Controversial pastor Doug Wilson subject of new podcast, ‘Sons of Patriarchy’

(RNS) — Doug Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist pastor with a talent for turning his controversial positions into literal hot takes — see his burning sofa videos and other flamethrower stunts — has built a media empire larger than might be expected for a bearded, 71-year-old Reformed Christian theologian based in remote Moscow, Idaho.

But his anti-LGTBQ+ rhetoric, his discussion of the Bible as condoning benevolent slavery and his traditionalist ideas about gender have attracted just the right kind of criticism to boost his audience among a certain set of conservative Christians. Wilson logs it all in a self-curated “Controversy Library” of dustups attributed to him over the last few decades.

But according to the creators of the new podcast “The Sons of Patriarchy,” it’s not just Wilson’s culture war provocations that are cause for concern, but what people take from his theology and politics. “Abuse in churches, in marriages, in families, under clergy, is part and parcel of this movement,” claimed the podcast’s host, Peter Bell. “It’s undergirded by the patriarchal submission, authority, obedience.”

In response to questions about the podcast, Wilson pointed RNS to a letter from his attorneys that the pastor said was “generated in an earlier inning of this same baseball game.”

Wilson said in a separate email to RNS, “Given the tone, the topic, and the familiar voices, I expect that “Sons of Patriarchy” will consist of recycled (and refuted) defamation and slander.”

According to Bell, the podcast plans to feature roughly 50 stories involving abuse allegations, most of which he said will be made public for the first time. The podcast’s creators don’t accuse Wilson personally of any physical or sexual abuse but maintain that abuse is routinely mishandled in churches that Wilson has led or influenced, as well as other Reformed and Baptist churches that have been shaped by his teachings. 

For the new podcast, Bell has teamed with Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow, a group of anonymous researchers that has kept up a social media campaign critical of Wilson for the past decade. “They’re credited as assistant producers of the series, and the ones who fed me all the interviews and have extensive connections to almost all the survivors that I talked to,” said Bell, who didn’t disclose the group members’ names, citing safety reasons.

The podcast will include input from a range of theologians, historians and religious figures, including Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Russell Moore, New York Times columnist David French, historians Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Beth Allison Barr, as well as Rachael Denhollander, an attorney and anti-abuse activist who was among the victims of Gymnastics USA doctor Larry Nassar.

A Reformed Christian himself, Bell is a writer and podcaster who said he first “drank the Kool-Aid” of masculine Christianity as a member of Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Huntington Beach campus in the early 2010s. Years later, as an intern at a Reformed church in eastern Washington state, a two-hour drive from Moscow, he said he encountered accounts of abuse from former members of Wilson’s Christ Church.

As Bell met more people from the schools and churches linked to Wilson, he said he began to hear reports of marital rape, child abuse, pedophilia, spiritual abuse and grooming. According to Bell, allegations also came from other churches in Wilson’s denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, and Reformed churches in other denominations that had adopted his thought.

“I didn’t know how big it was in these circles,” said Bell. “But I’d get emailed, texted or called almost daily by someone else who wanted to talk.”

Reporter and author Sarah Stankorb, who is interviewed on the podcast, detailed some of the allegations tied to Wilson and Moscow in her 2021 VICE Article, and in her 2023 book, “Disobedient Women.” (Wilson responded to Stankorb’s article here.) Stankorb said survivors from Wilson’s orbit in Moscow were particularly fearful of sharing their stories, attributing this hesitation in part to the divisions between Wilson’s followers and others in the town.

Pastor Douglas Wilson, center, leads service as Christ Church meets in the Logos School gymnasium on Oct. 13, 2019, in Moscow, Idaho. (Photo by Tracy Simmons)

“When you’re in Moscow, there are Kirker businesses, that’s the church,” said Stankorb, “and people know who is who. It’s a smallish town. And then you have the businesses with big rainbow flags outside, and you know which is which. In an environment like that, where there are these social lines drawn, people have additional reason for caution.”

In her Vice article, Stankorb reported that Christ Church regularly prints the names of former members who “strayed,” along with prayer requests for repentance, in their weekly bulletin.  

In December 2023, Christ Church hired law firm Clare Locke to respond to what Wilson called “a steady stream of defamatory accusation and slander.” The next month, Wilson invited readers of his blog to donate to the church’s legal expenses, and in February, Wilson posted a letter the law firm sent to the public emails of Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow.

“You portray Pastor Wilson and anyone affiliated with him as predators who view women and children as servile playthings for men’s sexual desires,” the letter said. “We demand a complete retraction of each of your accounts and a prompt, public apology to Christ Church, Logos School, Pastor Wilson, and Pastor Wilson’s family.”

By then, Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow had been working with Bell on the podcast for more than six months. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson’s church drew positive attention from Donald Trump for singing psalms maskless outside the Moscow town hall. Since then, Bell said, Wilson’s influence has continued to grow, making it all the more necessary for those who have reported abuse to share their stories, too. 

“After Covid, there were a lot of people angry with the government. Doug stood up, and that rebel American spirit attracted a lot of people,” said Nathan Wells, a conservative Christian and Moscow local who began publishing the blog “Doug Wilson Says” earlier this year to document teachings of Wilson’s he finds troubling.

Wells, who appears on the podcast, said he chose to go on the “Sons of Patriarchy” after hearing from local abuse survivors who felt, he said, that residents of Moscow had chosen silence over solidarity.

“Our hope and prayer is that there would be true repentance. That Doug would see he is in error, that he is propagating a distorted gospel, and creating a culture where abuse flourishes, and that that would change,” said Wells. “We also pray it will embolden the survivors and victims, to know that they’re not alone.”