An Appreciation for Lord Voldemort

I recently had the opportunity to meet and participate in a panel discussion with Pastor Douglas Wilson. He is, at least in the small circle of my own denomination, the Lord Voldemort of Reformedom, “he who shall not be named.” But it is past time to admit publicly and with gratitude that Doug Wilson has had more influence on my thinking, theology, and pastoral ministry than any man alive today. His ministry of writing, preaching, and lecturing has informed, instructed, and encouraged me from afar for many years, and I would not be a Reformed minister today without his influence, though that admission will dismay many of my brothers in the OPC.

When I discovered the doctrines of grace while serving as a minister in the Churches of Christ, I became a theological orphan. Men who had been my mentors and fathers in the faith became, in some cases, not all, my harshest critics. I owe a debt of gratitude to those men as well for many things they taught me, and I speak of them frequently with appreciation. They laid the groundwork for me to discover sovereign grace and the covenantal structure of redemption. But I became at that point, and in truth had become some years earlier, a man without any teachers to whom I could turn, and so I had to learn from the dead. I will never have the opportunity in this life to shake hands with John Calvin, Augustine, C. S. Lewis, or G. K. Chesterton, men who became and remain my tutors in faith and piety. I thank God for them and look forward to expressing gratitude to each of them in glory. But there have been few men who were living to whom I could turn and from whom I could learn. (My own father was also a major influence, but I am thinking here about theological teachers.) Many men encouraged me—men who might not want their names listed in an article praising Doug Wilson; you know who you are and how much I love each of you—but without question, and without even a close second, Pastor Doug has been the single greatest teacher and influence upon my theological development of any man still alive today.

When I began moving in Reformed circles, I was reliably informed that Doug Wilson is a no good, horrible, very bad man. God alone knows how many hours of my life have been spent reading every negative story, every criticism, theological and otherwise, every piece of documentary evidence made available online seeking to establish that Doug’s image belongs in the post office rather than in the pulpit. I have not read everything Doug has ever written—who could keep up with his literary output? —but it is safe to say I have read more of his books and vastly more of his articles, essays, and blog posts than any of his critics that I have directly interacted with. His publications fill a considerable section of my personal library. For a while I simply trusted the Reformed leaders who assured me Doug was bad news. To my shame, my children remember my expressing reservations and repeating criticisms about him during that time. It was only after investing so much time over several years trying to discover the truth that I finally came to terms with the man and the controversies surrounding him.

I know something about theological and ecclesiastical controversy. If Doug is a whale swimming in the chilly waters of the Reformed world, then I have been and will remain an undersized tadpole in a rain puddle. But I experienced doctrinal and ecclesiastical war firsthand during the last several years I served in the Churches of Christ, and my own journey into Reformedom was not without its share of controversy. I recognize, in hindsight, and with shame, that I contributed to my own infamy in many ways. I often responded to my critics in ways that were unhelpful and, sometimes, just plain wrong. I was unwise, arrogant, and sometimes confidently confused. It isn’t easy to fit my size 12 foot into my mouth, but we all have our talents, and that is certainly one I have demonstrated on many occasions. I cannot believe, and I think I know better than to say, that Doug has never made the same mistakes. But I also know what it is like to be misunderstood, persistently and consistently so, even after many careful clarifications. I know what it is like to be misrepresented, oftentimes unintentionally, and sometimes not. And I know what it is like to be slandered without cause. The least serious criticisms that have ever been made about me were probably the ones that were most fair or had the most truth in them. The most serious have been laughable, including the one a few years ago that suggested I was flying to Honduras to meet secretly with leaders of the Churches of Christ. Critics in the Church can be creative, though both their criticisms and Christian screenplays suggest they may need to work a lot more on developing coherent storylines.

I am not a seminary professor or widely esteemed leader in the Reformed churches, as many of Doug’s critics are, but I am someone who has tried to read and listen to him and to his critics comprehensively, carefully, and charitably over a number of years. When it comes to Pastor Doug Wilson, there are three kinds of critics. The first are men who have done their homework, at least to some extent, and they have specific and responsible disagreements with Doug on particular points. It may be infant baptism or paedocommunion, it may be on how to distinguish Law and Gospel or how to express the objectivity of covenant union and the sacraments. But these critics are fair. They do not paint with a broad brush. They do not hyperventilate or clutch their polemical pearls. In most cases, they don’t even wear pearls. And they don’t have an archive of Doug Wilson memes ready to post whenever Reformed thought leaders sound the alarm.

The second kind of Doug Wilson critic is far and away the most numerous. These are the men and women who have been reliably informed by their theological betters that Doug Wilson is a very, very bad man. Most of them are not sure why. When pressed, they are confident that he denies justification by faith alone and the imputation of the active obedience and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They know that he is a racist, hates women, and loves child molestors. And they are fairly sure he was never properly ordained. They may be less confident that Doug was directly involved in the Kennedy assassination, though we should not be too quick to rule it out, but there is no doubt that he is a bad influence and a false teacher about… something.

The third kind of Doug Wilson critic is what we might politely call a damned liar. These are men who either know what they claim about Doug is false or who cannot be troubled to check. They affirm what is not true, and when corrected, they prove themselves unteachable, uncorrectable, and incorrigible. They will not read or listen to what Doug has to say—though they insist they have. Why should they? He is a false teacher. They will not concede when their allegations are proven false by confession and clarification. After all, that’s just the kind of thing a slippery and dishonest false teacher would say. They will never make themselves available for a public dialogue or debate, because everyone knows that Doug Wilson is a false teacher, so why should we give him a platform to create confusion and spread his diabolical cheerfulness? Theological controversy should not be clouded by arguments and engagement. Instead, it should be prosecuted by confident assertions and indiscriminate allegations pronounced in the safety of our own ecclesiastical counties and posted in the echo chamber of social media. These are not unevidenced allegations after all. I have seen the memes and the de-contextualized “quotes,” and I can tell from the black and white photo that accompanied it and the sinister music playing in the background that Doug Wilson really is an enemy agent. After all, doesn’t he love to quote an unrepentant and pugnacious papist?

The first kind of critic makes all of us better, and we should all thank God for the sanctifying providence of having such men in our lives. The second kind of critic needs to do their homework. Read a book or ten. Listen to sermons without malice, and really listen to what is being said. Remember that the Reformed experts you trust are men with feet of clay, just like Doug and the other men they criticize. As for the third kind of critic, you know who you are, and the good news is that Jesus died so that dishonesty, slander, and divisiveness can be forgiven too.I would not be Reformed today if it were not for Doug Wilson. I would not be a paedobaptist. I would be less cheerful, less fruitful, and less faithful if it were not for Doug’s life, ministry, and influence. My marriage has benefited from him. My relationship with my children has for many years. My local church and my fellowship with those I pastor has benefited immeasurably from what I have learned from that man. I only met Doug Wilson once, and he probably won’t remember my name. But I thank God for him. J. C. Ryle said, “The best of men are only men at best,” and I know that is true of Pastor Wilson and every other man, living and dead, that the Lord has used for good in my life. But it is past time to express my appreciation publicly. I thank God for Douglas Wilson.