William F. Buckley & His Intellectual Protege, Doug Wilson

One of the real abilities of Wm. F. Buckley was his ability to be a gatekeeper. Even, if you didn’t like him (and I didn’t) you had to admire how Buckley worked for the CIA as controlled opposition assigned the task to make sure that real opposition could not arise to challenge the ruling class. Buckley successfully removed from serious opposition the Birchers and those who contributed to “The American Mercury.” Buckley marginalized great men like Joe Sobran, and Peter Brimelow. Buckley’s organization served as a release valve to let off steam for conservatives who understood that there were limits to what they could write and/or say. For those conservatives (paleo-cons especially) who could not be kept on a leash, Buckley’s role was to cast them out of the conservative movement so as to labor in comparatively insignificant labors.

Now, the fault for this lies not only w/ Buckley but also with his readership who were too stupid to realize what Buckley was doing and so, merely took his word for who was a “bad conservative” and who was a “good conservative.” If people had had the ability to think for themselves Buckley could never been successful as a gatekeeper.

Today, Doug Wilson, long a fan of William F. Buckley, has taken on Buckley’s gatekeeping role in the Reformed/Evangelical world. Doug has become the grand Poobah of what is considered legitimate Christian Conservative thinking and now he is trying to play the role of “gate-keeper.” Doug is giving us now a “Christian” version of “Conservative Inc.” This is seen by Doug playing footsie with Yoram Hazony, and by Doug aligning with the New York Times type audience.

Because of this, Wilson, like Buckley before him, really is the enemy of substantive Conservatism. Wilson, like Buckley before him, is presenting both a Christianity and a Conservatism that the left will find less threatening than the Christianity and Conservatism of some of those you’d find writing for publications like “Chronicles,” or “American Renaissance.”

Another thing that both Wilson and Buckley have in common is their determination to prop up the Bagels. Buckley fired Joe Sobran for speaking the truth about the Bagels and Wilson has made clear his affection for all things Bagel. The man even made up, out of thin air, the whole “Covenant w/ Hagar” thing. A novelty that almost matched the novelty of his Federal Vision novelty for which he still hasn’t repented.

Wilson, like Buckley is a smooth operator. A real gifted con man. Like Buckley, Wilson is a wordsmith who has the ability to hide his real intentions behind a bouquet of metaphors, similes, and false dichotomies. As I have often said, there has never been a false dichotomy that Wilson hasn’t embraced. Like Buckley, Wilson has built a phalanx of “yes-men,” stooges, and nincompoops around him in order to give credibility to his nonsense.

Now, having said all this, none of this is to say that Wilson can’t say insightful truths on various topics. Like Buckley, he has this ability. It is this ability to made Buckley so dangerous and likewise makes Doug so dangerous. People will hear Doug say something insightful and then will tend to conclude that everything falls out of his mouth or from his pen is therefore insightful. It most certainly is not. The most recent example is Doug insisting that, “There are also things in the Talmud that are pure exegetical gold, right?” Yes Doug, and I’m sure that the writings of Stalin also have some real gems in them as well.

Try to look at Doug Wilson like a modern popular television series. The technique recently is to come out with a banger of a series that is a real keeper. For the first couple seasons you hook your audience with great characters, good writing, high drama — the usual material you need to make for a exceptional offering. Once you’ve drawn your audience in over the first couple seasons you set the hook. You start introducing sodomites, and adultery, and trannies into your series. You make them look like normal people or even noble people. You write the script so that the viewers are encouraged to sympathize with those characters. You also villainize the people on the show who might be opposed to their perversions. This is the way Wilson has worked over his career. Early on he drew people in. People got excited about what Wilson was offering. Then at some point, Wilson set the hook. Suddenly he was extolling the virtues of Bagels. Suddenly he was opposing the thoroughly biblical doctrine of Kinism. Suddenly he was redefining Nationalism so as to mean that Muslims could have Mosques here as long as they didn’t have minarets. Like popular TV shows Wilson knew what it would take to lure his viewers in before he sought to re-define their tastes/convictions.

Wilson, is dangerous not because the few tidbits of homely wisdom he genuinely can produce. Wilson is dangerous because of all the fecal matter one has to wade through in order to come to the surface with a tidbit of homely wisdom. Most of that fecal matter most people won’t be able to discern as fecal matter.

At the end of the day Wilson, like Buckley before him, has done an excellent job of serving as the gatekeeper for the establishment narrative by eliminating people whose intent is to genuinely overthrow the narrative. Like Buckley, Wilson is a shill and as long as Wilson has the influence he has there will never be true Reformation in the Church. As the Scripture teaches of the teachers in the OT, Wilson “would heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly.”

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane