Christ Church is a megachurch in the small town of Moscow, Idaho that’s quickly gaining national attention.
The Guardian recently released its findings on an investigation it conducted regarding the church’s goal to make the city of Moscow, Idaho a “theocracy,” or, in their words, a “Christian town.” Christ Church has an estimated 1000 congregants, which is roughly 4 percent of Moscow’s population of 25,000.
Christ Church’s Mission
Christ Church’s mission statement appears as follows on their website:
Our mission at Christ Church is summed up by the phrase “all of Christ for all of life.” Under the grace of God, this means that our desire is to make Moscow a Christian town through faithful and robust covenant renewal worship on the Lord’s Day, through proclamation of the gospel to unbelievers, while training additional evangelists who will continue proclaiming that gospel, through teaching men and women how to live together in harmonious Christian marriage, through establishing a family-friendly culture of Christian education in which well-loved and well-disciplined children will learn to stay the course, through outreach that brings people to church, accommodating them where they are while seeking to bring them into maturity in a structured way, through genuine cultural engagement that provides Christian leadership in the arts, in business, in education, in politics, and in literature, and through a regular series of church plants on the Palouse as we have gifted, trained and ordained men, willing congregants, adequate resources, and available facilities. And we seek to do all of this in gladness and simplicity of heart, as we pursue love for God and love for our neighbor.
The Guardian’s Investigation
In their investigation, the Guardian reveals how Christ Church has acquired “significant influence” in the city of Moscow and continues to extend its leadership’s “power” and “activities” in order to accomplish their mission.
Douglas Wilson is Christ Church’s pastor. Wilson is the author of over 100 books, and serves on the board of trustees at New Saint Andrews College (a small local Christian college affiliated with the church). Wilson also founded the college’s theology program and serves as its senior fellow.
The investigation said 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.”
The Guardian attempted to show how the church leadership has been influencing the city by listing the ways many of Wilson’s family members are employed. The college employs Wilson’s son-in-law, Ben Merkle [president], other son-in-law, Luke Jankovic [trustee], son Nathan [fellow of literature], brother Gordon [senior fellow of natural history], and Christ Church’s associate pastor, Toby Sumpter [trustee]. All of those men also serve as elders at Christ Church.
The Guardian also revealed that Christ Church elder Andrew Crapuchettes was the chief executive of one of the city’s largest employers, a labor marketing data company called Emsi. 55 of Emsi’s employees are graduates of New Saint Andrews College. That number is significant, given that the college has only graduated 635 in its lifetime. The Guardian additionally linked other church elders to senior positions within the company, including one of Wilson’s son-in-laws.
This isn’t the first time a news outlet has reported about the church’s quest. In 2019, an article from The Spokesman-Review titled “Controversial Church Aims to ‘Make Moscow a Christian Town’” quoted Wilson as saying that the idea of a “spiritual takeover” of the city originated with is dad, James Wilson, after he retired from the Navy.
Wilson’s father wrote a book titled “Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism” in 1964, wherein he explained how real war concepts can be applied to evangelistic strategies. James pointed out that because of Moscow’s small size and its reputation, it was an achievable feat.
The Spokesman-Review article said that “many residents avoid supporting businesses with ties to the church” and that Wilson’s nephew’s truck was vandalized because it had a New Saint Andrews College bumper sticker.
Douglas Wilson disagreed with the Guardian’s accusations and said their investigation “illustrates an absurd fixation and anti-church bigotry that we have come to expect from certain elements of the leftist media.”
Controversies Surrounding the Church
Many controversies surround Christ Church, some of which include Douglas Wilson’s published pamphlet “‘Southern Slavery’ As It Was,” the church’s anti-mask protests, sexual abuse allegations, child abuse allegations, and Wilson making a biblical defense for fake vaccine IDs.
Wilson’s 43-page “Southern Slavery” As It Was,” co-written with Steve Wilkins, suggested that U.S. slavery wasn’t as bad as some history books present. Many opposed their assessment, saying the pamphlet was pro-slavery.
In part, the pamphlet says, “As we have already mentioned, the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery was not perfect or sinless, but the reality was a far cry from the horrific descriptions given to us in modern histories…Slave life was to them [slaves] a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care…Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South — and had a much easier existence.”
Last September, ChurchLeaders reported that three people were arrested for not adhering to the city’s mask/social distance mandate at a Christ Church sponsored event in Moscow. The event titled, “Psalm Sing” reportedly had 150-300 people attend a Moscow City Hall mask mandate protest. Two were arrested for suspicion of resisting or obstructing an officer, and the third was arrested for refusing to identify himself.
Wilson said the police officers should be “heartily ashamed of themselves.” The church held follow-up events, which avoided arrests.
Vice Media released an article with interviews of former church members, current church members, and students at the church’s school, regarding alleged abuse within the church. Former church members shared that women were told to “defer to church leaders” and aren’t allowed to say “no” to their husbands.
One interviewee told the story about how she was raped by her husband, reporting that other Christ Church wives had similar experiences. When the abuse was reported, the wife was told by church leaders that she was in the wrong, barring her from going to the police.
Wilson officiated the wedding of a former New Saint Andrews College student, Steven Sitler, who was convicted and confessed to abusing a number of victims, one being a child under the age of 16. A guest at the wedding revealed that the pastor said, “Sometimes people need to get married so that the flesh can be contained.” Sitler was ordered by a judge to be chaperoned around his infant son at all times.
A former student of Christ Church’s Logos School reported that they were inappropriately touched by a teacher. The former student shared that the male teacher would “feel up” girls in the hallways of the school and give girls back rubs in the classroom. The teacher would also make sexual references when performing tasks like plugging in a projector cord. The teacher retired after he was reported to the school board and now runs a small business in Moscow.
Other former students have shared similar stories. One even alleged that she was forced to tell Wilson about losing her virginity to her boyfriend during a one-on-one meeting at Wilson’s request.
Wilson also recently wrote a blog titled, “A Biblical Defense of Fake Vaccine IDs.” In it, he gives “seven principles to govern your possible use of fake IDs.”
Wilson writes, “Believing Christians have three basic options — compliance, non-compliance with a guilty conscience, and non-compliance with a clean conscience. I am urging you all to the third option, and I believe that these principles below can help with that.”
Wilson told people not to be “chumps” and settle for a cheap fake ID, but rather use only genuine-looking fakes. Wilson also told pastors and elders not to “rat out” other Christians who would use a fake vaccine ID. “You don’t want to be the kind of pastor who would discipline a church member for using fake papers to get his family away from the Taliban,” he said.