While this email exchange is so rife with contradictions that it’s nearly impossible to pin down Wilson’s actual position, I do want to address one point. Mr. Wilson’s claim in the last email that he doesn’t think anything lessens Mr. Wight’s responsibility would be far more believable if Mr. Wilson had not been trying to lessen the severity of Mr. Wight’s offense for the last decade through the following methods:

• Mr. Wilson shifts the blame away from an adult seminary student and onto a 14-year old girl in his church and her parents. Writing to Officer Green, Mr. Wilson explains, “I can observe what Jamin should not” since if Jamin did it, it would be tantamount to blame shifting. He then proceeds to explain how the Greenfields helped set the situation up by inviting Jamin to live with them, and specifically saying that ”I do not believe that this situation in any way paints Jamin as a sexual predator. In all my years as a pastor, I don’t believe that I have ever seen such a level of parental foolishness as what the Greenfields did in this.” Alas, this is still blame-shifting even if it done by Mr. Wilson instead of by Mr. Wight.
• Mr. Wilson brings up a “parent-approved relationship” or “secret courtship” in everything I can find that Mr. Wilson has written on the subject (implying that forced fellatio and a frequently bruised pelvic area would not be such a big deal if it happened within a “courtship”?).
• Mr. Wilson repeatedly claims during the HOH [Head of Households] meeting that not only was there definitely a secret courtship but that Mr. Wilson had documentation from the time that clearly shows they were in a courtship. (HOH Meeting Transcript, 10/27/15) Again, in his framework a courtship, secret or not, paves the way for an adult seminary student to abuse a 14 year old girl.
• Mr. Wilson asserts that there was no way to tell how consensual the relationship was since, because there was a plea bargain instead of a trial, the whole story wasn’t told and thus we “we don’t know how much grooming there was, how much seduction, how much flirtation, how much parental set-up, etc.” with the clear implication that seduction or flirtation on Natalie’s part or parental set-up would have lessened Jamin’s responsibility and somehow increased Natalie’s or her parents’ consent. Mr. Wilson at every turn attempts to portray Natalie as consenting. Mr. Wilson wants to shift the blame on Natalie and her parents and at the same time claim we can’t know “how much grooming and seduction” there was. In fact, in an actual trial, both the arguments that Natalie were in any measure consenting and that any type of courtship were in any way relevant would both be inadmissible. (State’s Motions in Limine, 2/14/06)
• Mr. Wilson changed the subject every time I asked him why he did not think Mr. Wight should be on the sex offender list (Email Exchange With Mr. Wilson, #29,30,31)

…One of Mr. Wilson’s most consistent assertions in the Wight case is that Mr. Wight and Natalie were involved in a secret, foolishly parent-approved courtship, which set up the environment for Mr. Wight and Natalie’s emotionally consensual relationship (Email Exchange with Mr. Wilson, #58 & #60). This entire argument is predicated on the idea that such a relationship would be legally relevant or would somehow lessen Mr. Wight’s culpability. Legally, neither of those things are true, and Natalie’s description of Mr. Wight’s activity with her would still describe abuse even if it were done between two adults (please refer to Wight Sex Abuse Case for her description, which includes forced fellatio and a bruised and sore pelvic area).

Nevertheless, Mr. Wilson uses the secret relationship argument constantly, and it evolves a little more each time. The first time it shows up is in the letter Mr. Wilson wrote to Officer Green five days after Mr. Wight’s arrest where Wilson references a “relationship” that was kept secret from the broader community. He does not refer to it as a courtship, nor does he claim that Mr. Wight was brought into the house specifically for that relationship (Wilson Letter to Officer Green, 8/22/05)

DW: In our meeting the Greenfields (who had no idea of the sexual behavior occurring between Jamin and Natalie) acknowledged their sin and folly in helping to set the situation up. They did this by inviting Jamin to move in with them, encouraging and permitting a relationship between Jamin and Natalie, while keeping that relationship secret from the broader community. They thought (and were led to believe by Jamin) that the relationship was sexually pure, but they did know it was a relationship between a man in his mid-twenties and their fourteen-year-old daughter, and they helped to create the climate of secrecy.

Mr. Wilson repeated it in the Dreher article in fall 2015 when the case returned to the public eye, but this time he refers to it as a secret courtship (Doug Wilson’s Reluctant Response, 10/1/15):

The reason we did not want it treated as pedophilia is that her parents had bizarrely brought Jamin into the house as a boarder so that he could conduct a secret courtship with Natalie. So Jamin was in a romantic relationship with a young girl, her parents knew of the relationship and encouraged it, her parents permitted a certain measure of physical affection to exist between them (e.g. hand-holding), Natalie was a beautiful and striking young woman, and at the time was about eight inches taller than Jamin was. Her parents believed that she was mature enough to be in that relationship, and the standards they set for the relationship would have been reasonable if she had in fact been of age and if the two had not been living under the same roof.

…The natural response to those assertions is “Is this true? Were they really in a secret courtship? Did her parents really bring him into the house to court Natalie?” The real question, though, is does this matter? Was he brought into the house to court Natalie? According to statements that Natalie, Pat, and Mr. Wight all made to the police, Mr. Wight was not brought into the house to court anyone. He was brought in to remodel the basement and work on repairing the home in exchange for room and board.

…The minor cannot give her consent, and her parents cannot give her consent for her. Therefore, courtship is irrelevant because “consent is not a defense.” Mr. Wight was well aware of Natalie’s age, as he told the police (Officer Green Narratives, 8/17/05).

Read more»

Rachel Shubin | “Analyzing Douglas Wilson’s Handling of the Steven Sitler and Jamin Wight Cases,” pp. 46–57.

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