Doug Wilson 2: Christian Nationalism, Dominionism and Excuses for Abuse

[Howl]

Interesting explanation of two types of Christian Nationalism.  Paul Matzko calls out 7 Mountains dominionism, but notes " there is also version percolating out of theologically reformed Presbyterian and Baptist circles.

For non-twitterati, unroll here: There are two primary strains of right-wing Christian Nationalism in America at the moment. 🧵

 

 

 

[Columbia]

Spoiler

 

These charming lines come from Thomas Achord, podcast co-host with Stephen Wolfe (author of Canon Press’ Christian Nationalism book.) No surprise, of course, but it’s always nice to have this kind of thing drug out into the light. I’m sure Stephen and Canon Press are drafting a response right now that is not simply “guilt by association, cope and seethe.”

Mr. Achord also runs a classical Christian school in Louisiana. Someone ought to let the parents in that school know that he’s evaluating their little daughters to see if they’ll be fives or tens when they grow up. 

[Columbia]

Is there a way to delete the previous post? It seems that there’s some debate on Twitter about whether the account in question actually belongs to the person in question. 

[stylites]

On 11/24/2022 at 11:10 PM, Columbia said:

Is there a way to delete the previous post? It seems that there’s some debate on Twitter about whether the account in question actually belongs to the person in question. 

The claim is somewhat implausible given that it also implies that people have been imitating him on multiple kinist websites for years and he didn't notice till now, and the stuff written under his own name is bad enough:

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by stylites

[hoipolloi]

On 11/24/2022 at 1:10 PM, Columbia said:

It seems that there’s some debate on Twitter about whether the account in question actually belongs to the person in question. 

Lots of shade & accusations being thrown in this situation, but it does seem there is smoke because there is a fire:

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by hoipolloi

[Coconut Flan]

On 11/24/2022 at 3:10 PM, Columbia said:

Is there a way to delete the previous post? It seems that there’s some debate on Twitter about whether the account in question actually belongs to the person in question. 

The general policy is we don't delete posts.  On occasion for good reason we will hide posts.  In this case discussing the post has already occurred so the best course of action is to continue to point out the problems.

[hoipolloi]

If you are on Facebook, Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow, ID has a detailed explainer + timeline on what's been happening:

Also, conservative commentator, Rod Dreher, has weighed in because Stephen Wolfeʻs buddy Achord formerly taught at the same private conservative Christian school as Dreher's ex-wife:

Quote

But I first became aware of the Achord thing by reading Twitter a few days ago. It very much matters to me whether or not Thomas Achord is guilty of being behind the Tulius Aadland account. Why? Because my children all studied at Sequitur. My wife, until all this emerged and she resigned in disgust, taught there for six years. It's a small Christian school that has been vital to the life of my family, and of Christian families I know and care about. Thomas Achord has been a (talented!) teacher there for years, and has for the past several served as its headmaster. 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by hoipolloi
Fixed typo

[stylites]

46 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Also, conservative commentator, Rod Dreher, has weighed in because Stephen Wolfeʻs buddy Achord formerly taught at the same private conservative Christian school as Dreher's ex-wife:

 

Alastair Roberts has posted the evidence he compiled on his blog:

https://alastairadversaria.com/2022/11/27/the-case-against-thomas-achord/

Commentators are divided on whether Roberts should have approached Achord privately, or whether Achord said was true and this is a scurilious hit piece. 🙄

Edited November 27, 2022 by stylites

[Columbia]

https://medium.com/@thomasachord/from-the-start-of-this-controversy-i-have-tried-to-find-the-truth-of-the-matter-and-i-have-an-e18b7e6f560e

Whoa, has this shifted. Turns out the terrible accounts were actually his all along, he was just in a really dark place and he loves his Mexican mom so he couldn’t be racist. 
 

Except he doesn’t love his mom at all. I hope his wife is able to leave him. 
 

 

[Howl]

 

[neuroticcat]

Julie Roy’s covers it today. Looks like he had his alt account with hate, including tweets that suggested he wanted to smuggle white supremacy in via classical Christian education.

https://julieroys.com/headmaster-achord-classical-christian-academy-out-racist-tweets-uncovered/
 

Also he recommended (wrote?) a creepy groomer “TradCon thriller romance” book and was accustomed to a steady diet of racist reading. (Linked in article)
 

Doug Wilson is happy to throw him under the bus as “no true Christian Nationalist” I guess but also sin. https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/achord-letters.html

Hate this stuff so much. 

[hoipolloi]

3 minutes ago, neuroticcat said:

Doug Wilson is happy to throw him under the bus as “no true Christian Nationalist”

Yeah, because a true Christian Nationalist like Doug Wilson writes novels about sex robots 🤮

[Bluebirdbluebell]

So Doug Wilson has a book he's promoting and the quote from the book is nuts. I don't remember the exact wording, but according to Wilson, women's hair preaches a sermon. If the hair looks good, then the husband treats the wife well. If the hair looks bad, then the wife is not treated well. I can't imagine reading that quote and deciding to buy the book. P. T. Barnum was right: "there's a sucker born every minute".

[Columbia]

4 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

So Doug Wilson has a book he's promoting and the quote from the book is nuts. I don't remember the exact wording, but according to Wilson, women's hair preaches a sermon. If the hair looks good, then the husband treats the wife well. If the hair looks bad, then the wife is not treated well. I can't imagine reading that quote and deciding to buy the book. P. T. Barnum was right: "there's a sucker born every minute".

It’s a pretty common approach in the hyper-Calvinist circles regarding women and their appearance. It always reflects back on their men. The Botkinettes had a long section in their beauty webinar about how your appearance is a reflection of your father. Unless she’s a widow she always belongs to a man, and needs to consider how she’s making that man look at all times. It sounds absolutely exhausting. 
 

 

[Hane]

@Columbia, and it shows up time and again in “Serena’s Serenity,” the novel JRod’s sister wrote. It’s all about God caring what you look like and how to represent your husband as a good provider (even if he’s a crappy provider, like Serena’s husband).

[neuroticcat]

14 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

So Doug Wilson has a book he's promoting and the quote from the book is nuts. I don't remember the exact wording, but according to Wilson, women's hair preaches a sermon. If the hair looks good, then the husband treats the wife well. If the hair looks bad, then the wife is not treated well. I can't imagine reading that quote and deciding to buy the book. P. T. Barnum was right: "there's a sucker born every minute".

Too bad no one there cares about wives being treated well. Or lets women preach. Lies all.

Every snippet I read out of DW's Moscow makes me so upset, but the way the men cloak their abuse in faux pompous "mirth" and "joviality" is extra gross. 

[hoipolloi]

Kathryn Joyce has published a good overview with some context:

Quote

Initially, on Nov. 25, Achord responded to the tweets and blog posts swirling around him with a denial, implausibly claiming that someone had created "a web" of imposter social media and email accounts in order to discredit his friend Stephen Wolfe's book. He also announced in that post that he'd resigned his position at Sequitur Classical Academy — news that prompted Wolfe to pledge to donate any royalties he makes in the next month to his co-host, and rallied supporters to crowdfund more than $24,000 in donations to date. Then, three days later, Achord published a follow-up, admitting the account was his, but that he hadn't remembered writing it during a "spiritually dark time" in his life.

Also, I will be asking my library to order copies of Bradley Onishi's forthcoming book which focuses white Christian nationalism and where it came from:

Quote

Through chapters on White supremacy and segregationist theologies, conspiracy theories, the Christian-school movement, purity culture, and the right-wing media ecosystem, Onishi pulls back the curtain on a subculture that birthed a movement and has taken a dangerous turn. In taut and unsparing prose, Onishi traces the migration of many White Christians to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming in what is known as the American Redoubt. Learning the troubling history of the New Religious Right and the longings and logic of White Christian nationalism is deeply alarming. It is also critical for preserving the shape of our democracy for years to come.

 

[Howl]

Quote

 Then, three days later, Achord published a follow-up, admitting the account was his, but that he hadn't remembered writing it during a "spiritually dark time" in his life.

Oh, FFS, what a cowardly, lying, sleazy scumbag. 

 *Note that Achord did not specifically disavow his repellent, odious writings and beliefs* 

So glad he's been outed! 

[Columbia]

 

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Oh, FFS, what a cowardly, lying, sleazy scumbag. 

 *Note that Achord did not specifically disavow his repellent, odious writings and beliefs* 

So glad he's been outed! 

I want to know how many people at that school knew about his abhorrent views. At least one of them had to have read his book and, unless they shared his same opinions, been horrified by what he said. There needs to be some sort of investigation into that school’s leadership, and there will probably never be. 

[hoipolloi]

15 hours ago, Columbia said:

I want to know how many people at that school knew about his abhorrent views. At least one of them had to have read his book and, unless they shared his same opinions, been horrified by what he said.

Dreher, whose kids went there & whose ex-wife taught there for years, claims to have noticed, heard or seen nothing for all of those years. 

Be that as it may, I agree that the book -- if you read it or even knew about it -- would be hard to ignore or perceive as anything but what it is.

[stylites]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:29 PM, Howl said:

Oh, FFS, what a cowardly, lying, sleazy scumbag. 

 *Note that Achord did not specifically disavow his repellent, odious writings and beliefs* 

So glad he's been outed! 

One thing I've not seen much followup on is the fact that he'd also authored several articles on kinist websites using that pseudonym.

[church_of_dog]

I've never followed Doug Wilson or his FJ threads, but over on Websleuths I am following the case of the 4 murdered Moscow students, and my mind keeps going to the idea that a religious extremist could have committed the crime, offended by the students' "worldly" lifestyle and wanting to punish them or make an example of them.

For those of you familiar with Wilson's church, beliefs and congregation, does this seem at all possible to you?  I do get the impression that, similar to Steve Anderson, there is a lot of anger in Wilson's views and his preaching.  Accurate?

Is there any talk about the murders among his church (or vice versa)?

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, church_of_dog said:

For those of you familiar with Wilson's church, beliefs and congregation, does this seem at all possible to you?  I do get the impression that, similar to Steve Anderson, there is a lot of anger in Wilson's views and his preaching.  Accurate?

Is there any talk about the murders among his church (or vice versa)?

While I immediately thought of the Wilson cult when news of the murders broke, there does not seem to be a connection. This also came up on a Reddit thread last month but the consensus was there was no connection.

 

[Columbia]

I’ve wondered the same thing. I could see DW making veiled threats and insinuations that an over-zealous congregant might take to their logical conclusions, but these would have to be for something big. I can’t imagine a few college students know something that would threaten the Kirk. 
 

That said, while I doubt the murderer is in the church, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone there knew someone who knew someone who wasn’t going to say anything. Doug made sure that the families of kids who were molested by Sitler never spoke to police. Something akin to that wouldn’t surprise me. 

[CTRLZero]

A suspect has been arrested for the murder of the four college students.  Here’s a snippet of the local news release.  (Seattle Times/AP)  I guess we’ll find out if there is any connection to the church.  

- - - - 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Friday.

Arrest paperwork filed by Pennsylvania State Police in Monroe County Court said Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation based on an active arrest warrant for first degree murder issued by the Moscow Police Department and Latah County Prosecutor’s Office.