Letters
No jitney politics; no banana republic . . .
Just consequences for crimes. That’s all. If someone loses an election, that is not a crime and should not . . . EVER . . . result in their punishment for daring to oppose the winner. But that’s not what has been happening for the past 50+ years. Dirty deeds have been done dirt cheap in secret for decades, and now, because the righteous have been too gentlemanly to prosecute malfeasance, they’re out in broad daylight burning our cities to the ground, organizing whole communities to stuff ballot boxes, and paying off the CIA to ruin people’s lives—from the Supreme Court justices to the President himself.
To quote nobody in particular, but nearly everyone at the same time, “It’s about bloody time someone went to jail. Lock her up! Lock him up! And him, and him . . . and HIM!!”
I’d also recommend a bulldozer creates a new street right through the heart of the J. Edgar Hoover building. For starters . . .
Here’s an idea—empty our jails of all the illegal aliens by shipping them back to their home countries, then fill up those jails again with every government official, conscripted rioter, and quasi-journalist who perpetrated lies, violence, insider trading, high crimes and misdemeanors . . . and then give their properties to the J6’ers who spent two years under false arrest, deprived of their Constitutional rights.
THEN justice will have been served. Will that boomerang come back around? Not if the evil people are all behind bars. Will it EVER come back around? I dunno . . . but I think we should throw the thing anyway. You can’t drain the swamp without pulling the plug.Andy
Andy, clarity is a bracing tonic.
If Obama is arrested, expect a significant percentage of Blacks to riot. This won’t be organized either. Obama will play this to the max. A trial? Massive threats will be made on the jury. You have to go after Comey and Hilary first.Zeph
Zeph, yes, a case can be made for starting somewhere.
The Discouragement Post
RE Dealing with Discouragement.
Thank you for that gentle and yet hard hitting encouragement and exhortation. Just what the Doctor ordered today. A word in season aptly spoken. Lord, give me eyes to see and discern where I am at rightly, in Christ, through the Spirit.
Love in Christ,JP
JP, thanks much.
Dangerous Counseling Ground
Going to a counselor while still living with her husband can be dangerous for a woman whose husband has a persistent, unrepented anger problem. The atmosphere of the counselor’s office can cause her to have hope, let her guard down, and say things that she normally would not. Her husband can appear to cooperate, saying what he senses the counselor wants to hear, and then resent and punish her for “making him look bad” or “lying” when they get home. If a man has an anger problem as bad as described in that letter, especially if he is already physically abusing the kids (leaving bruises, etc.), this is not a case for finding a good, biblical counselor as a first step. She needs to get herself and her kids out of there. If that move has the secondary effect of causing him to truly repent and want to seek help, great. Go to counseling with him, but don’t move back in with him until you are sure he has repented . . . probably at least a year. These women need our help. For more information on this, please see the book Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft.Jennifer
Jennifer, I have seen just what you describe here. Honesty by the wife in the counseling session is not punished there, but the husband then punishes her at home. But I have also seen husbands radically misrepresented by their wives. So you also have to guard against that. You don’t want a man locked out of his relationship with his kids simply because his wife decided to lie about him.
Two Kinds of Divine Will
I watched an interview on Daily Dose of Wisdom? in which you lightly addressed the concept of Predestination. You mentioned that God’s “preceptive” attribute and His “predictive” attribute should be recognized. I am very unfamiliar with those ideas. That particular podcast is no longer available online, or I would love to listen to it again. Would you please expand and explain those two ideas again? I may have heard those attributes incorrectly.
Thank you very much.Fairya
Fairya, I believe you are referring to God’s decretive will and His preceptive will. If we ask the question whether or not God’s will can be thwarted, the answer has to be yes or no, depending on what aspect of His will we are talking about. Is it the will of God that Christians refrain from sexual sin? Yes. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (1 Thess. 4:3). This is His preceptive will—His will as expressed in precepts. The Ten Commandments are the will of God, and they are violated all the time in a sinful world. But when God says “let there be light,” there is going to be light. What He decrees is going to happen, and that will cannot be thwarted. That would be His decretive will.
Obedience and Gift
I am a retired Navy guy and OCF guy. I have heard a lot about your dad. Recently, a young officer sent me one of your videos, referencing Discouragement, but he has a question.
I told him my interpretation, but I wanted to get your answer.
Can I have joy and /or peace in the midst of suffering or is this dependent on God giving it as if He doesn’t always have it freely available to us?
Thx!Carl
Carl, we should live in accordance with God’s instructions, all while knowing that if He does not give the ability, it is not going to happen. But our responsibility remains. The greatest command is to love Him . . . and the first fruit of the Spirit is love. We are commanded to rejoice, as Paul says, and the second fruit of the Spirit is joy. We are told not to be anxious about anything, and the third fruit of the Spirit is peace. And so on. So if God commands me to jump through the wall and not to leave a hole, my responsibility is to get a running start and leave the ground.
Generational Transition
With the recent death of Jon MacArthur, many have asked: “who will take his place”? Many younger Calvinists are feeling the lack of a young, solid Calvinist voice in the public square. I am looking around and all the living Reformed Theologians and teachers I look up to, (with the exceptions of Keith Foskey and Voddie Baucham,) are eligible for Social Security.
I know God is more than capable of raising up Elishas in this age, and I pray that he will do so. But my question to you is this: what measures are you taking to equip young men to take over your own ministry? I know that your son Nate does many podcasts with you, and that you often appear with men younger than you, (like Joe Rigney). I assume you are mentoring these men behind the scenes. What does that look like? And how can a rash, callow youngster like me (I am in my 20s) seek out mentorship in my church and friend group?
Thanks for everything,William
William, yes. Our session of elders has thought a great deal about transitions, and yes, we are preparing for the day when I assume room temperature. We are taking what measures we can. But I also am confident that God is preparing a new generation of leaders. The reason we don’t recognize them now is that they are too busy in fruitful work to be loudly complaining about boomers.
Communing and Non-communing
Some presbyterian churches make a distinction between “communing members” and “non-communing members”—children making up a good portion of the latter group when paedocommunion is not practiced. But where it is practiced, are there stipulations written into any CREC (or Christ Church) documents that outline whether and when an adult child of a covenant member family takes upon himself membership covenant vows? As someone leaving a baptist church for a presbyterian church, I’ve considered one of the inconsistencies of the baptists to be our withholding of one kind of membership until a credible profession of faith, and then another kind of membership to even later before they can take communion, and then yet another until they can be a participating (voting) member. Presbyterians—the pedocommunion ones anyway—seem to eliminate a lot of the layers by starting full membership at infant baptism but is there a final or more mature state of membership in CREC churches conferred at adulthood? Thanks!Bryan
Bryan, we do not make a distinction between communing and non-communing. All our members are communing. We have one distinction, which is between voting and non-voting members. A child is represented by his father’s vote. When he has grown, and is self-supporting in his own household, he becomes a voting member.
Confession to a Wife
I think you have written on this before, but I cannot find it in the archives.
How much sin should a husband confess to his wife? I am a firm believer in open and honest confession between spouses, but how much detail/extent should he go into when confessing sexual sins or sins of lust?
For example, say he spends too much time lingering over swimsuit models on his phone. Of course he should tell her what happened and ask forgiveness.
But, what if he had a lustful thought about another woman pop up that he indulges? Should he confess that? Should he say who the woman was?
Yet again, what if a woman on the subway who is a stranger touches his arm inappropriately and he rather likes it? Say he even puts himself in a position for her to do it again, but just one time . What sort of confession, if any, should he be making to his wife?
What if he lusts three days in a row? Should he confess every instance, or just say, “Honey, I’m sorry, but I’ve been giving in to lustful thoughts lately. Will you please forgive me?”
What if he lusts after another woman while he and his wife are having sex?
All in all, while I would love specific answers to all these questions, I would imagine there is an overall framework of confession for these sorts of things that we can apply across the board.
Confession is good, but surely there must be some sort of “wisdom principle” involved. It seems as though too much confession/detail would only hurt their relationship rather than helping.
Thanks!Anon
Anon, you are right that confessing every temptation, or every nickel/dime sin is going to mess up your relationship, not help it. At the same time, some of the scenarios you describe above are not nickel/dime at all, but pretty serious. What you need is for you and your wife to have an understanding of thresholds in descending order of seriousness—a level of sin that will cause you to make an appointment for pastoral counseling, a level of sin that you will confess to her, a level of sin that will cause you to seek spiritual help (from a friend, say), and a level of sin that you will confess only to God. That way she can always know where she is, but without getting defiled by details.
A Cloistered Family
My husband and I began having children when we were too young (or too unmarried, I should say). We were 19 and 20. My husband became a believer in the process. I’ve been one since forever but took a brief stint away from church to pursue a career of pseudo-atheism in my teens, wherein I created a close social circle. It had to be all but abandoned once I became pregnant and serious about the state of my soul. The side effects of starting our marriage in this way have been somewhat predictable but God has made a grand show of His grace over the years. One of the by-products of being immature young parents was that friend-making felt difficult. I was awkward and my husband was slightly weirded out by church people at first. He never really minded the isolation, and I guess I never minded enough to do much about it. I sort of just sat around hoping that God would send an angelic huddle of young women to my front door to befriend me. After six years I’m finally feeling the conviction that I ought to learn how to exercise churchly hospitality and I’m assuming that a sense of community will follow. Now here’s where the trouble is.
My husband has become an amazing family man. So much so that whenever he has time off work (which isn’t very often), he prefers to spend it alone with us and frankly doesn’t care to have people over. Our house is small, etc., etc. I can’t argue with that because I felt the same way until 5 minutes ago. So I’m wondering how I should go about this task of building up a more hospitable personality without disrespecting my husband’s need for personal space. I’m sure you or your wife or your daughters have spoken on this already, but I probably wasn’t paying attention. I’m already on a reading streak, so you may as well just link the article or the book or whatever it is you’re thinking of to save yourself from having to answer this tiresome question. :) Thank you!LR
LR, not tiresome at all. The short answer is that you should split the difference. Talk with your husband about it, and if you can agree, start showing hospitality at a very modest level. Keeping the family completely isolated is not good for the family. All of you need some cross-pollination.
Gremlins
Hey, just a heads up that, in one of the excerpts in last week’s Blog and Mablog was a quote from “Mere Christendom”, but the link was to “Empires of Dirt”. And then if I typed “Mere Christendom” into the Search box, it also brought up only “Empires of Dirt” and “Mere Fundamentalism”. Nowhere in that part of the Dougwils.com website was the book “Mere Christendom”—that only showed up on the canonpress site. Thought you might like to know.Shawn
Shawn, thanks. It is the work of gremlins. Those book quotes aren’t supposed to be linked to anything. So when I went into one of the quotes to remove the random link, there wasn’t one to remove. But a link still appears on the front page for me also. I blame the Illuminati.
Protect Your Kids
Truthfully, I doubt I will hear back to this letter. In a nutshell I am seeking wisdom greater than my own at this moment. I am a husband and father. I pray and try to be a loving and sacrificial husband and father to my wife and son as Christ is for the Church. I read Doug’s book Reforming Marriage and loved it. I thought much scriptural wisdom went into that work. Though I must admit it is the only book of Doug’s I have read. I guess I am writing because I am scared. Tonight the news of the massacres in Syria and Nigeria came to my awareness. In particular a picture of a boy, maybe 1-year-old, about my son’s age who had been captured by jihadist terrorists was posted. This shook me to my core. I do not doubt Christ’s love or commitment. I am doubting if I am truly living a life for Him now though. I wonder if I am following Him and leading my family into the Narrow Gate of Heaven. I fear for that young boy kidnapped. I do not know what, if anything, I can do.
I will continue to pray. It is all I can think of to do. Not really sure why I am writing this letter. Wholeheartedly I believe Jesus is just and justice will be delivered by His hand. That poor boy. His confusion and fear. I am not seeking comfort, I am hoping for wisdom on a means to help the body of Christ.Drew
Drew, you are right about one thing. A fundamental responsibility that a father has is to protect his family. To see someone like that, unprotected, should make you resolve to fulfill your responsibilities in this regard, with reference to everyone God has entrusted to you. You are right to feel protective. But just be aware that giving way to a spirit of fear and anxiety won’t protect anybody.
The Moscow Murders
What does citizen Wilson think about the plea deal in the Brian Kohberger case? I believe that God has given the sword to the magistrate in order to execute justice and that justice, not just for the families but for the community, was not served.Robert
Robert, I am inclined to agree with you. The fact that Kohberger agreed to a plea deal indicates that he thought the state had a strong case. But on the other hand, the fact that the prosecutor agreed to it may indicate that he knew his case was weaker than it should have been, and he didn’t want to risk Kohberger walking free. That is a possibility also.
Christian Nationalism
I am a brother in Christ, writing you because I am intrigued, even captivated, by your Christian Nationalist ideology. Honestly, growing up with influences of Dispensationalism and the assumption that the world is only getting worse so prepare for Heaven was pretty ingrained in me, but hearing you talk about what it means to live for Christ in a way that actually changes the culture for the better according to God’s will and actually being a part of bringing all things under Christ really resonates with me more and more.
I began reading about our Founders and see that it was clearly their objective too, and while America has fallen so grievously and deeply into great sin these past several decades, I want to believe that we can turn it around by God’s grace working in us. And maybe I’m crazy, but I have begun having thoughts of running for political office. I see the incredible corruption in government, the rampant immorality and greed, how our leaders by and large fail to speak on behalf of what is truly good, but get sucked into a club of dishonesty and vice, so on one hand I am afraid to consider political office (besides having no experience), yet I earnestly want our nation to truly be one nation under God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am 29 years old, turning 30 in August, grew up in Wisconsin and have lived in Illinois for several years with my wife and four children. I have felt a ministry call, a pastoral call, for many years, yet the timing of things was not right. I do feel that circumstantially I am ready for full time ministry, and that is another thing. Please pray for me, and I would appreciate your advice on all this. As far as considering political office, I would assume that would be further out (not immediate consideration), but who knows.
Thank you, Douglas.Douglas
Douglas, you are right about the need. My advice for you would be to do a lot more reading. First in theology, and second in politics and cultural affairs. As you read, evaluate how quickly you take to things, and how quickly you grasp them, Then look at your station in life, family responsibility, your current vocation, and what it would take to get you to a ministry call, or a call to political involvement. Then decide.
Immigration Issues
If I could, may I ask a question concerning immigration, the Rep. Salazar bill to be specific. Maybe you read it but it would give work permit and license to undocumented illegal aliens who been on this country for more then 7 years. As a Christian, I believe in mercy and forgiveness so I like this bill. One example of the people it would help would be a case in our church. Husband brings family to USA, with wife and 2 small kids. Husband [dies?] and the wife, she know has to work and provide for her kids. She becomes a believer attending church regularly with kids and has now been here 18 years. They can’t make it back on their home land have never works there I believe this bill would give them a chance to be legal Christian like me and you. I would like to hear your opinion on this bill. Thank you have a great day.SR
SR, I understand your point. But I would point to the principle that difficult cases make bad law. In the past, extending mercy in the direction of any kind of amnesty has been abused, and on a massive scale. So I think I could support a bill like this . . . maybe ten years from now. The border has to get closed first, and stay closed. The dangerous criminals and outrageous cases need to be deported. Then self-deportations need to be encouraged. Then birthright citizenship needs to be ended. Then the recent flood of Biden illegals need to be returned. Once the situation is stable again, we can afford to be merciful to someone who has been here long enough to have great-grandchildren who are American citizens.
L.R. – whilst Mr Wilson’s words about not cutting your family off are wise, could you look for opportunities to spend time with other women in your church, away from your homes? Finding third spaces in communities can be difficult and expensive for many people, but perhaps you could organise a walking group – find a local nature reserve or walking track, and organise a time (fortnightly? Monthly?) to meet up, start with prayer, then take a relaxing walk together and enjoy fellowship. There’s many advantages to this – it’s free and you don’t have to worry about making bookings… Read more »
If smart people were in charge we could figure out how to extend mercy without allowing it to be abused. Are you saying we don’t have those people in charge now either?
If we think mercy is warranted, we can be choose to be merciful if it is convenient, we can be merciful if we feel like it, we can be merciful ten years from now. Or we can be merciful.
Mercy is never warranted. By definition mercy is a departure from justice and justice is giving to each what is warranted.
Thoughts on presidential pardons?
They should be used in cases of unlawful conviction, political necessity, and sometimes as a gesture of goodwill. I am not going to address Epstein, there are others who know far more about that than I do.
Gee, shucks, I’m just a lowly individual, with no opinions on the biggest political story over the last month. Great dodge, buddy 😉
While you’re hemming and hawing, think of applying those three reasons you gave to the potential pardon of a convicted sex trafficker. Who isn’t even an American of you’d believe it 😱
Then no one deserves mercy…only justice…not even you, scrib:)
Agreed
We’ll, then in all sincerity, I hope you get what you deserve:) although I do remember something somewhere in the Bible about being kind and merciful, maybe in the be-attitudes, and leaving the justice/judging to god, so I’ll side with kindness and mercy:)
I hope you don’t get what’s coming to you, because you would be damned to hell forever. May God give grace and mercy to save us all. Every person stands condemned under God’s perfect law, for “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10). None can escape divine justice, for “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). And for the guilty, the sentence is dreadful and… Read more »
Agreed, but as my four year old would say, “worry about yourself.” Why so intent to make other people’s lives miserable?
How have I made your life miserable? Most of these words aren’t even mine.
Psalm 85, Book of Psalms for Singing: “Together met are truth and grace/while righteousness and peace embrace.”
Can you flesh out that argument, I don’t see how that applies
Perhaps if I had said “merited” you would be closer to right. However, mercy means not only forbearance and lenience, the meaning you seem to have in mind, but also active compassion toward those who need it. Since our Lord taught us that the merciful are blessed, and commanded us to be merciful as our Father is merciful, mercy is always warranted.
Warranted is defined as deserved or necessitated which mercy cannot be unless the Lord is unjust (mercy on whom I will have mercy etc.). We are required to be merciful but this doesn’t mean we must refrain from applying any legal penalty to those who break the law. In your original context the reference was to lenience. To clarify I agree with a lot of what you said. However, we must also remember that we are to be as wise as serpents so we should ensure that we don’t accidentally allow any possibility of a misinterpretation of the law that… Read more »
We’re probably just quibbling over word choice here, but I don’t think that is the definition of “warranted”. It can mean “authorized” or “justified”, and to say something is warranted can mean there is a good reason for it. Mercy in the sense of compassionate dealing with someone who is truly in need or serious difficulty (or will be depending on what happens) is always warranted. I should say mercy in the sense of leniency can be warranted. In the example given, Doug seemed to think mercy would be warranted, but also seemed reluctant to give it. Yes, we should… Read more »
I think we are in agreement and we were just reading “warranted” differently
Similarly, if non-corrupt people were in charge we could fight corruption without “bracing” Stalinist metaphors and overt racism. But the current magistrate fired all the whistleblowers, ombudsmen, and watchdogs, and declared himself above the law. Not even King George had such privileges on these shores. Now the president’s personal lawyer “interviews” the president’s criminal friend about the crimes committed by another of the president’s criminal friends, who (very likely) committed crimes on the president’s properties that went unreported. In response to this very obvious criminal corruption — happening alongside open grift, every single day — the righteous demand the subjugation… Read more »
It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that the Christian Nationalists who today are saying “though Christianity isn’t explicitly written into any of the USA’s founding documents, we should behave as if it were (because, e.g. they generally had a Christian worldview, or had established churches in their states, or something of that kind”, also in many cases used to say until quite recently (and perhaps still do say) that founding texts should be treated according to what they actually say in the texts themselves, and judges shouldn’t be allowed to bring in outside considerations in interpreting them. Anyone here… Read more »
Hi David, I’ll bite…even though I’m probably not well-versed enough in either the Constitution or the Christian Nationalist argument that you’re describing (the government behaving with a Christian worldview). Let’s take marriage. My understanding is that it’s not in the constitution, but was taken for granted. Local and State laws started licensing marriage, to help manage property transfers and to prevent birth defects (kissing cousins). Then, Obergefell was a decision saying that same-sex mirage is protected under the 14th Amendment. I would argue the founders would disagree, and that even the lawmakers that passed the 14th amendment couldn’t see how… Read more »
You don’t get to selectively decide when due process matters and when it doesn’t. That is the entire point of constitutionalism, dating back to the Magna Carta. That is why John Adams defended (in court) the redcoats who killed Americans in the Boston Massacre, winning a bunch of acquittals over the objections of the lynch mob. These universalist principles mattered to the Founders far, far more than any sectarian interpretation of Scripture, all of which were subordinated to the Constitution. Why? Because the European wars of religion — i.e., sectarian wars within Christendom — were fresh in the memory. That… Read more »
Hi Buster, not sure I can keep up with all that you’ve shared…but for interest of your statement – let’s say instead of selective application, I want the Bible to be included in precedent creation. I think some of the originalist argument is that this was done almost without thinking in the 1770’s. I’m sure the founders were ‘elite’ in terms of their access to literature, however I’ve read over the years that most colonists learned to read from the Bible and the Common Book of Prayer. My assumption is that many biblical principles came canned in that education. The… Read more »
“I want the Bible to be included in precedent creation.” Christ did not say “render unto Caesar (but only if Caeser is taxing according to biblical teaching)”. When Christ stood before Herod — who tried to kill him — he did not say “I reject your authority as it is not biblically-based”. When Christ stood before Pilate — who did kill him — he did not say “You have no right to sentence me”. He did not boldly confront these men, he did not call them to repentance either; he quietly accepted their judgment as the legitimate authority on earth.… Read more »
Buster, you’re swinging a dull axe here. Christ standing silent before Pilate is not a blueprint for Christian civic disengagement—it’s the climax of His atonement. He had to be silent to drink the cup (John 18:11). That was substitutionary, not prescriptive. If you want political theology, you don’t stop at Good Friday. You remember that the risen Christ stood before His disciples and said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:18-20) That is jurisdictional language. Dominion language. Paul leaned on it when he rebuked magistrates (Acts… Read more »
Thanks for your reply. Let me start by agreeing that I’m selfish…and I’m sure not in a good way (as if there is such a thing). I’m a big fan of CS Lewis…and a principle that I remind myself of often is that ‘humility is not thinking less of myself, it’s thinking of myself less.’ I agree with your reference to Christ. However, His time on earth was under a different political system. Not that He would do anything different, just the collective reaction would be different. I would really enjoy the discussion of how Christ would operate under today’s… Read more »
We do have that as an ultimate goal.
Thanks much! I’m engaging because this topic is growing in my church and town. I didn’t realize how bad I am at communicating ideas until I started writing them down here. Be Blessed!
You’re welcome. God’s favor be upon you and may your work in your home be fruitful.
Your example of Christ made me re-read Romans 13. Christ perfectly fulfilled this scripture. Now I need to find what is commanded of elected representatives (are they like masters? shepherds? elders?)
Raising the amendments makes this even more (to me) of an interesting question. Since the constitution can, and has been, amended, most recently in 1992, and since the amendments are of equal authority with anything else in the constitution, does that not make it more difficult for people to say that we must read it with the understanding that it is intended to not only enforce the things that it says, but also generally intended to enforce the world-view of its authors? Given the amendments, its authors span centuries. When I’ve read Douglas Wilson on this blog arguing about the… Read more »
A couple of things about amendments. The Constitution’s bar is really high…I wish we as a country could decide more things collectively…I think there are churches that require 2/3 or 3/4 vote to pass some measures. This ability to amend keeps the Constitution ‘by the people’, not just ‘by those dead guys.’ And the Bible (unless we find 3rd Corinthians), cannot be amended, yet to your point, is subject to interpretation. If a biblical council was formed to apply the Bible to the Constitution, that would alleviate some of the fears than any one Pastor or Denomination was exerting undue… Read more »
Correct, it is bad faith argumentation, up and down, side to side, top to bottom, beginning to end.
There is only one consistency and one conclusion: they get the power. No one else, just them. Always.
This is a legitimate question. Please answer it and don’t argue with it.
Who should have the power?
I think a good rule of thumb for the confession of sin is that the confession should be as public as the sin.
Your response about women lying in counseling is exactly the reason so many women are leaving Christianity. The situation presented to you originally clearly had physical evidence — the kids had bruises. Once that happens, the woman and her kids needs to leave and stay gone until the husband has shown permanent repentance of, as the other letter writer stated, at least a year. NO ONE should fear physical harm at home. EVER. Once bruises appear, that’s a matter at least for the civil courts and probably the criminal ones.
And that applies to anyone of any kind of gender expression. DO NOT HIT YOUR FAMILY.
You say physical evidence from reading a blog post with no pictures? Doug didn’t deny that that was a good motive to leave, his point was that women are not perfect and they do lie. Unless you have seen the bruises that is not physical evidence.
The reason so many women are leaving Christianity is because they were never Christians or they were never in real Christianity to leave. (1 John 2:19)
That is a very Calvinist way of looking at those who walk away from Christianity – or at least churchianity. It is undoubtedly true of some who abandon the faith but not all. There are others for whom the hypocrisy, the bullying, the male eldership circling the wagons to protect male headship and authority, the unwillingness of such elders to take women seriously becomes too much, and they come to a place where darkening the door of a church is the last thing they could ever countenance. Michael Brown is the current example of where this is happening, with a… Read more »
I’ll take the first line as a compliment and point you to 1 John 2:19 for the second. Yes, corrupt shepherds will face millstones (Luke 17:2) and God will judge abusive elders (Jer. 23:1). But abandoning Christ’s bride isn’t holiness—it’s drifting (Heb. 10:25). Jesus says His sheep don’t get snatched (John 10:28); if they walk away for good, they were never His (Matt. 7:23). There are thousands of stories of people who changed denominations or churches because of problems and plenty more where they started home-churching. Abandoning the Church is not the only option, and true Christians would fight to stay even if that meant a different… Read more »