Why is a famous evangelical pastor defending slavery?

I was recently made aware of a debate going on in the neo-reformed Gospel Coalition corner of the world that I tend to avoid. Doug Wilson, a megachurch pastor from Idaho, argued in his book Black and Tan that the abolitionist movement was wrong and the Civil War should never happened, because if Southern slave-owners had been allowed to implement the Bible’s teachings on slavery, then a more humane transition would have taken place through “gospel gradualism.” So a Caribbean neo-reformed pastor Thabiti Anyabwile who writes for the Gospel Coalition decided this March to engage him in charitable conversation (summarized by the Wartburg Watch here) about his assertions (which I guess would be the equivalent of a Jewish person sitting down to have a civil discussion with a Holocaust denier).

Insults, Jared & Doug Wilson, and Chick-Fil-A (Romans 15)

The Daily Office epistle reading today was in Romans 15. I was most struck by the first three verses: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’” That last line in particular really gets me. Jesus said the insults of those who insult us (or perhaps those we insult) have fallen on Him. When we witness insults against other people, do we join in the insulting or do we let the insults fall on us too? What about if it’s Jared or Doug Wilson or the Cathy brothers at the helm of Chick-Fil-A?

My one question for Doug Wilson

The Christian blogosphere has been on fire after a recent blog post by Jared Wilson critiquing the rape porn of 50 Shades of Grey from a Calvinist complementarian perspective. Jared Wilson quotes several paragraphs from a book by Doug Wilson (no relation) that seem to suggest that rape happens because humanity has rebelled against the hierarchical order of male dominance and female submission that God wove into the fabric of nature, which is the boldest claim I have ever heard a complemetarian make aloud.