A pastor’s blog post from October 14 is starting to create some buzz online. And considering the pastor’s strong opinions, it’s easy to see why. Because according to Douglas Wilson, the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, any pastor who supported President Obama’s 2012 reelection should resign.
Any evangelical leader—by which I mean someone like a minister or an elder — who voted for Obama the second time, is not qualified for the office he holds, and should resign that office. Unless and until he repents of how he is thinking about the challenges confronting our nation, he should not be entrusted with the care of souls. A shepherd who cannot identify wolves is not qualified to be a shepherd.
But that’s not all. Wilson went on to write:
There is a Catch-22 in this, of course. Nobody is going to step down for this reason, because they will not see the need for it. Not seeing the need for it is the reason they are disqualified. If they were to repent, and come to see the need for their resignation, there would then be no need to resign. It is not as though voting for Obama is a permanent moral disqualification, like adultery. Rather, it represents and exhibits a fundamental condition of cluelessness.
For Wilson, it all comes down to the issue of abortion. That’s not the only reason he dislikes President Obama. But it’s the issue he uses in his blog post. But in his raging against Christian leaders who support abortion, Wilson offered a special message to black Christian leaders.
While the stats given earlier are for white gallupian evangelicals [READ STATS HERE], I also believe the same principle applies to black Christian leaders. Not only must the dignity of human life be upheld by white and black Christian leaders alike, to the extent we may allow any differences, it should be to expect a greater vehemence in opposing abortion (in the person of its advocates and enablers) from black leaders. This is because it is their people who are being disproportionately targeted by the white Sangerites. And a black Christian leader who cannot identify a Sangerite is a rabbit leader who does not know what a hawk looks like.
Knowing his opinions and racial insensitivity might cause an uproar, Wilson offers this disclaimer:
Now, before the yelling starts, let me say what I am not saying. I am not saying an Obama vote is the only way a Christian leader could disqualify himself in the voting booth. I am not saying that God is a Republican. I am not talking about anything that such men who voted for Obama should have done instead.
Then, as a parting gift, Wilson drops name of Hitler into his blog post. Yep. #TrueStory.
A generation later, it is easy for us to cluck our tongues at the German leaders who did not see what Hitler was doing, but it is very hard for us to see our complicity in things that are every bit as atrocious.
See, I did it. I mentioned Hitler, which is going to cause someone to appeal to Godwin’s Law. In Internet debate, according to the law, the first one to make the Nazi comparisons loses. This is apropos and funny in multiple situations. But if we live in a world in which genocide can and does occur — and we do — a supercilious appeal to Godwin when someone invokes the Holocaust when talking about Cambodia’s killing fields, or to the Rwandan slaughter, is to be too clever by half.
So here is my brief defense of this stand. Killing babies is no trifle, and any Christian leader who acts as though it is a trifle should not be in the position he is in.
You can read more about Pastor Wilson and his blog post here.
What do you think about Wilson’s strong opinions?
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If a fertilized egg has a soul, then 75% of all people everywhere are killed before they’re even able to implant into a uterine wall. If that’s the case, then the only knock we have against Hitler is that he’s just not as efficient as God is. Remember, in the Evangelical mindset that any human soul who dies without accepting Christ is immediately sent to Hell, to be tortured in perpetuity. If a fertilized egg has a soul, and 75% of those souls are unable to even implant into a uterine wall, that would mean that God actively creates three out of every four people for the simple and direct purpose of torturing them in Hell for the entirety of their existence.
That God is a monster. I simply cannot believe that God exists.
EricBoersma No evangelical I know believes in the God you described above. Try again, sir.
If you are going to criticize and group of people, say- evangelicals, at least have enough intellectual integrity to understand what they actually believe and teach.
I am glad there are Christians with genuine courage that say the tough things.
Pastor Wilson is right on. If only more Christians would think biblically rather than be swayed by the whims of our culture.
This is one of the reasons that people are leaving the church. Ministers need to stop involving themselves in politics and criticizing other people for how they voted. If they want to tell people how to vote, then they should forfeit their tax free status.
Yet another pastor who believes that anyone who doesn’t believe as he does is wrong. It’s all well and good to believe abortion is wrong: I am pro-choice, yet I believe that in most cases abortion is wrong. However, since I cannot live someone else’s life, and cannot walk a mile in their shoes, I do not believe in legally restricting abortion. The Bible does not say anything about abortion, pro or con. In fact, I’ll say the Bible is pro abortion in cases where the woman is not married, because I interpret the Bible to mean that a man and a woman can only have a child in wedlock. There are so many interpretations you can come away with from the Bible, it is a wonder that more people don’t think it is the work of the devil as the word of God.
MattSvoboda EricBoersma Which part of my understanding of Evangelical theology was incorrect? My point is based off three parts of understanding:
1. The human soul is present at conception, when an egg is fertilized by a sperm.
2. The doctrine of Original Sin means that every human soul is born into the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin.
3. Anyone who dies while still in sin is immediately sent to Hell to be tortured forever.
As far as I can understand, those three beliefs are all standard beliefs of Evangelical Christianity. If you’d care to correct my understanding of those beliefs, I’d be happy to engage with you.
EricBoersma As near as I can tell, those points are correct. Yet most evangelicals would reject your conclusion.
I don’t believe it’s a principled stand, just a failure to press the reasoning to its logical conclusion. There are Calvinists who would agree with the whole thing and merely say that we are not fit to judge God, but most mainstream evangelicals would flinch back from that.