Paul Kimmel is a member of our church here in Moscow, and also serves as one of the Latah County commissioners. His faithful public service has been conducted in all integrity, and naturally this has exposed him to the malice of a handful of discontents — whose idea of public discourse follows in the school of Shimei. “And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hill’s side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust” (2 Sam. 16:13).
One of the dead rats that they have thrown into the pond of our local civic discourse is the idea that Paul is an ecclesiastical pawn, placed in local government to do the nefarious bidding of the elders of Christ Church. In support of this, they recently produced something that they say is damning in the extreme. This is the statement that has their juices flowing. “The Christ Church minutes state, “Doug Wilson reported that Paul Kimmell, in his role as County Commissioner, is open to oversight from the elders on certain issues.”
We have gone through our minutes back into the late nineties, and can find nothing like this. But let’s work with it for a minute, and assume that a statement like this can be found somewhere. What could such a thing mean? Though we can’t find a record of me saying this, I certainly believe it to be true, and would like to say here, publicly, what kind of issues would cause Paul Kimmel to seek pastoral oversight.
He is a conscientious Christian man, a faithful father and husband, and a trustworthy public servant. He is the kind of man who would want to be held accountable, by his pastor and elders, if he ever began to resemble, in any way, his current crop of enemies — those who without a second thought lie, leak, betray, steal, and slander. We would admonish him if he ever became a son of Shimei, if he ever became like those who cannot tolerate the integrity of a man like this.