DW: Of course, this is what is involved in psalm singing. It is not possible to sing psalms without noticing that the psalmist had enemies, just like we do. And so we do sing, and pray, in an imprecatory way. We also sing and pray in line with the instructions of the rest of Scripture, which includes the injunction to love our enemies. This is harmonized by asking God to destroy our enemies, and our first request is that He would destroy them as enemies by turning their hearts, and making them our friends. But if that is not His pleasure, we still ask God to deal with His enemies according to His Word, and the lies that they tell.

NG:  Come on, Doug, you can't be serious!  Millions of Christians sing the psalms without a single hint of cursing their enemies. (Literal interpretation of scripture once again runs amok!) My Unitarian choir sings sacred lyrics all the time, knowing full well that we are engaged in an aesthetic exercise, not a theological one.  I don't know how many Christians have told me that they go to church to sing and socialize not accept dogma.

5.  Most CEC theologians, such as Stephen Davis, consistently reinterpret biblical passages that impugn Yahweh’s moral integrity, but Wilson revels in pronouncing that every immoral act seemingly committed by Yahweh was indeed committed by him.  Commenting on the stories of Abraham and Job, Douglas Jones, Wilson’s right hand man, actually admits that God is "morally insane" and "dangerous and unpredictable"("Playing with Knives: God the Dangerous," Credenda Agenda 16:3).  In his book Debate about the Bible, Davis wisely argues that it was sinful Israelites, not God, who carried out the genocide of the Canaanite peoples.

DW: Gier objects that I do not explain away the passages that teach that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites. He refers me to the high example of Stephen Davis, who says that it was the sinful Israelites, not God, who carried out the genocide of the Canaanite people. The problem is that the Bible says that God commanded it, and a problem related to this first problem is that I know how to read.

NG:    Yes, I know that you can read.  (We would have not have accepted you into our graduate program if you could not.) It is the way you read the Bible that is the problem. If given enough time to reflect on the implications, I'm certain that most evangelicals would side with Stephen Davis on this important point. Wilson 's concession that God commands genocide undermines the moral foundations of Christianity, and makes it impossible for Wilson to condemn any action as immoral.

6. No CEC minister that I know has paid the gambling debts of errant college students out of church funds.  Even though the IRS requires that a 1099 be filed for any payment over $600, no such document exists for this $1,000 transaction.  For the entire story, as yet to be covered by the local press and complete with letters, e-mails, affidavits, tape recordings, see http://dougsplotch.com/index.html.

DW: Gier objects to the fact that I paid the gambling debts of errant college students out of church funds. Except that I didn't.

NG: Is Wilson now telling us that he paid these debts out of his own pocket?  That is not how anyone privy to this scandal understands it.  People can read all the documents at http://dougsplotch.com/index.html to judge this piece of historical revisionism, at which Wilson is getting very adept.