I do what mainstream media will not or cannot do: name white Christian nationalism for what it is and point to the people resisting it. Become a paid subscriber so you never have to rely on Doug Wilson’s explanation of Christianity.
NPR just gave Douglas Wilson another splashy, in-depth interview. My problem is not that they covered him. It’s how.
Wilson is a Christian nationalist and dominionist pastor out of Moscow, Idaho.
He thinks the Nineteenth Amendment was a mistake.
He believes people who can’t affirm a fundamentalist worldview shouldn’t hold political office.
He is an apologist for the Confederacy who minimizes the horror of slavery.
And his ideology now runs straight into the Pentagon through his disciple, Pete Hegseth.
That is newsworthy. He should be covered.
But here’s the crux of the issue. Wilson said:
“We’re getting a respectful hearing. Maybe not a friendly hearing, but we’re getting a respectful one. And that is progress compared to the compared to the way it was before.”
Amplification. That’s what Wilson is after.
He does not care whether you think he’s extreme. He knows any coverage broadcasts his ideology to the handful of people who will resonate with it.
And he knows a serious, earnest, forty-minute interview makes his beliefs look like just another viewpoint, on par with democracy itself.
Who Gets to Speak for Christianity
The deeper problem is that these stories center Wilson as the lone voice: on his turf, in his church, with no counterpoint.
So here is my suggestion: Never cover Douglas Wilson in isolation.
If you fly a crew to Moscow, talk to the people in town who left his church because of abuse.
If you run a forty-two-minute interview, spend half of it with scholars and pastors who represent a different Christianity (I list them in the episode).
This goes far beyond one man or one interview.
It’s about who gets to speak for Christians, and which version of God and country will prevail. That question is too important to answer with his voice alone.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About...
Why NPR’s interview, and the wave of coverage before it, put Wilson back in the spotlight
What Wilson actually believes: fundamentalist reformed Christianity, postmillennialism, patriarchy, and dominionism
His views on the 19th Amendment and “household voting”
Classical Christian education and its “Western civilization” subtext
Why “any coverage is good coverage” for Wilson and his camp
How respectful press makes his ideology look legitimate
The missing counter-narrative and the lack of racial analysis in his coverage
A better model for covering him, and who to pass the mic to instead
