DW is getting national attention.
I know exactly the church and school you're talking about and I grew up going to the church. 🙃 It really was awful. 😵💫 I'm so sorry you went through that! Especially knowing the headmaster I can't imagine being more under his authority than I already was at the church. 😖 I honestly don't know how the school wasn't investigated.
One thing (among many) that I dislike about twisted Christians such as Mr. Wilson is the misappropriation of genuine Christian sentiments. I have said something like “all of Christ for all of the world,” but by it I mean the Christian praxis of loving my neighbors needs to extend at least as far as my sharing of the gospel does.
I couldn’t agree more!
I knew nothing of Doug Wilson until recent years, but I did grow up with the same brand of bad and dangerous teaching about women. Reading this is triggering all those memories for me. So much damage is done when a girl is taught these things. We grow up fearing our womanhood, wanting to please God, not understanding what a healthy relationship between a man and woman looks like as God designed it. Everything we do is based on fear not on the gospel and certainly not on the person of Jesus Christ.
The use of “whore” is a Biblical allusion…to the “whore of Babylon. “ I think my church interpreted it as something else, not the church.
Something that blows me away lately is watching how these extreme fundamentalist beliefs are quietly going mainstream. It seems more common than ever for men to voice a random “preference” for a “traditional woman”…nobody wanted that in the 90s, not where I lived. Wasn’t part of mainstream culture. Amazing to see how it’s all changed.
Peter Bell and Sarah Bader of the Sons of Patriarchy podcast have launched a nonprofit to educate and materially help (even escape or cross state lines) victims of domestic abuse in the CREC and other domineering/authoritarian religious communities. Resistance to Doug Wilson’s empire is growing in Idaho.
https://outreachidaho.org/contact-us/
I remember reading one of Rachel Jankovic’s books when my boys were little. At the time we were in a nondenominational but looking back, Wilson-influenced church. I remember liking the book at the time because it made me feel like if I just had the right attitude I’d be able to control the two terribly busy and lovely toddlers I had. I did, however, spend time as a pre-teen in an extremely fundamentalist church and was once told off by my handbell choir director (lol) in front of all of my peers for wearing dress pants in lieu of a skirt on a Sunday night. I’ve never forgotten that. As a result I don’t at all police what my kids wear to church, even though my husband is a pastor. ANYWAY, this was a very thoughtful article and I keep reading about DW even though I’m already well convinced of his insanity and danger. Thank you for spreading the truth.
I want to know what it looks like to dress like you will be a wonderful wife and mother, and to look like you have been forgiven. Like, by making it this vague, they reserve the right to tell any girl that she's being immodest. "Everleigh, does that skirt say 'strength and dignity' to you? Because it sure doesn't to me. Looks like you're not a very good Christian."
I don’t remember anyone talking about Doug Wilson when I was growing up in my uber-conservative homeschool community back in the early ‘00s, but the paragraph about how girls should refrain from touching each other made my jaw drop. That was EXACTLY the type of thing I was taught as a teenager. (I literally had female friends tell me that I shouldn’t touch any of my friends, male or female, because of “how it might look”.)
It’s taken me years to realize that my “not physically affectionate” persona isn’t naturally me, it was a defense mechanism against being touch-starved as a teenager.
Substack showed me your post and I appreciate it a lot. I come from a Gothard background, so yeah -- it's frustrating to see people falling over in shock at Wilson's ideas as if they haven't been spreading into the mainstream like a toxic algae bloom for decades. I've seen ads for the Jankovic (can't check spelling on my phone) book and wanted to know what it's like while not wanting to upset my equilibrium by reading it, so thanks for taking that one for the team. :) I didn't know she was his daughter. That explains why she gets to be so sassy in a way that other women can't. Anyway, sorry for the long comment from a stranger. Thanks for this post.
I grew up with Wilson's teachings and am glad to see anyone and everyone talking about it. Thank you for this post!
Thank you, Cait!
Like him or hate him, what Mr. Wilson is essentially saying is this:
“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” - G.K.Chesterton
That’s the hard pill.
There is no neutral ground. To reject Mr. Wilson’s desire for Capitol Hill to bow the knee to Jesus is to accept the alternative, i.e. the government becomes God! And THAT is a much, much more scary prospect to me than Mr. Wilson’s Christian nationalism.
The elephant in the room which no one wants to talk about in the public square - with the exception of Doug Wilson it seems - is this:
“The common contemporary rhetoric of conflicts between religion and politics obscures the reality. Conflicts are never between politics and religion. Conflicts are always between rivals that are both religious and both political.” - Peter Leithart (Delivered from the elements of the world)
Naysaying Doug Wilson’s desire for a Christian nation only replaces one religion for another. Either way, a religion is being imposed.
I think this way of framing the issue — “either Christ rules Capitol Hill or the state becomes God” — already presumes the very thing Christianity overturned: that divine power must mirror worldly sovereignty.
The resurrection didn’t enthrone Jesus atop the empire; it revealed the end of empire itself. Christ’s lordship is not another form of rule but the undoing of rule — the exposure of all coercive orders as forms of death. The empty tomb isn’t the founding of a new theocracy; it’s the announcement that God will no longer dwell in any system that requires victims to sustain its peace.
The tragedy of both “Christian nationalism” and “godless secularism” is that they share the same imagination: both believe the world must be governed by force. But Easter reveals that divine power is self-emptying love, not domination. Christ doesn’t replace Caesar; he abolishes the logic that made Caesar think he was divine.
The real alternative to Wilson’s vision isn’t another religion of control — it’s kenotic politics, the way of self-giving love that refuses to make God the mascot of any empire. Christianity’s public witness was never meant to sanctify the state, but to reveal its passing away.
Thank you Christian for your thoughtful response. In a large part, I agree with you. Grasping at power to rule is what got Adam and Eve in so much trouble - - for that is what the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolized - rulership without reference to God). And ever since, all hell has broken loose in God’s good creation due to fallen man’s desire to rule over each other; yea - even over God! In this way, the Bible teaches us all about politics and what went wrong. To your point, God’s order for a healthy society of people living together starts in a Garden - NOT a city (world sovereignty). The Garden is a sanctuary (i.e. church) where God meets with man the creature and from this fellowship, man is sent out to “heavenize” (garden) the earth by following the four rivers down into the untamed world. This is the pattern. It moves from Garden to city, worship to politics. Sin is a distortion of this pattern. Man wants the city NOW, and forgets the Garden. In this way, man rejects God in favor of power and rule.
From what I’ve heard Mr. Wilson speak on this point, I do not think he is advocating a Christian nation by storming Capitol Hill by force and “grasping” at world sovereignty through violent overthrow or political revolution. (This would only repeat the sin and impatience of Adam yet again on the modern stage.) But if he is desiring to return to the pattern of the Garden (the church) privileged before the city (politics), then his turn is a Godward turn, which means a turn to reality and the good of posterity.
NOTE: Even an atheist such as Richard Dawkins admitted that he’d rather live in a Christian nation than a Moslem one.
If we are faithful to God in patient evangelism, God will grant us “the robe of authority” in time, and advance the kingdom forward. In other words, “make America Christian again”.
As an aside, I think Constantine had the right goal in mind. Peter Leithart explained it this way: “Constantine played the long game. He shut down the most notorious pagan shrines, but generally left idolaters alone; they were Roman citizens and subjects, after all. But he gave massive support to the church, and paganism weakened over time.”
The Lord said that whoever blesses his people (church) will be blessed. And whoever curses his people (church) will be cursed. A nation which blesses and privileges God’s Covenant people will be exceedingly blessed. Isn’t that what we all want?
The first time I ever saw Doug Wilson was on that CNN interview and my first thought was--how soon until we find out he has been sexually abusing children. I think it is just a matter of time. The good news is that Doug Wilson's exposure was an awakening for so many Anericans who have no idea what Christian Nationalism is doing to our country, All of these articles help. Here's one I wrote after seeing him: https://annkramer.substack.com/p/the-weak-men-in-christian-nationalism
#ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles
We will be ruled by the Muslim religion or True Christian faith in Christ.
Pick a side, it’s coming. Muslim Mosque are going up everywhere!
“I don’t have any reason to think…” might be the most succinct and accurate quote from this article.
forreal.
Sorry , as I’ve been reading the comments, I noticed this is more about Doug’s views on women than on his views on Christian nationalism. I think i commented on the wrong thread :)
With that said, I believe the biblical view of women is that women are a more excellent creation than was the creation of Adam :)
Adam was made of dirt, but the woman was “built” from glory proceeding to more glory.
When the woman came on the scene, Adam called her “Ishsha” which can also mean “fire”.
In this way, Adam was a “dirt-bag”, but the woman was “fire”! :)
So, I don’t believe in equality. Women are a more excellent creation than men!
But together, we “image” God.
God created man as an initiator, but He created women as glorifiers. A man may build a home, but a woman makes it a home. A man starts as “head” in the Garden, but the woman finishes it by transforming it into a glorious city. Theologically, man is “protological”, but woman is “eschatological”. Remember. Jesus fulfills the vocation of Adam to “serve and guard” the Garden. This includes “serving and guarding” the Bride. Jesus initiates and then tells His Bridal church (feminine), “you will do greater things than these!”
2002 when his cronies came to North Carolina and overtook the flailing Christian school I was attending and started a CREC plant. I wasn’t the most dedicated student so between that and being a teenage girl, I was treated horribly by people who supposedly were there for the good of the children. I could go on, but it makes me sick that DW is getting national attention.
I know exactly the church and school you're talking about and I grew up going to the church. 🙃 It really was awful. 😵💫 I'm so sorry you went through that! Especially knowing the headmaster I can't imagine being more under his authority than I already was at the church. 😖 I honestly don't know how the school wasn't investigated.