"Doug"

Two or three days ago, I was watching a conversation that was probably aired on Fox News (I say that because the host was Piers Morgan), and it included Wajahat Ali, Tim Miller from the Bulwark, and Doug Wilson. I don’t remember who aired this clip. Tim Miller did a lot of the talking, and he has longstanding antipathy for Doug Wilson. Wilson calls himself a “Pastor,” and Miller refuses to give him any respect. So he calls him “Doug.” He said Doug isn’t worthy of being called a Pastor. Doug responded that he’s been a Pastor for 50 years, and he asked Miller what more Miller thinks it would take for him to agree that Doug is a Pastor, and should be titled as such. Miller didn’t answer.

As an unrelated aside, it is probably worth noting that Morgan doesn’t talk the cocky right wing talk he used to talk. I’ve seen clips of him several or more times, and I’ve never heard him, or any of the softened Fox crew, say why they’re less cocky and outspoken. I’ve read several times that Fox’s audience is the largest in the country, so it’s not because they’re losing their viewers. Are they starting to get it? Maybe.

At any rate, I’ve heard Ali say more than a few times that although he’s Muslim, his early schooling was in American Catholic schools. He’s knowledgeable about Catholicism/Christianity. Morgan asked Miller if he was Catholic, and Miller called himself a “crib Catholic.” I take that to mean that he was born into a Catholic family, but he doesn’t embrace Catholicism any more.

And then, there’s “Doug.” He has a Wikipedia page, and that’s where I get my information about him. Doug was born and grew up in MD, and his father was described as an evangelist. He was also in the US Navy. After he retired from the Navy, he moved to Idaho, and started a Christian bookstore. Curiously, Doug’s mother is not mentioned in the Wikipedia page, and there’s no information as to whether or not he has siblings.

Doug himself joined the Navy. It doesn’t say when he left the Navy, but he married in 1975 (age 22), and began “preaching” in 1977. Various denominational-sounding words are used on the Wikipedia page, and they include Evangelical, Baptist, and Presbyterian. Somewhere along the way, he also started baptizing infants. And he founded the “Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches” in 1998.

Doug has also been an apologist for slavery in this country (“slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the Civil War, or since:" I’m guessing that neither Doug’s forebears nor the forebears of anyone Doug knows was a slave, and agrees with the conclusion about “genuine affection” between slaves and the people who owned them: Harriet Tubman would have been laughed out of town by the slaves she sought to liberate from the heaven on earth they were living), and he advocates for “classical” Christian education. He advocates for Christian parents not to send their children to public schools, but to learn whatever Doug thinks are more classical Christian things, such as Latin and Greek. There is no information as to whether Doug speaks Latin or Greek.

Doug is an adherent of Christian Nationalism, and also of “biblical patriarchy,” which means that “that wives should submit to their husbands and that leadership roles in the church should be restricted to men.” Further, “In his 1999 book, Federal Husband, Wilson argued that a husband as ‘federal head’ assumes responsibility for his wife's spiritual condition. Wilson would like to see the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, repealed.”

So, something is missing here. Nothing in Wikipedia says that either Doug’s father or Doug attended a seminary of any kind. Isn’t that kind of training necessary to be a Pastor? You have to complete medical school and internship, and pass various standardized tests, to be, and be called, a medical doctor. Or other kinds of schooling, and theses, and tests, to be some other kind of doctor. You have to complete law school, and pass the Bar to be a lawyer. You need less formal training, supervised apprenticeship experience, and licensure, to be a plumber, an electrician, a contractor, or a real estate broker, to qualify for those designations. All you have to do to be a Pastor is call yourself one?

I’m reminded of the quote from L Ron Hubbard, who had been a science fiction writer, until he founded the “Church of Scientology:” “you don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”

I’m guessing Doug made himself rich. He’s written books about his pet project. It’s very likely he demands significant enough fees to give talks. One of his adherents is Pete Hegseth. Pete understands wealth. He’s worked hard to line his own pockets. It would be hard to imagine that Pete would have any respect for someone not similarly focused.

So, I think Miller was right: Doug is not a cleric of any kind, does not qualify, and is a two-bit, if likely successful, con man. And if he was born and grew up in this country, and thinks there ought to be “Christian Nationalism,” then he doesn’t believe in the US Constitution.