NYT College Profile Omits Some Key Facts
This Sunday, The New York Times Magazine ran a on one Doug Wilson, a Moscow, Idaho, pastor described as trying to 鈥渞einvent conservative Protestant education鈥� with his New Saint Andrews College. The story, a major feature in the magazine鈥檚 annual 鈥渃ollege issue,鈥� suggests that Saint Andrews is home to 鈥渁 band of cultured missionaries,鈥� a place that 鈥渢ries to unite faith and reason.鈥�
Well, sort of. 鈥淥nward, Christian Scholars,鈥� by Molly Worthen, does describe Wilson鈥檚 religious empire as 鈥渞adically conservative鈥� and notes that Wilson (pictured, right) would like to see Jefferson Davis, late president of the Confederacy, as president. But Worthen, a student of American religious history, omits a few critical points ( and and ).
In fact, Doug Wilson is co-author of a piece of sorry scholarship, entitled Southern Slavery, As It Was, that argues that 鈥淸s]lavery as it existed in the South 鈥� was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence.鈥� 鈥淭here has never been a multiracial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world,鈥� the book continues. And then: 鈥淪lave life was to them [slaves] a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care.鈥� No serious scholar of slavery or the Civil War accepts these ludicrous assertions.
Incredibly, Worthen completely missed this fact 鈥� hard to understand, given that the book produced a raging 2003-2004 controversy, including demonstrations by hundreds of University of Idaho students against Wilson, anti-racist statements by two local university presidents, and a damning anti-Wilson essay by two academic historians, that convulsed the entire community around Moscow for months. Instead, Worthen concentrates on the 鈥淟atin textbooks鈥� and 鈥淕reek vocabulary鈥� that the hardworking Saint Andrews students pore over as part of their 鈥渃lassical Christian education.鈥�
That鈥檚 not all. Saint Andrews treats as a foundational Western thinker, right up there with Plato and Aristotle, a 19th-century theologian named Robert L. Dabney 鈥� a Confederate Civil War chaplain who described blacks as 鈥渁 morally inferior race,鈥� a 鈥渟ordid, alien taint鈥� marked by 鈥渓ying, theft, drunkenness, laziness, waste.鈥� Wilson also argues that cursing one鈥檚 parents is punishable by death; that children of parents who don鈥檛 believe in Jesus Christ are 鈥渇oul鈥� and 鈥渦nclean鈥�; that women were created to be submissive to men; and that if a woman is raped, the rapist should pay her father a bride price and then, if the father approves, marry his victim.
None of this makes it into Worthen鈥檚 article. In fact, when she does give a three-word quote to a Wilson critic, she uses the occasion to sarcastically describe how the woman took 鈥渢wo hours to detail Wilson鈥檚 crimes鈥� 鈥� almost none of which are mentioned. Instead, Worthen refers lightly to Saint Andrews鈥� 鈥渃hronic spats with liberals in town.鈥�
One last thing you might have expected to see mentioned in a magazine that purports to explore the pros and cons of various colleges and approaches to education: In 2004, a retired philosophy professor at the University of Idaho exposed the fact that at least 22 passages from Wilson鈥檚 tendentious book on slavery were plagiarized from a 1974 book. Wilson scornfully derided his critics, saying he and his co-author were guilty only of a 鈥渃itation problem鈥� that he would fix up in later editions. His upbeat take on "biblical slavery," however, would not change.
