Nathan and Christiana Wells, authors of the “Douglas Wilson Says” blog, were Christian missionaries in Cambodia before they moved their family to Moscow, Idaho in 2018.
They had heard about Douglas Wilson, the controversial Christian nationalist pastor who sits atop a religious fiefdom in the small town of about 26,000, before they relocated. They were even courted by some of Wilson’s followers who invited them to join his congregation – which many consider a cult.
Wilson is famous in part for his controversial positions – like his defense of American chattel slavery and denial that it’s possible for a man to rape his wife (that would be “like trespassing in his own garden.”) But he has also garnered international attention for his macho online antics that often include a conflagration of some kind.
Most recently, he lit a replica of the set from the children’s TV show “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” on fire.
The Wells didn’t end up attending Wilson’s church. But they did enroll their children in the elementary school he founded, the Logos School, for a time.
The school is an extension of the church Wilson founded more than 20 years ago, Christ Church, or “Mother Kirk” as locals call it. “Kirk” is a Scottish term for church.
Five other local churches that look to Wilson for religious guidance have sprung up over the years and more than 100 churches across the globe belong to the Presbyterian-adjacent denomination Wilson founded – the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
In addition to the denomination and the Logos School, Wilson started a college, New Saint Andrews, a seminary, and a publishing business called Canon Press.
He also owes a coffeehouse and bookstore called “Sword & Shovel” attached to his “college” that sells his books as well as those from a host of other authors.
I stopped in while I was in town.
One of the most famous books Wilson has published is called “A Case for Christian Nationalism,” and it’s written by Stephen Wolfe. In it, Wolfe argues for the establishment of a Christian theocracy where blasphemy and sabbath laws are enforced by a government led by a “Christian prince” whose power comes from God rather than the people.
“Our time calls for a man who can wield formal civil power to great effect,” Wolfe wrote. “And shake the public imagination by means of charisma, gravitas and personality. The civil power of the prince comes immediately from God as the root of civil power.”
Serious promotion of the establishment of a Christian theocracy in America, like many of Wilson’s positions, has moved from the fringe to somewhere nearing the ideological center on the evangelical right in recent years.
Wilson’s positions on patriarchy and gender roles are also in vogue these days, and that plus Wilson’s “spanking policy” are a couple of the main reasons the Wells pulled their children out of his school.
“Even for a second grader – they are teaching these gender roles that are not Biblical,” she said. “Already instilling the seed of women are less and men are more.”
Readers familiar with Grace City Church in Wenatchee, Wa. will see some parallels between Josh McPherson’s views on sex and gender roles, but the similarities don’t end there.
GCC’s new school in the Wenatchee Valley uses many of the textbooks Wilson’s Logos School uses, including this primer for young Christian boys and girls I covered recently:
Lessons for Boys and Girls from Douglas Wilson, Publisher of Garden City Academy Textbooks
Depending who you ask Douglas Wilson is one of the most famous, or infamous, figures in the evangelical Christian world.
But it wasn’t until the pandemic came that Nathan and Christiana started to consider taking a stand against Wilson and his teachings publicly.
During the pandemic Wilson and his followers started pulling political stunts and playing the victim card in a way that was disrespectful to their neighbors at home and Christians who are actually being persecuted abroad, they said.
“Thirty of them stormed a local business here,” she said.
They stormed into Tri-State Outfitters, a locally-owned sporting goods store, in a coordinated protest to violate the store’s mask policy established during the pandemic.
And the stunt was officially sanctioned by Wilson.
“There were emails from Doug,” Nathan said.
Law enforcement was called. Then they contrived another event called “psalm sing” and arrests were made.
“They presented it as if there was persecution,” he said.
Wilson and his followers’ actions at that time will remind Wenatchee Valley residents when Carey McPherson, Josh’s brother, sent a group of about 50 angry protestors to shut down a Wenatchee School Board meeting.
