| Christ Church | |
| Former Name: | Community Evangelical Fellowship |
| Pastor: | Douglas Wilson |
| Denomination: | Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches |
| Membership: | 900 |
| Founded Date: | Late 1970s |
| Location: | Moscow, Idaho |
| Country: | United States |
| Website: | christkirk.com |
Christ Church is a Calvinist church in Moscow, Idaho, pastored by Douglas Wilson, and a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. The congregation has received international coverage for its views, which include advocating for a theocracy,[1] and its desire to make Moscow a "Christian town".[2] It has formal and informal affiliations with a number of ministries, including a three-year ministerial training program (Greyfriars Hall), a private accredited college (New Saint Andrews), a campus ministry (Collegiate Reformed Fellowship), and formerly a publishing operation and magazine (Canon Press, Credenda/Agenda). The church is estimated to have between 900 and 2,000 members.[3]
Christ Church is a Calvinist church, holding conservative views.[1] Its ministers are proponents of postmillennialism and have been described as holding to a form of dominion theology.[4] It is known for its promotion of Christian education and biblical courtship, and for its opposition to liberalism and feminism as being contrary to the Christian faith. Christ Church also holds to biblical inerrancy and adheres to the Westminster Standards, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. It is a charter member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.[4]
Heath Druzin, host of NPR's podcast Extremely American, describes the church as "a major player, if not the major player" in the Christian nationalist movement nationwide.[5]
The church has drawn attention for its vocal opposition, and active resistance to federal and local restrictions meant to halt the spread of COVID-19. The church's head pastor, Douglas Wilson, has posted on his blog and on YouTube to call on his followers to "resist openly, in concert with any others in your same position", which he said would constitute "an example of a free people refusing to go along with their own enslavement". Wilson's remarks, which also warned "we are not yet in a hot civil war, with shooting and all, but we are in a cold war/civil war", drew condemnation from prominent Evangelicals.
New Saint Andrews College is a classical Christian liberal arts college that is listed as a ministry of Christ Church.[6] [7] Ben Merkle, an elder at Christ Church, is president.[8] The church's session of Elders is the spiritual authority for the college.[9] Studies at NSA include "the languages, history, philosophy, and culture of classical antiquity and Western tradition in the light of Scripture".[10]
Greyfriars' Hall is a ministerial training program affiliated with Christ Church. Men who complete the three-year program, which is tuition-free, receive a letter rather than a diploma. Elders of Christ Church are the program's overseers.[11] The faculty comprises Christ Church ministers Doug Wilson, Toby Sumter, and Ben Zorne.[12]
The Bakwé Mission is the church's foreign mission ministry to the Bakwé people of southwest Côte d'Ivoire. It consists mainly of translating scripture for the Bakwé Church, as well as training teachers to teach reading and writing to the Bakwé people.[13]
The Logos School is nondenominational classical Christian school with numerous connections to Christ Church, which regularly promotes Classical Christian education.
Canon Press was founded by Doug Wilson as a ministry of Christ Church. It was later sold to Wilson's son and other Christ Church members.
In late September 2020, Christ Church organized and promoted two anti-mask protests at Moscow's City Hall. The protests consisted of members of the church and local community gathering mask-less at City Hall and singing psalms and hymns to protest Moscow's mandatory mask policy which required people to wear a mask in public places or at large gatherings. These protests occurred on Wednesday, September 23 and Friday, September 25. At the Wednesday psalm sing/protest about 150 people showed up and five people were cited and three were arrested with the most notable arrestee being 2020 Latah County Commissioner Candidate and Christ Church deacon Gabriel Rench.[14] At the second psalm sing/protest on Friday, September 25, the protesters were joined by counter-protesters who beat drums to try to drown out the singing. About 400 protesters showed up and no one was arrested.[15] Charges against Gabriel Rench were later dismissed.[16]
In February 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ruled that "the City indisputably erred in interpreting its own Code", and that the church members ought never to have been arrested in the first place, since the city ordinances explicitly exempted both religious and protest activities.[17]
Christ Church ministers have garnered widespread criticism for their handling of instances of sexual abuse within the church's congregation. Head pastor Douglas Wilson publicly asked for leniency in 2005 when Steven Sitler, a student at New Saint Andrews College, was convicted of sex offenses involving children; and following the student's release from prison, Wilson married Sitler to a woman introduced to him by a former church elder. After the wedding, a judge ruled Sitler must be chaperoned around his infant son, after he admitted to feeling sexual stimulation resulting from contact with the baby. Wilson has been criticized for his handling of the abuse case and for marrying the couple. Responding to allegations that he supported Sitler's actions, Wilson wrote, "My role was to encourage the father who discovered it to report Steven to the authorities immediately, and in subsequent counseling with Steven, to require him to confess to the crimes he had committed that had gone undetected."[18]
In 2005, Greyfriar's Hall student Jamin Wright, then in his mid-20s, was criminally charged with having a sexual relationship with 14-year-old Natalie Greenfield. Pastor Douglas Wilson reportedly asked investigators for leniency and testified to the trial judge that the relationship between Wright and the accuser was a secret parent-arranged courtship. Ultimately, Wright was found guilty of "injury to a child". In 2013, Wright was again arrested, and convicted of domestic battery. Greenfield subsequently accused Wilson of having sided with Wright, but later publicly apologized and forgave him.[19]
In September 2021, Vice Media published an article documenting allegations of sexual assault from a dozen victims. The article interviewed several former members of the church who claimed that "women are told they must defer to church leaders and cannot say 'no' to their husbands, men are taught to strictly control their homes, and those who speak out can be isolated and harassed". One former church member, and student at the Christ Church-affiliated New Saint Andrews College, told Vice that she felt compelled by the church to marry her boyfriend from New Saint Andrews, despite the constant rape and abuse she claims she suffered. Her wedding was officiated by the church's pastor, Douglas Wilson. The woman said that other wives in the church reported that marital rape was common, and that when she went to church leaders to protest, they told her that a wife is not allowed to say 'no'. She reported that when she eventually divorced her husband and left the church, her car was repeatedly vandalized, and she received online abuse from church members. Pastor Douglas Wilson responded to article saying that it was slanderous and inaccurate, writing that "Every Christian leader, pastor, board member, writer, thought-influencer, or teacher who read that Vice article and then publicly voiced their solidarity or sympathy with it—in any way, shape, or form—has disqualified themselves ... they might as well step down now before the methods and procedures they have internalized and endorsed come back around when it is time to devour them."[20]
A number of additional allegations stemming from anonymous sources have been documented on Christian blogs and YouTube channels.
Dating back to 2019, the church's leader, Douglas Wilson, has stated that the church aims to "make Moscow a Christian town", and favors "theocracy" as opposed to "civil governments, [which] are in necessary degrees satanic, demonic, and influenced by the god of this world, who is the devil". In a November 2021 investigation, The Guardian found that "Church figures have browbeaten elected officials over Covid restrictions, built powerful institutions in parallel to secular government, harassed perceived opponents, and accumulated land and businesses in pursuit of a long-term goal of transforming America into a nation ruled according to its own, ultra-conservative moral precepts". Said parallel institutions include "educational institutions, publishing houses, churches, and national associations". Many of these institutions, including New Saint Andrews College, are run by members of Wilson's family. One of the founders of the college served as the former chief executive of the town's largest private employer, EMSI, which has hired about 10% of all of the college's total graduates since the school's inception. A local businessman, who spoke anonymously to The Guardian, said that the church had a large footprint in Moscow's downtown, and alleged that church members was attempting to attract new members to the town through a large development project planned by a church elder.
According to a Vice Media report, there is a regular section in the printed church bulletin that lists the names of those denounced by the church. Some people whose names have appeared on the list have allegedly faced harassment from church members, as well as boycotts of their businesses.
Queen's University Belfast professor of history Crawford Gribben notes that Christ Church has made "very little impact on local politics", and that Moscow is not yet a Christian town.