Noble Confederacy - a final Amen

[DonaldH675@aol.com]

Dear Visionaries,
Just to clarify my understanding of Doug Wilson et al.'s understanding of the noble nature of keeping slaves I extended my research today.  The following web address deals with the issue of "theonomy' or 'christian reconstructionism', " which is, as nearly as I can tell, the operational nature of christian government, family management etc.  The article can be found at the website below.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=theonomists+%2B+roche

The article, written by Dr. Thomas P. Roche, appears in Religion and Politics Digest, an on-line Calvinistic-style journal.  Dr. Roche is an academically trained scholar, with a specialty in classics, who it appears, is a traditional Presbyterian, with a trained researchers interest in exposing self promoting ministers and their crackpot world views.  Although the article is very long, and the terminology obtuse at times, Christ Church, its growth, development and leadership does get plenty of exposure.
Among many interesting statements, I found the following to be especially germane to recent discussions.
"Perhaps the most common of these is that held by myriads of would-be Col. Culpepers, men who believe that the ante-bellum American south was the greatest, godliest, paradise in the history of the World, and the north was a bastion of wickedness utterly subsumed to Unitarianism and proto-marxism, etc. Slavery gets barely a mention and, when pressed, many of these dudes defend the refusal of Christian masters to teach their slaves to read, to give them freedom on voluntary acceptance of baptism, as was centuries-old church practice....
Yet, somehow, acceptance of a growing list of myths associated with the old south and corresponding north, seems to be de rigeur in the movement, and those evincing pro-Union views tend to receive harsh treatments not mollified by facts. Add this to a wistful and delusional nostalgia for old-style agrarianism (made the more pathetic when argued for on electronic mail mailing lists!), and one finds many of these guys just laughable... those, that is, who are not actually in power to make their vision perhaps come true. Many of these guys are young, impressionable fellows who are nonetheless likely quite harmless, but there are scarier advocates, nonetheless. One especially unctious individual comes to mind, the Rev. J. Steven Wilkins, currently a PCA pastor in Monroe, Louisiana. Holding an MA in history, Wilkins is perhaps the leading revisionist neo-confederate and Yankee-hater (these people turn 'Yankee' into a smear term meaning 'Big-Brother unitarian and ignore the fact t!
 hat millions of New Englanders own the term as one of ethnic pride) in theonomic circles today. In addition to being a promoter of the paedocommuionist heresy, he sponsors an annual 'Confederate Heritage Conference' AT HIS CHURCH, where mostly true-believer guests learn all about dem damnyankees, how great ante-bellum Mississippi was (for massa), etc., all recorded for posterity on tape. On one of his 'History of America' tapes, Wilkins actually claimed that, although we were going to hear a different version of US history from him than we had heard from our 'atheistic professors', we should accept his version of reality, since it came from a Christian (hint to brethren from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, pass on his 'Roger Williams' and "Rhode Island" tapes unless you've a strong constitution and have not eaten recently). On one 'Confederate Heritage' tape he notes the work of southern scholar Grady McWhiney, 'Cracker Culture', which gives a detailed!
  warts-and-all treatment of ante-bellum Scotch-Irish southern frontier
smen. I read the book on this notation from Wilkins; methinks he had not read it when he mentioned it, but when I tried to call him on the less than idyllic portrayal of southern history McWhiney offers (as opposed to Wilkins' halcyon one), Wilkins initially denied mentioning the book but later blathered on something about McWhiney getting it wrong, not appreciating the great role of 'Calvininsm' in the ante-bellum south, etc. Now this would be a mere quirk of one fringe pastor, were Wilkins not increasingly very successful at getting converts to his new way of looking at reality. I know one young man who qualifies as such hook, line, and sinker, and there is another such convert, who is in a much greater position to let Wilkins make real trouble... Doug Wilson. Simply put, Wilkins is Wilson's intellectual superior, and in recent years, the two men's association has grown quite close, with all the signs pointing to a wholesale, uncritical acceptance by Wilson, of Wilkinsism.!
  Wilson is already co-hosting Wilkinsite "American History" conferences in Moscow/elsewhere, heavily promoted to his CA/Canon Press as well as his "Classical Christian School" clienteles. Speaking as one Yankee who also cares about history and reality, this does not, in my opinion, bode at all well for the future, both in and out of the theonomy movement."
I would urge all interested persons to take a look at this website. If you are not interested in reading all of it, scroll down about 1/2 through the article and learn about the history, background and attraction between the defense of slavery and Christ Church.  By the way, Canon Press will be releasing another of Steve Wilkin's noble Confederacy "books" in September.     
Enjoy the reading,
Rose Huskey