Vision Forum and a Season of Meditation

If you read through the complaint filed against Doug Phillips and Vision Forum by Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, it is plain that the tangled mess there — a mess that is entirely the responsibility of Doug Phillips — is a tangled mess. I make a point of saying (again) that this whole catastrophe is the responsibility of …

Vision Forum and Confessing Your Virtues

Lourdes Torres-Manteufel was 15 when she met Doug Phillips, leader of Vision Forum, back in 1999. On her account, she was an adult when the relationship became sexual. The whole tangled affair is now in the courts, and it looks to become even more tangled and tawdry before we are all done. My point in …

Patriarchy, Vision Forum, and All the Rest of It

Patriarchy Patriarchy simply means “father rule,” and so it follows that every biblical Christian holds to patriarchy. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church (Eph. 5:23), and fathers have the central responsibility to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. …

Doug Phillips’ Resignation from Vision Forum

I thought I should say something about Doug Phillips’ resignation from Vision Forum, but it won’t be very much. The news was of course tragic, sad, and humbling. That said, I thought his letter of resignation was good, and accomplished what a letter like that needed to accomplish. I am glad he stepped down from …

Vision 20/20 Posts On Sitler

As many of you know, the fracas this last week over the Steven Sitler situation occurred (for the most part) on a listserve discussion here in Moscow called Vision 20/20. I subscribed to it for the course of a few days, and then when it appeared that continued discussion in that setting would be counterproductive, …

Seven Theses on Submission

Part of the fallout from the Vision Forum mess has been the attempted discrediting of “patriarchy.” Since Doug Phillips definitely taught headship and submission in marriage, and since he sinned in the way he did, it is thought that the whole project should be abandoned in favor of something friendlier to women, like, say, abandoning …

Down on the Banks of the Ohio

The last few days Nancy and I have been speaking at the 2010 Midwest Homeschooling Convention in Cincinnati. The event is simply gargantuan (upwards of four thousand families), and vendor booths stretching over the horizon. Our many thanks to the organizers for inviting us; we had a grand time. I had a good conversation here …