While the rest of us are drowning in the flood of information, trying to figure out what it all means, people like Wilson and Trump skim along the surface. Why? Because understanding and being understood are not necessarily the goal. Wilson does not sit for an interview to try to convince you of his ideas. He sits for an interview because “all press is good press,” as the saying goes. He gets a hearing, and regardless of whether you subscribe to his ideas or get lost trying to debate them, he wins. You get bogged down while he continues doing what he’s doing.
In an even more ironic twist, evangelicals are particularly vulnerable to the flood of information because the tradition places a disproportionate weight on words. Unlike traditions that prioritize embodied practices like prayers, fasting, penance, and good works, as an Enlightenment tradition, evangelicals often prioritize the mind, belief, and study. But this reliance on words also means that evangelicals are uniquely susceptible to the abuse of words. In a weird twist, evangelicals are more likely to follow the person who talks or writes about the importance of virtue than the person who is actually virtuous. Read more»
Hannah Anderson | “The Great And Powerful Doug: Doug Wilson Doesn’t Just Have Radical Ideas. He Uses Radical Ideas” | The Dispatch | July 19, 2026
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Dear Dr. Clark,
On Saturday working in a fence line by the tall corn, I listened to you and Superfriend Perkins talk about carpeting, Redeemed Zoomer and schism. Interesting stuff, the longer the better, for not having to find new Hcasts to pipe into the hearing protection. Two hundred year old trees, hundred year old fence wire and an old guy ‘Bluetoothing Heidelblog’ – what an age in which we live.
On Monday I was surprised to find this article. Couple of dots to connect.
First, it does not seem very Heidelblogian. HB has over time implied some standards of analyzing the merits, with pretty good will. The opening line of this article gratuitously libels two hated birds with one stone. And then goes all over the place.
There are grounds enough already cataloged in Heidelblog articles (FV, CN, rough polemic style, etc) for antipathy to Wilson, which could be reprised on relevant merits instead of borrowing a political hit piece for the stick. Plus, this article kind of clashes with prominent HB voices who make a point, which isn’t plausible with so many humans clomping around but they make it anyway, to say they themselves don’t – and don’t think the church should – “do politics.”
Second, not“doing politics” is why a callow, historically unaware, and naive commentator like Redeemed Zoomer accidentally scores a hit with his charge of “Retreatism” while whiffing entirely on the charge of schism.
To advance his “retreatism” point he need only refer to the “no substance” meme in Superfriend Perkins’s July 9, 2024 Heidelblog review of the OPC’s general assembly. Picture worth a thousand pages of minutes on that one … Disparate dots almost connect themselves.
So, as to Douglas Wilson, it should be pointed out to those tempted to pacifism, retreatism, or peace-peace-prophets that they ignore one big thing. Like Lincoln said of General U.S. Grant when implored to fire him by friends, inner circle, and a vicious political press, “I can’t spare the man, he fights.”
He fights. Admittedly, for temporal and imperfect goods, but he fights. Critics who think they have pristine clean hands, which the plain man in the pew knows isn’t the biggest thing, miss the point. Wilson earns an awful lot of respect for his fight, even if he has blood, dirt, and grass stains on his uniform.
God willing that’s not his or our final attire.
Thanks for the cowbell,
Peter
Peter,
Fights for what? For whom? To what end? I think you’re assuming facts not in evidence.
Ask Steven Sittler’s victims about how well he fought for them. Ask Natalie Greenfield how well he fought for her.
Take a look at this resource page before you defend Wilson as a fighter.
We publish Heidelquotes from all sorts of places. The publication of a quotation does not imply an endorsement of everything said in the article but we ran that quotation because she noticed something I’ve not often seen: an aspect of Wilson’s modus operandi. Read the quotation slowly and ask yourself if it could be true. Don’t react. Think.
Well, we agree. The extensive resource pages to which you refer are “grounds enough already cataloged … for antipathy to Wilson.” The point being that HB’s own indictment, if one is looking for such a thing, is more fairly put forward than this article, with its tar brush of guilt and superficiality by association with President Trump. I wrote because unedifying assumptions in that smug claim, on a couple days’ reflection, did not seem to be the usual HB fare.
In the article, the first noticeable fact not in evidence was charging that Wilson was not even trying to get understanding and convince people of his ideas. Mind-and-motive reading is not a great idea, and isn’t fact gathering. One doesn’t have to agree with Douglas Wilson on anything at all to see that this assumption of motive contradicts the record, which is in fact one of decades spent writing, publishing, seeking understanding, trying to convince people of ideas, and succeeding a lot.
As to the fighter observation, Wilson’s long running apologetic in the public square has encouraged Christians and helped, on occasion, to close the mouths of the obstreperous or resist an overreaching magistrate. Not unlike the courageous stand in the public square of the late John MacArthur, in “The Essential Church” documentary. A good fight in keeping with Christian liberty.
Douglas Wilson is always in trouble and can defend himself. That was not the point of the comment. The point was simply one guy’s opinion that the article was a partisan political shot, not to measuring up to usually edifying HB standards. A used, tie-dyed cotton t-shirt hanging on the rack next to the tailored bespoke wool suits in a Saville Row shop. How’d that get there?
Thank you,
Peter
Because the author made a couple of good points, which you seem to have missed.