I can’t remember the first time I heard of Doug Wilson, but I think it was around 2020. I read several of his blog posts and eventually signed up for Canon Press, where I listened to many of his interviews. Initially, I liked his brashness (a little more on that here), but in different online forums, I started seeing things alluding to problems with his theology. During this time, I also read books by his daughters — Rachel Jankovich’s “You Who? Why you matter and How to Deal With It,” which I thought was legalistic even back then, and “Eve in Exile, And the Restoration of Femininity,” by Rebekah Merkle, which I liked at the time because its message was more covert, and I didn’t have the context I do now. I also watched the documentary, Eve In Exile, that coincided with the book (which will come up later).
While I was questioning Christian Nationalism, Pastor 1 sent me a YouTube video of Joel Webbon, Michael Foster, and Bnonn Tennant detailing how they could be as misogynistic as possible to women in the church (my summation, not theirs). During this same time, Pastor 1’s wife told me one Sunday after church how much she “loved the patriarchy,” which left me confused. In this conversation with Pastor 1 and his wife, he told me that a colleague had compared Mark Driscoll to Doug Wilson. And I exclaimed (having known about Mark Driscoll’s abhorrent behavior for years) that they couldn’t possibly be the same, because “Doug Wilson’s daughters have a platform and are able to speak on all these things” (or words to that effect). Little did I know that the only women in Doug Wilson’s realm with a platform are the Wilson women (his daughters and wife), who all share his exact views.
Then the chatter surrounding Doug Wilson started to rise, and my own curiosity was piqued. How much did I really know about this guy? I asked several pastors (online and in person) what they thought of him and what “Federal Vision” was. I got a lot of vague and ambiguous answers. Nothing concrete —like that he was declared a heretic by his denomination at that time (the RPCUS ) for his Federal Vision theology. Or that he “is self-ordained, has never been to seminary, founded his own denomination, publishing house, university, seminary, and classical school curriculum. He is the head of his denomination. He is under no authority but his own.” -Rachel Green Miller.
Some say he’s since claimed he no longer believes in Federal Vision, citing his article “Federal Vision No Mas,” when what he really said was that he no longer wants to call it that, but still holds the same beliefs.
In the spring of 2022, before the Christian Nationalism deep-dive and patriarchy statement, I organized a movie night, inviting our “sister” church (church 2) to show “Enemies Within The Church.” It was well attended, and Pastor 1 was eager to do it again. We had thrown around the idea of the “Eve in Exile” documentary from Doug’s daughter, Rebekah Merkle, and Canon Press. But by the end of summer, I regretted having shared the “Enemies Within the Church” documentary, realizing some of my views on that were already shifting, and I knew I was no longer interested in showing “Eve in Exile” to further expose the women in our church to this kind of thinking.
By fall 2022, I began distancing myself from Pastor 1 and his wife while continuing my research on Doug Wilson and Christian Nationalism. “The Patriarchy” was now on my radar (which had previously seemed like a vague term and catch-all for anything we didn’t like about men). After numerous concerning conversations with Pastor 1 and a couple of the elders who didn’t seem to care that much, distance seemed like the best choice. My husband distanced himself from him as much as possible, while still being an elder. I did, however, listen carefully to his berating sermons, void of the true Gospel and Jesus.
Then, in an elder meeting, Pastor 1 brought up the “Eve in Exile” documentary again, urging my husband, Scott, to talk with me about it. That was a firm “no” for me, but I knew at least one of the other elders, who was a fan of Doug Wilson’s book, “Federal Husband,” might not know much about who he was or his background. So, I put together the following letter. I attached the shorthand version of what Federal Vision was, along with this full critique of Doug Wilson. I printed them all off, added them to manila envelopes, and distributed them on Sunday morning, right before Sunday school, to each of the elders and Pastor 1.
What I gave to Pastor 1 and the elders:
During Sunday school, I noticed Pastor 1 flipping through and reading the information I had given him. Although we had had many previous conversations in person, on the phone, and by text or email, we had not really conversed in a couple of months. I no longer trusted him to relay information accurately or without bias, and I believe he didn’t like my push-back on previous occasions. So, I was surprised when, after Sunday school, he stopped me in the hall to talk with me about Doug Wilson. As I recall, he said he didn’t know much about him. And that he had been reading (or previously read) Doug’s book, “Ride, Sally, Ride,” (about a sex robot), and thought it was a little weird. I conveyed that I wasn’t going to be a part of anything that promoted Doug Wilson or his daughters any longer, and that was the end of our short conversation.
I never heard from the other elders about their thoughts on the information I shared about Doug Wilson. I guess it took me that long to realize that people who don’t want to understand something because that belief suits them won’t understand it, no matter how much information or evidence you have.
Since then, I’ve found out many more heinous things about Doug Wilson. From his views on slavery to his ongoing attacks on women, and allowing abuse in his organizations. I wanted to share how I started listening to him and why I stopped. There are many thorough websites and pages dedicated to exposing and tracking Doug’s lengthy, scandalous behavior, which continues to this day. Here are a few of them:
Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow, Idaho
A timeline of Doug Wilson (through 2020)
Please share your thoughts