“The basic argument of the book is that Christian Reconstructionism isn’t dead. It has been renewed. It has been simplified. A lot of the rough edges have been removed. A lot of the really controversial claims of the first generation have been either downplayed or denied and as Doug Wilson put it in an interview I did with him; ‘What is being so successful now in North Idaho is not so much Christian Reconstruction 2.0 but Christian Reconstruction 0.5.'”
This makes a point that I’ve been screaming about for some time. Wilson, in his usual attempted clever fashion, admits that he is not advancing classic Reconstruction thought. Wilson admits that he has watered down historic Reconstruction thought and sanded off the supposed rough edges so as to make Christian Reconstruction more palatable.
This seems to be the modus operandi of Wilson. Remember, Wilson used to confess that when it came to Federal Vision he was “the pale ale variety,” compared to the heavy stout version. So, with Federal Vision (which Wilson has putatively subsequently recanted upon) and with Reconstructionism Wilson likes to water down the theological and ideological hooch making it palatable to women and children so they can think they are like their Fathers. One is tempted at this point to make some kind of point that Wilson and his followers are forever drinking but never getting drunk.
To whom is Wilson’s Reconstructionism 0.5 more palatable? What other answer can there be to that but to say that Wilson has made it more palatable to those on the left — that is those on the right side of the left who would never have embraced historic Reconstructionist thought have been gathered in by Wilson’s watered-down Recon hooch. You know the types – they are the ones always complaining that “Rushdoony is just so harsh.”
The way that I’ve tried to say this in the past is that Wilson is not on the right but rather Wilson is on the right side of the Left. Doug’s appeal is to the “we never quite made it to the status of ‘Arts and Croissants’ crowd, but we have aspirations.”
By reducing the potency of Christian Reconstructionism to 0.5 Wilson is offering up an unstable product. The only way Reconstructionism’s potency could be cut is by denying the anti-thesis and by adding elements foreign to the original expression.
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“The Great Reset is not going to happen.”
Famous Prognosticator
This is culled from this 6-minute video
I learned long ago by listening to Rushdoony that it is not a good idea to make hard predictions. Rush, like Wilson above, was prone to making predictions that when listening 20 years later to RJR’s lectures are just laughable.
Can you imagine some pop Christian in 1917 standing up and saying, “The Russian Revolution won’t happen?”
Or in 1957 some ersatz Christian authoritatively declaims, “The Maoist “Great Leap Forward” won’t’ happen?
Now, I’m as postmill as the next postmillennialist but I’m not so postmill that I have to engage in pollyanna-ism concerning the future.
Postmillennialism does not require us to engage in happy talk about the future. God is sovereign over the affairs of men but that does not mean, contra the amazing predictive powers of Doug Wilson, that Job won’t suffer unspeakable trauma.
Please understand me here. I am not saying that the “Great Reset” is going to happen. I am not saying that the Globalist powers will win out in 2021 the way they did in 1798, 1830, 1848, 1861, 1918, 1949, etc. What I am saying, contra Wilson, is that God being sovereign over the affairs of men does not mean that God will not judge His enemies and not chasten His friends by sending “the Great Reset.”
I agree in the end that attacks upon God can never be ultimately successful in the course of World History, but I am here to tell you that if the tower of Babel could happen and if the Marxists Revolutions of the 19th-20th centuries could happen then the Great Reset could happen and could last for an indeterminable time and God wouldn’t be any less God if it did. After all, it’s not like the West does not deserve to be judged and/or chastened.
Wilson is whistling past the graveyard (again) with this one. God still chastens those He loves.
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“Did not Joe and Kamala not make a hash out of Afghanistan?”
In point of fact... “No, Joe and Kamala did not make a hash out of Afghanistan.” Everything that is happening in Afghanistan is precisely what they wanted to happen.
Doug seems to think that Joe and Kamala have the interests of these USA in mind in terms of policy. Doug couldn’t be more wrong.
People are trying to turn Wilson into some kind of “conservative” Christian guru and I’m here to tell you that the Wilson well is empty as far as that project goes.
