Douglas Wilson – Narcissistic Pastor

Douglas WIlson’s blog image

I’ve been following the various Douglas Wilson incidents for the last year. The various things that have happened have had me shaking my head in disbelief. Some of his statements on his blog have been so off the wall that they read like satire. I really wish they were satire…

Jamin Wight

Douglas Wilson has attacked Natalie Rose Greenfield and her father, because they spoke about the sexual abuse Natalie suffered while a minor, at the hands of Jamin Wight, a student at Greyfriar’s Hall, a ministerial training program run by Wilson. Jamin Wight was a boarder at Natalie’s house – Greyfriar’s Hall has no residences, members of the congregation are encouraged to offer board to students.

Wilson isn’t responsible for what Jamin Wight did. What Wilson is responsible for is his own actions, which included writing to the judge and saying that he didn’t think Wight was a pedophile (Natalie was 13 when the abuse started), and that Natalie’s father had permitted Jamin to court Natalie, something that both Natalie and her father deny.

Douglas Wilson has also claimed that Natalie’s father shares the blame because he didn’t protect Natalie, though exactly how he was supposed to protect her is never explained.

Further comments on the Wight case can be found here, here, here, here, here, who knows how many other places. It certainly seems like Douglas Wilson, her pastor, did nothing to protect Natalie.

Steven Sitler

Then there’s Steven Sitler, who Douglas Wilson married to a young lady in his congregation, even though he knew that Steven Sitler was a pedophile attracted to young children. Wilson has stated that he would ‘do it again’ in reference to presiding over the marriage ceremony.

Steven Sitler said he hoped that he and his wife would have children, something that should have set off alarm bells, and something that his wife to be should have been warned about. I’ve heard that she was home schooled, and so may not have known anything about pedophiles. I do not know if she was told about his conviction, if the seriousness of it was downplayed, or what the full situation was, but it is known that Steven Sitler proposed to her on their second date…

More information on the Steven Sitler can be found here, here, here, and in thousands of other places. It certainly seems like Douglas Wilson did nothing to protect Mrs. Sitler, or their children.

Plagiarism

Then there’s the plagiarism issues. Two of Douglas Wilson’s books have had to be pulled because he included text written by someone else, without attribution, including ironically, A Justice Primer.

So far he seems to have been able to shift the blame. So far.

Further articles covering the Wilson plagiarism scandals can be found here, here, here, and in many other places all across the net.

Conclusion

Conclusion? Doug Wilson is a narcissist. What do I mean?

When something goes wrong, it is never the fault of Douglas Wilson. When he says something inflammatory, and gets called on it, he claims you don’t understand (which is possible, the man is a horrifically bad writer).

No matter what, Douglas Wilson is never to blame.

Inability to accept responsibility is a major trait of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Does he have it? I don’t have the training to make a definitive judgement, but he does seem to match a lot of the definition.

In the long term, his actions are self destructive, and will probably take down his ministry as well as himself. In the short term, he’s doing far too much damage to his congregation for me to be happy with him remaining in place. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that the other elders will move against him, and he isn’t going to step down unless forced to do so.

Regards

Wayne Borean

Saturday February 20, 2016