I live just outside Moscow, Idaho. My small community was recently branded by Buzzfeed as the third creepiest town in the United States. The reason? My pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church.
Wilson is regularly disinvited from evangelical Christian conferences, including a major conference in Brazil (as reported by Christianity Today). Sarah Stankorb gossips about Christ Church scandals in Vice, Slate, and her book Disobedient Women. Even Kevin DeYoung, respected pastor and author, criticizes my church’s “mood.” For the full rap sheet, see Wilson’s blog, under the heading “Controversy Library.” Wilson detractors have even accused the church-affiliated Logos high school basketball player (coached by Wilson’s son) of sexual assault, merely for boxing out.
So what have Wilson and Christ Church done to attract a national — even international — media smear campaign? Quite simply, they have taken a stand for traditional Biblical values. They are applying “All of Christ to All of Life,” including politics, the public square, and relations between the sexes (i.e., that husbands should love their wives, and that wives should respect their husbands). Wilson and Christ Church are the secularists’ worst nightmare.
Over several decades, Wilson and Christ Church have helped found multiple flagship institutions, including Logos School, New Saint Andrews College, and Canon Press, as well as national organizations like the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). Wilson has authored or contributed to hundreds of books, in addition to blogging, podcasting, public speaking, and giving sermons.
Wilson’s conservative values, and especially his effectiveness, have placed him in the crosshairs of corporate media. Wilson and Christ Church have been branded as — wait for it! — racist and sexist. Not to mention Christian nationalist. Their critics, uninterested in an honest engagement with Wilson’s views, obsessively curate alleged abuse scandals (none of which involve sexual misconduct by Wilson personally), out-of-context pull quotes, and flat-out lies.
Wilson and Christ Church are not alone. Activists routinely use shoddy journalism to silence conservative voices just for speaking the truth. In fact, the same writer who smeared Christ Church in The Guardian (for, among other things, resisting oppressive Covid mandates) has also gone after Chris Rufo for appearing on a podcast that interviewed alleged racists, although not, apparently, at the same time. These underhanded tactics need to be exposed.
Stankorb’s book is a prime example of stringing together rumors and unsubstantiated allegations to create a false narrative. In her opening chapter on Christ Church, Stankorb describes one of her anonymous sources: “He certainly didn’t strike me as being in the proper frame of mind to give a reliable or usable interview.” Yet Stankorb nonetheless spreads this poor man’s paranoia, including the delusion that “Doug Wilson’s grandson was stalking his house,” (p. 206). Many of her sources are similarly anonymous and similarly disturbed, as detailed by defamation counsel for Christ Church. Stankorb delights in amplifying the vindictive voices.
According to Stankorb and her sources, Christ Church has left a trail of sexually and spiritually abused women, as a result of teachings like “sex in marriage is not consensual” and “sexual submission is an act of faith” (p. 213). Stankorb relates a bizarre story, alleged by a pseudonymous and admittedly “naïve” woman, regarding her violent husband and subsequent, manipulative lover. Yet Stankorb admits Wilson told this woman that she had been “a victim of outrageous abuse,” (p. 219). Throughout her book, Stankorb weaves the story of her own abusive father; she does not hide her personal vendetta.
I have much sympathy for victims of abuse. I have previously written about my own experience of domestic violence, thankfully 20 years behind me. Yet shallow, sensationalist reporting, without bothering to hear the other side, does not serve women, or anyone else, well. Women need and deserve the truth.
Since Stankorb did not take the time to provide a single counter-example, anonymous or otherwise, let me do that now. In addition to being a member of Christ Church, I am a Harvard-educated attorney. Unlike Stankorb’s sources, I do not consider myself to be especially naïve, frightened, or lacking in autonomy (whatever that phrase means).
My husband and I attended a nondenominational church for many years. During the Covid debacle, our pastors marched with Black Lives Matter and required masks for worship. We were devastated. We decided to sell everything and move to Moscow, to join a community that is not afraid to stand for truth and oppose evil. We have met many others with similar stories.
I have listened to countless sermons by Wilson and read many of his books, as well as books by Wilson family members. My husband and I have enjoyed time with the Wilsons socially. As his detractors love to point out, Wilson will very occasionally use spicy language in his blog or books to make a point. In the pulpit and in person, Wilson conducts himself with the utmost professionalism.
I may not agree with (or understand) every position Wilson has taken on the minutiae of Reformed doctrine. Nonetheless, in my experience — which far exceeds Stankorb’s secondhand cherry-picking of anonymous sources — Wilson’s counsel for men, women, and families is thoroughly Biblical and not in the least abusive. Wilson is also a good pastor, which my husband and I are thankful for.
We have found Christ Church to be an exceedingly hospitable place. Over the past couple of years, I have made many friends and especially close friends with women in the Christ Church community. I estimate my husband and I have spent more than 200 meals with Christ Church families, both in our home and in their homes. It’s very difficult to hide abuse or even weirdness when you are spending this amount of time in each other’s homes.
Based on my hundreds of hours of personal observation, I hold the women of Christ Church in the highest regard. They have poise and purpose, grit and wit. They are joyful under trial. Their children are well-loved and well-disciplined. Their husbands are patient and present. The women at Christ Church have taught me far more about life and godliness than any Ivy League education. Oh, and let me stop the rumors right here — the women of Christ Church actually do wear pants.
Of course, no person and no community are without sin. Christ Church has its difficult marriages and dysfunctional families. It also preaches the remedy for sin: repentance and forgiveness in Christ. Every Sunday, we kneel in confession as part of the liturgy. During the week, we encourage each other to shoulder our Christian duties, to cultivate contentment. Our pastors and elders graciously give their time and counsel on thornier issues. This is the meaning of our church mission statement: “All of Christ for All of Life.”
The anonymous internet warriors don’t talk about the damage done when sin is not challenged. They don’t talk about the trauma of broken marriages that scar children for life. They don’t talk about women burned by hookup culture, or about unborn babies butchered on the altar of career. They don’t see the tears I have seen, of boss women who just want to be at home with their kids.
In my opinion, women need more of the “Moscow Mood.” What they don’t need are more lurid hit pieces under the guise of empathy. Conservative communities should expect, even welcome, slander from woke activists. We must not be silenced by them. Our children’s future is at stake.
