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Douglas Wilson

7 Things Used to Keep Christians Quiet

Apr 20th, 2011
by Michael Krahn.
5 comments

Doug Wilson pushes back on seven things commonly used to shame Christians out of public debate and a offers a rebuttal to each one. You won’t agree with all of them but there is some good food for thought (and discussion). These are just the bullet points and a couple of highlights… see the full text here:

1. The Crusades were totally uncalled for.

2. The battle between Galileo and the Church was a battle between science and faith.

3. The Salem Witch Trials were an example of typical Puritan intolerance.

4. The rise of the secular Enlightenment saved us all from endless religious bloodletting.
“Since secularism took over from the bad old religious bigots who used to kill scores and scores of people, we have since that time had a long millennium of sunshine and glittery rainbows, in which only scores of millions of people have been slaughtered. We celebrate this deliverance and bow our heads in gratitude.”

5. Darwinian evolution is the Truth.

6. Biblical faith stifles and deadens the aesthetic soul.
“I will not say much here, except to note that I do not believe that the builders of Salisbury Cathedral, the composer of the Brandenburg concertos, the painter of The Night Watch, or the writer of Paradise Lost, have anything to apologize for in the thin shade of Kanye West, John Cage, Jackson Pollock, Walter Gropius, or Barry Manilow.”

7. America was a secular nation in its founding.

The rest is worth a read here.

Wolves Studying For The Takedown

Dec 6th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
1 comment

Two selections from Doug Wilson  from “I Know God Is For Me“, a meditation on Psalm 56:

The people who are against him [David] will snatch at any excuse to accuse him. They twist his words out of all recognition (v. 5). Whenever the wolf is talking with the lamb, anything the lamb says will be used as a compelling reason to have him for lunch.  The conversation always seems to take that turn.

These malicious men study David, in order to take him down (v. 6). David asks God to intervene (v. 7). God knows what David has gone through—He collects David’s tears in a bottle, He enters every one of them in His register (v. 8). David knows that his prayer will be answered, for he knows that “God is for me” (v. 9). The only appropriate response to this is praise (v. 10).

There is no reason to fear what men can cook up (vv. 4, 11).

Then…

The malice of these men is remarkable. They know they are being unfair. Because they hate, part of their delight comes from being unfair. They know that the pain they inflict will hurt, but they also know that the pain they inflict for no good reason will hurt more. Because they are haters, this is part of their satisfaction.

Note. They twist words. All their thoughts concentrate on how to turn anything to evil. They mark steps, but in a way completely different from the way God does it.  They want to trip, they want to ensnare. They love ambush, they delight in gotcha. When they accuse us of malice and hatred, they know better.

The Health and Wealth Corner

Dec 2nd, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
13 comments

You don’t think you’re interested in statistics, but you are. Watch this. As it turns out, the whole world is getting richer and living longer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded

(HT: Doug Wilson)

Orwell’s “1984″ and the Ongoing TSA Controversy

Nov 29th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
2 comments

Doug Wilson in a recent post about the ongoing TSA controversy:

We are being told that we must surrender some of our liberties because we are in a war on terror. I see. And when is this war likely to end, and will we, or our grandchildren, or great grandchildren, get our liberties back at that time? Ah, I thought not.

Near the end he invokes Owell’s novel 1984 again and then asks the question:

Some might object that my invocation of Orwell above is overblown, but if Orwell were to come back now, what do you think he would be more shocked by — the number of cameras all over the UK or the number of people who had read his book and yet did not see any connection?

Indeed, good point. 1984 is a brilliant book. Have you read it?

Coercion Capacity and the Libido Dominandi

Nov 27th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
2 comments

Doug Wilson again:

One of the characteristics of lust is that it hates to be constrained. This applies as much to political lusts as to sexual desire…

Those who are in favor of smaller government are, when this is translated, in favor of a smaller capacity for coercion. Those who are in favor of bigger government are in favor of increased opportunities for coercion.

The libido dominandi [lust for power] is therefore characteristic of those who want more access to coercive policies, and it is not characteristic of those who don’t want that.

Processing… I hadn’t thought of government size as a measure of coercion capacity before…

True Gospel Preaching

Nov 25th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
2 comments

More often than not I find something quotable in the writings of Douglas Wilson… like these from a recent post entitled “Not the Clerk of Session“.

“The Reformation was a revival of true gospel preaching, and such gospel preaching always comes down to the point of decision. Good preaching is aimed at the will; all good preaching aims at conversion. If the people are not converted, they need to be. If they are, then a message aiming at true conversion will encourage them, not beat them up. As Luther put it, we are called to a lifetime of repentance.

Good preaching reminds every Christian soul that we live before the God who sees and knows the heart, and who will sift those hearts in the great day of judgment.”

And then this:

“A distinction should therefore be kept sharp between the preaching of the Word, and the shepherding of souls. The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, but this does not mean that a minister can see hearts. When it comes to the division of soul and spirit, the Scriptures are sharper than a sword. But at the same point, fallible ministers can be as sharp as a pound of wet liver. But the fact that he cannot see this or that heart exhaustively should not prevent him from preaching the Word searchingly.”

Read the entire post here.

“Floating Skyward In Wisps of Gnostic Vapor”

Nov 23rd, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
1 comment

Half the time I can’t tell whether I read Doug Wilson because I agree with him or because I enjoy his writing so much. He makes me think, flips conventional wisdom on its ear, and turns a good phrase with every swing at the plate.

He does these things again here in a post called “A Tornado With Boots“:

“The perennial temptation for modern Reformed Protestants, especially after they get college degrees, is to float toward the sky in wisps of gnostic vapor.”

***

“I have often quoted that glorious passage in Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, where a junior officer in the War Between the States was being reprimanded by the general for his unit’s reluctance to charge. “Sir,” the hapless lieutenant replied, “I am convinced that any further demonstration of valor on the part of my troops will bring them into contact with the enemy.”

The early Reformers were not like this at all. They were about the most un-gnostic bunch ever assembled in the history of Christendom. They were the most Christ-loving, world-affirming, money-making, beer-drinking, sword-wielding, music-making, kingdom-overthrowing, love-making, poetry-writing bunch of Christians the world had ever seen up to that point. And they kept it up, by and large, for several centuries.”

***

“At the time of the Reformation, if there had been a gnosticism susceptibility line on the blackboard, on a scale of 1-to-10, the papists would be hitting the eights and nines. The monks would be sweating out sexual temptations in their dreary cloisters while the Puritans with plumes in their hats and lawn tops on their boots were striding home to make love to their wives.”

Read the whole thing here.

“We cannot fix our problems on paper. What we need is fire!”

Jun 28th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

One must avoid becoming a pipeline of other people’s thoughts, but when it comes to Doug Wilson, at times I can’t resist. Sometimes I don’t even understand what he’s saying, but even then there are always a few paragraphs that ring true. Like these:

“If American Christians succeeded in having the Apostles Creed put into our Constitution, we would not then have a new nation in the new Christendom. We would have something like England, a teetery relic nation from the old Christendom. England is a Christian nation on paper. We cannot fix our problems on paper, or with paper. What we need is fire.

[pullquote]We cannot fix our problems on paper, or with paper. What we need is fire.[/pullquote]

And we cannot have fire without preachers of the gospel who know what they are about. We need preachers who have experienced the new birth themselves, and who know what the Bible teaches about the necessity of it. And we need preachers who have experienced the anointing of the Holy Spirit on their pulpit declarations, who know what real power is. Further, we need more than one of them. Two or three thousand should do it.”

From: A Decorated Altar is Still a Cold One

Powder Puff Pulpits

Jun 28th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

“Is there a place in your preaching for such strong language? . . . In brief, in Scripture such language is designed to elicit from the hearer or reader an emotional reaction — laughter, revulsion, terror, etc. — which corresponds to the spiritual nature of the thing being described.

Such language is used for its shock value. God does not want us to intellectualize sin . . . In the contemporary world, however, a different idea rules. ‘Nice’ is better than holy. ‘Comfortable’ is better than dedicated and devoted. Churches have become places for ‘support’ and flattery, not truth.

To be shocked at church is virtually the unpardonable sin.”

- (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 315)

(HT: Doug Wilson)

Read Until Your Brain Creaks

Jun 22nd, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

After watching Collision, I suspected that I might have found a new hero in Douglas Wilson, and indeed I have. Solid, opinionated, clever, and  intelligent, Wilson’s online writings are the ones I least frequently skip.

For example, here are 7 tips he recently offered other writers about reading. I’m sure that he would agree with me though that there is a danger of “Intellectual Obesity.”

Below are the highlights. Stroll on over to Blog & Mablog to read more.

1. The first thing is that writers should in fact be voracious readers.
We live in a narcisstic age, which means that many want to have the praise that comes from having written, without the antecedent labor of actually writing, or the antecedent labor before that of having read anything.

2. Read widely.
Reading shapes your voice, and if you want a wide, experienced voice, you have to get out more.

3. Read like a reader, and not like someone cramming for a test.
If you try to wring every book out like it was a washcloth full of information, all you will do is slow yourself down to a useless pace. Go for total tonnage, and read like someone who will forget most of it.

4. Read like a lover of books, and not like someone who wants to be seen as knowledgable, or well-read, or scholarly.
Read because you want to, not because you need to. Actually, you need to as well, but you need to want to. You also need to want to need to, but I am rapidly getting out of my depth.

5. Pace yourself in your reading.
A little bit every day really adds up. If you only read during sporadic reading jags, the fits and starts will not get you anywhere close to the amount of reading you will need to do.

6. As a general pattern, read quality, and go slumming occasionally to remind yourself why quality matters, and what quality is.

7. Read boring books on writing mechanics.
Read grammars, dictionaries, writers’ memoirs, books of proverbs, books of cliches, books on how to write dialogue, books on how not to write dialogue (“I dropped my toothpaste!” he said crestfallenly.), and books about finding good agents and how to blow away the readers of query letters. Writing is a vocation, and there is a body of professional literature out there — which is uneven in quality, just like every other kind of book. Read a lot of it anyway.

(Yes, Kevin Abell, this is aimed at you)

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