Emilie was violated by the elder: The Wison Saga P/4

                                                    

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on  Emilie Page (Dye), who was a student at Logos School, a Christian High school attached to Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, pastored by Doug Wilson.

While in high school Emilie suffered sexual abuse at the hands of one of the teachers named Jim B. Nance, an elder at Christ Church for many years. In the years that he abused her he would beg forgiveness and then assault her over and over again. He would lure her by asking her to pray for him and he would then assault her. He convinced her that he was the only person who could love her and he forgave her for making him sin, for being a stumbling block!! He only stopped because she finally had the courage to stand up to him and say "No." He begged her to come back to him and even threatened suicide if she didn't.....The school decided to deal with the issue internally instead of immediately bringing the situation to the police. Because of this choice she suffered additional years of abuse.
The nightmares from that time still keep her up at night. She cried out to God over and over again begging Him to end it or just to let her die. The shame she bore from what was happening to her was multiplied by feelings of guilt over her apparent sin. Jim fostered this notion by using it to further torture and shame her into silence. It took years before she was able to share what was going on with another human being. Jim Nance's name was only removed from the church's website in 2016.

P.S. In my next post I will focus on a young woman named Natalie Greenfield.

 

 Read Part Five HERE

Gen was refused communion: The Wison Saga P/3

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a married couple, Gen and Andrew, who were members  of Christ Church pastored by Doug Wilson.

Gen was emotionally, verbally, spiritually and physically abused by her husband. She and her husband sough counseling, and were in counseling both together and separately.

At some point Gen received a letter from someone representing Christ Church in which she was told that she had denied the biblical Christ and was completely ignoring the God given roles and relationship of a wife for her husband (no respect, no submission...)

Based on her so-called unwillingness to deal with these sins, she was suspended from the Lord's Table until she realised that her choices had caused her to sin in these serious ways and she confessed her sin and repent.

In summary, she was disciplined by the church for her so-called sins.

Gen, consequently, tried to revoke her membership but was unable to do so. She was told it was because she was a doubtful Christian. However, it was more likely because she was a woman and only a man can revoke a membership.

By the way, Gen works full-time and has 5 children in the home, including one high-functioning child with autism.

p.S. In my next post I will focus on a young girl named Emilie Page who attended the Christian High School attached to Christ Church. 

 

Read Part Four HERE

The church elders may have to deal with the wife's rebellion: The Wilson Saga P/2

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this blog I will continue to focus on Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho.


He has written the following in regard a woman who is rejecting her husband's "godly authority."

D.W.:The husband may well experience distress. He may be distressed about her spending habits, television habits, weight, rejection of his leadership, laziness in cleaning house, lack of response to his sexual advances. But however, the problem is manifested, what should a husband do? 
 Suppose that he really wants to serve God in their marriage, and she appears to be distinctly unenthusiastic about changing. What course should a man pursue? He should help his wife to learn to do her duty.
  If for example, the problem is one of poor housekeeping, he should require something very simple i.e., that the dishes be done every meal before anything else is done. The first time the dishes are not done, he must sit down with his wife immediately, and gently remind her that it is something which has to be done. At no time may he lose his temper, badger her, call her names etc. He must constantly remember and confess that she is not the problem. 
 By bringing this gently to her attention, he is not primarily pointing to her need to repent; rather he is exhibiting the fruit of his repentance. He does this without rancour and without an accusative spirit, until she complies or rebels. If she complies, he must move up one step, now requiring that another of her duties be done.
 If she rebels, he must call the elders of the church and ask them for a pastoral visit. When the government of the home has failed to such an extent, and a godly and consistent attempt by the husband to restore the situation has broken down, then the involvement of the elders is fully appropriate.

My Comment:
In Matthew 28:28 we read
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me."

And in Revelation 19:16 we read the following:
On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written :KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

As King of kings and Lord of lords who has been given all authority, Jesus washed the dusty feet of His disciples as we can read in John 13:3-5
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God, so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was around Him.

And as King of kings and Lord of lords who has been given all authority, Jesus prepared breakfast for His disciples as we can read in John 21:9-12a
When they landed they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught." Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast."

I wonder what would happen if  this same Jesus visited the home of Pastor Doug Wilson and noticed a pile of unwashed dishes? Very likely, He would put a towel around His waist and begin to wash these dirty dishes. Can you imagine the face of Pastor Wilson when he enters the kitchen to see Jesus washing these dirty dishes instead of his wife? No doubt, he will remove Him quickly from the kitchen before his wife can see Jesus since it is most important that she does not know what Jesus has been doing in case she might begin to think that her husband should follow His example. Pastor Wilson then, undoubtedly, takes Jesus to the elders of the church so they can to speak to Him in order to correct Him since He obviously does not understand that, as Lord of lords and King of kings having all authority, it would be shameful for Him  to take on such a menial task, only fitting for wives.

P.S. In the next post I will focus on a situation related to a married couple who were members of Doug Wilson's church.

 

Read Part Three HERE

Husbands are called to be domineering: The Wilson Saga P/1

 

In this post I will begin to focus on Doug Wilson, pastor at Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho.

He has made the following statements:

D.W.: Patriarchy simply means "father rule" and so it follows that every Biblical Christian holds to patriarchy.

D.W.: Patriarchy is inescapable and our only choice is between men being faithful for blessings and men failing for humiliation and chastisement.

My Comment:
Patriarchy is described in the Bible but it is not prescribed. Servanthood is prescribed in the Bible by Jesus in Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

D.W.:God has created us as male and female in such a way to ensure that men will always be dominant in marriage. If the husband is godly, the dominance will not be harsh.... Nevertheless, the dominance of the husband is a fact; the only choice we have in this regard concerns whether that dominance will be a loving and constructive dominance or a hateful and destructive tyranny.

D.W.:Wives need to be led with a firm hand. A wife will often test her husband in some area and be deeply disappointed (frustrated) if she wins. It is crucial that a husband gives to his wife what the Bible says she needs, rather than what she says she needs. So a godly, husband is a godly "lord." A woman who understands this biblical truth and calls a certain man her husband is also calling him her "lord." 

My Comment:
 We read the following in Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness and let THEM rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. God blessed THEM and said to THEM, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. RULE (have dominion) over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. 

Both the man and the woman were given dominion over creation, specifically over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. However the man was not given dominion over the woman!!
But at the time of the Fall things changed for at that time God forewarned the woman that the man, because of his now sinful nature,  would begin to have dominion over her as we know from Genesis 3:16d
..... And he will rule over you.
However, in Christ, no husband is to live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:5-17).
This is confirmed by Paul in Ephesians 5:25 when he writes:
Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.
Paul makes it very clear here that husbands are not to rule over (dominate) their wives but to love their wives and to love them sacrificially as Christ loved His Church sacrificially by dying on the Cross for her. Sadly Pastor Doug Wilson does not seem to have any understanding of this passage. Perhaps he has never given this passage any attention. That may well be because it obviously does not fit in with his patriarchal theology.

D.W.: Testosterone is a good thing and can be used by God as part of His gifting men for leadership.

My Comment:
We read of the following requirements for male leaders in I Timothy 3:2
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
It seems Paul does not not agree with Pastor Doug Wilson because he does not mention Testosterone as part of God's gifting men for leadership.

D.W.:What is the most important word in the marriage vows?
In our time, because of the peculiar form our disobedience has taken, the most important word is obey. And it is the most important word whether or not it is included in the vows...

My Comment:

It seems Paul does not agree with Pastor Doug Wilson that the most important word in the marriage vows is the word "obey" for Paul speaks of the most important word in I Corinthians 13:1-3 as follows:
 And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not LOVE, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not LOVE, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not LOVE, I gain nothing.
It is clear from the above passage that, according to Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament as inspired by the Holy Spirit, the word LOVE is the most important word rather than the word "obey."

P.S. I will continue to focus on Pastor Doug Wilson in the next few posts. 

 

Read Part Two HERE

Patriarchy leads to abuse: Doug Philips P/4

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will share my final comments on Doug Philips, founder of Vision Forum.

A friend of Doug Philips, Vodie Bacham, a leader in the patriarchal movement, explains the patriarchal men's desire to be revered by younger women.

"A lot of men are leaving their wives for younger women because they yearn for the attention from younger women. And God gave them a daughter who can give them that." 

The attitude that produces these ideas are what leads to physical, mental, verbal and sexual abuse of both wives and daughters within the patriarchal movement.

Vision Forum was controlled by a Board of Directors. Doug Philips was the President of the organisation. At the end of 2013 he stepped down because of illicit sexual behaviour with a young woman.

P.S. In my next posts I will focus on Doug Wilson, pastor at Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, who characterized Doug Philips's victim (not Jen Epstein) as a Delilah and compared her to a stripper.

Women are Jezebels: Doug Philips P/3

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on Doug Philips, founder of Vision Forum. This time sharing from the experiences of Jen Epstein who was excommunicated from his previous church Boerne Christian Assembly by Doug Philips.

Jen and her husband Mark began to attend Boerne Christian Assembly in 2000. She very quickly learned that women are to be silent in the church.  When she asked Doug for help with her marital problems, he gave her a list of requirements. Some of it was as follows:

Jennifer may not:

Ever question, contradict, criticize, correct or end-run any communication or decision by Mark to Mark or to anyone else.

The above guideline shows that Doug Philips preached that men are in charge and as such, wives are never to question them.

Jen's marriage problems continued and Doug simply had this to say,
 "Mark is an angry man, and that is wicked; but you, Jen, are very wicked, you are rebellious, and you are a Jezebel."

This was later followed up by an email when Doug Philips accused Jen of being: unsubmissive, disrespectful and unloving.

Jen was eventually disciplined in front of the congregation for the following:

Unconfessed sin
Lack of repentance
Bitterness
Lack of Love
Rebellion against authority
A rebellious and unsubmissive attitude and response to the authority of her husband
A rebellious and unsubmissive attitude and response to the authority of the local church

She was soon after excommunicated from Boerne Christian Assembly

Jen ends her story with the following explanation about patriarchy.

Patriarchy is build on a performance-based platform. Patriarchy's platform is performance and perfection. "If you do this, it's a sin." If you don't do this, it's a sin." "If you behave in this way, God will be pleased." "If you follow this rule or that rule, you will be blessed."
Doug and others like him, have attempted to live life by the letter of the Law rather than the Spirit. Whenever we focus on outward rules and restrictions, we will certainly doom ourselves for doing the opposite of what we are trying to do. And the harder we try, the more we fail.

 

 Read Part Four HERE

Women must behave: Doug Philips P/2

                                                     Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on Doug Philips, founder of Vision Forum.

Like Bill Gothard, Doug Philips was part of the patriarchal movement. Consequently he taught that men are and should be in absolute control of women. Patriarchy considers women to primarily exist for the purposes of producing children, caring for the men, and rearing the children. Females in the patriarchal movement are discouraged from attaining higher education of any kind and are told their sole purpose is to marry a man within the movement to meet the purposes described above. In other words, women within this movement are perceived to exist only for the end-goals communicated by the male leaders who perceive themselves as "patriarchs" of this world.

As such, females within this movement are really manipulated by the male leaders who control and manipulate them into believing that the world revolves around the male "patriarchs."
Women, as scapegoats, are blamed for the inappropriate conduct of the men, thus preserving the men's self-perceived collective self-image and concomitantly lowering the women's self-esteem, so that women will fall into deeper submission under the men's patriarchal authority.
Women within this movement are instructed to please the male leaders.
Failing to do so has grave consequences for women as you will learn from the story of Jen, an ex-member of Doug Philip's previous church Boerne Christian Assembly in my next post.

 

Read Part Three HERE

The Patriarch is in charge: Doug Philips P/1

                                                    

In this post and I the next ones I will focus on Doug Philips, the founder of Vision Forum Ministries, a non profit organization devoted to promote Reformed Theology, biblical patriarchy, homeschooling, large families, family integrated church, creationism and dominionism.

Some of the teachings of Vision Forum Ministries was as follows:

The Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy:

1. God reveals Himself as masculine, not feminine.
2. God ordained distinct gender roles for man and woman as part of the created order.
3. A husband and father is the head of his household, a family leader, provider and protector,
4. Male leadership in the home carries over into the church: only men are permitted to hold ruling positions in the church. A God-honouring society will likewise prefer male leadership in civil and other spheres.
5. Since the woman was created as a helper to her husband, as the bearer of children and as a "keeper at home", the God-ordained and proper sphere of dominion for a wife is the household and that which is connected with the home.
6. God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" still applies to married couples.
7. Both sons and daughters are under the command of their fathers as long as they are under his roof or otherwise the recipients of his provision and protection.

My Comment:

1. Jesus revealed that God is Spirit (John 4:21)
2. Both the man and the woman were given the task of ruling over creation (Genesis 1:26-28).
 3. A husband as "head" of his wife is to love, serve, minister to her as Christ loves, serves and ministers to His Church as "Head" of the Church which is associated with His  sacrificial role as Saviour (Ephesians 5:25).
4. Various women such as Nympha (Colossians 4:15) and Chloe (I Corinthians 1:11) were overseers and Junia was a female apostle (Romans 16:7). Deborah was a prophetess and a judge over Israel (Judges 4:4).
5. Women functioned as overseers (I Corinthians 1:11; Colossians 4:15), deacons (Romans 16:1-2), apostles (Romans 16:7), teachers (Acts 18:24-26), co-labourers with Paul (Romans 16:6,12) besides taking care of their homes.
6. God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" from Genesis 1:28 has been replaced by Jesus' command for the Church in Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
7. Both sons and daughters are to obey their parents while they are children (Ephesians 6:1-3). They are to be obey God all their lives.

 

Read Part Two HERE