Saving Corey Mahler
Pastor Doug Wilson takes a brave step that more Christian pastors need to take, witnessing Christ to young men in their congregations, and bringing them back from the brink
The phenomenon of racism, Jew-hatred, and ethnic vainglory in online circles looks like a theological and political problem, but it isn't one.
It is primarily a Christian discipleship problem.
Influential Christian men are using Corey Mahler, Woe, and Stone Choir, just as Stone Choir is using young men.
This is what it looks like when a pastor stands up to these men to their faces, and reminds them what it sounds like to be loved.
Yes, I said loved.
Christian love is a choice expressed in action that guides its object towards their highest good, in Christ.
Sharp though @douglaswils' words may be, they are calibrated to try and spare Corey Mahler's soul from hell. Not to take advantage of his influence and listeners. Not to placate Pastor Wilson's own fans who may be secretly listening to Stone Choir.
Instead they're written to Corey personally to hold a mirror up to him, showing Corey the path he's on and where it leads.
Corey can choose to listen, or he can not. But to love Corey in a Christian way—and not to merely use him—is to discipline, correct, catechize, and disciple.
Pastor Wilson made a choice, expressed it in action, and is attempting to guide Corey towards a higher good than the one he's currently chosen.
Even though Pastor Wilson may consider Corey an "adversary," Christ calls followers to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matt 5:44-45.)
This is what that looks like, for pastors to become the fathers that young men never had.
And maybe, just maybe if we put Christian love like this into practice for more men, we can spare them the black pit they're heading towards, at breakneck speed.
"I don’t know how you got this kink in your soul, but I do know that your flatterers are not going to tell you about it. They are following you for reasons of their own, reasons that have nothing whatever to do with your best interests, or your eternal well-being. Since the debate, those who have been collecting unacknowledged 'wisdom' from you have been strangely silent. And those who are loud and open in their acclaim are those whose good opinion is worthless.
"It is obvious that we are your adversaries. We are unalterably opposed to the rancid brew that you have been drinking, and are now bottling and selling. To Hell with all of that. But despite that, despite the fact that we are your foes, we are willing to tell you the truth. You have gotten yourself into a terrible place, a place where your only true friends are your enemies. A true friend speaks the truth. And because Jesus Christ Himself is the ultimate Truth, we as His servants are authorized to speak the truth to you.
"I don’t mean the truth about blacks, or the truth about Jews, or the truth about Hitler. I am talking about that abscess in the middle of your forehead. You have a mortal disease, and you have told yourself a series of tangled and twisted lies about it. Your lies about all this other ethnic and historical stuff are simply the delivery platform, one that enables you to persuade yourself that all is well deep inside your own soul. But all is not well down there, not even close. Your flatterers have stolen all your mirrors, and are lying to you about that abscess."
Well done, Pastor Wilson. God be praised. Thank you.
Watch the full video here: