He also addresses criticism of his occasional use of profane or vulgar words. “I deny that I use any language outside the clear parameters of Scripture, and further deny that my words are unnecessarily provocative,” he writes. In one well-known instance, he used a vulgar word to refer to women. He claims he was putting that word in the mouths of two feminists and not saying it himself. During our interview, I asked whether he anticipated his meaning would be twisted.
“I did it anyway because I think we got far more out of that for good,” he said. “It’s a cost-benefit thing.”
Wilson’s views on women and gender roles are a frequent source of controversy. Numerous media outlets have published interviews with women who say they were abused while attending CREC churches and that the church provided a framework for the abuse.
“The question is, is that framework within which people can be abusive, is that framework Biblical?” Wilson told me. “If you have a framework of: husbands are the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, wives are to be submissive to their husbands. That’s a framework that’s straight out of the Bible. And sinners abuse it.” Wilson said his church has helped women get out of abusive situations but also said he’d encountered situations in which the husband was the victim of abuse because the wife “was not behaving Scripturally.”
The CREC keeps growing despite the controversies. Clark thinks that’s because Wilson is “the Donald Trump of the conservative evangelical world.” As with the president, “the people who love him don’t care what he does because he fights.” Wilson will do anything and say anything, Clark adds. “He doesn’t care about the blowback and nothing ever seems to stick.” Read more»
Emma Freire | “Ambitious Faith: Doug Wilson is Bringing His Brand of Reformed Theology to America’s Political Centers” | November 13, 2025
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I’ve heard that from my FV friends. At least he’s doing something. You reformed guys are just sitting around waiting for everything to get burned up when Jesus returns.
What a false accusation that is.
I am a Trump-voting Christian. In fact, I am a creedal, confessional, Reformed Christian, to the best of my ability to discern what the Word teaches. And Wilson, the CREC, No Quarter November, and all of their offspring Do Not Speak for Me. I abhor the colonization of Washington, D.C. and the intended colonization of Hillside College’s community. To my eyes, this is the customary “pugilistic,” sassy style that is worth it because “it’s a cost-benefit thing,” and I find it repellent. I pray the Holy Spirit will remove the veil from the eyes who “like him because he fights,” and I especially pray for the parents and children who hold to paedobaptism. It is good to know that God’s call is effective, that he promises to defend and sanctify those whom he calls, and we who belong to him will see him face to face. As Derek Thomas says in his discussion of Galatians, there is no other Gospel.
From the article: The second CREC distinctive that Wilson cited for planting the Washington church is “Moscow mood.” This term was coined by author and PCA Pastor Kevin DeYoung to capture Wilson and the CREC’s provocative and aggressive posture.
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A distinctive based on a connotation, not a denotation: how very American.
I’d much prefer a detonation.
At a distance it’s apparent that Wilson has the narcissistic personality disorder known as histrionic personality disorder, to which I wonder, whatever happened to the imperative that He must increase and I must decrease?
If only for his refusing the orthodox view that no one can know the day or the hour of Christ’s return Douglas Wilson should be regarded as a heretic.
Amen and amen!