![]() Jamin Wight was sentenced to 4-6 months in an Idaho prison. Victims of abuse often remain silent and avoid going to their church leaders because of the fear that they will be shamed, disbelieved, encouraged to go back to their abuser, or otherwise mistreated, and they are fearful with good reason.” The rate of secondary abuse in churches is nothing short of a tragedy. Here’s how Natalie characterized the experience: “My ex-pastor has proven that he will go to great lengths to discredit me and take away my voice, and, though I would love to simply let this go and leave it behind me as I move forward with my advocacy, I can’t. He tried to guilt her out of pursuing thorough action against Wight, claiming it would reflect poorly on her mother and asking, verbatim, “Why would you want to hurt your mother like that?” He expressed that Wight was “ not a sexual predator.” He referred to the relationship between Wight and Natalie as “ secret courtship.” He made numerous references to how physically mature she was for her age. Wilson wrote letters both to the court and to the police minimizing the gravity of Wight’s offense. In later email exchanges with Natalie, Wilson claims his attempt to keep things quiet was motivated by a desire to “protect her mom from appearing negligent.” Throughout the case, Natalie’s family was essentially shunned from the church. Records also show that both Leithart and Wilson fought (unsuccessfully) to keep their conversations with Wight about his crimes off the court record. Throughout Wight’s trial, he remained in official “good standing” at his church, where congregants were not informed of the presence of a predator in their midst for over three months. Court records show that both Doug Wilson (Natalie’s pastor) and Peter Leithart (Wight’s pastor at nearby Trinity Reformed Church and Dean of Graduate Studies at New St.Andrews) were made fully aware of the crime in August of 2005. ![]() In August of 2005, she revealed her painful secret to her parents, who made a police report the very same day. ![]() Like many victims, Natalie bottled the trauma and didn’t tell a soul until, at age 17, she began suffering flashbacks, insomnia, stomach ulcers, behavioral problems, and panic attacks, and she finally confided the abuse to a friend who encouraged her to tell her parents what had happened. And both Wight and Sitler sexually abused young girls in the homes of their host families.īetween the years of 20, Jamin Wight, who was 24 at the time, groomed and sexually abused Natalie Greenfield, the 13-year-old daughter of his host family. As neither institution provides any kind of housing, students are routinely encouraged to make living arrangements through Wilson’s student boarding network among Christ Church congregants. Both institutions were founded by Douglas Wilson, pastor of the town’s Christ Church. Jamin Wight was enrolled at Greyfriar’s Seminary, also in Moscow. Steven Sitler was a 19-year-old student enrolled at New St. This post exists to catalog some of the truths that should give any sober minded Christian pause before subscribing to Wilson’s teaching in any capacity: He has strong friendships and connections with folks at GTY, Apologia, Cross Politic, Crown Rights Media, Alpha & Omega Ministries, Founders Ministries, Sheologians and G3. Wilson is an extremely controversial figure with a lengthy track record of abusive conduct that always seems to be overlooked by those who should hold him accountable. He’s a self-ordained minister of a made up denomination with his own publishing company, a seminary, and a k-12 school, and he publishes widely used homeschooling curriculum, through which he teaches his ideology. Pastor Doug Wilson is a hugely influential leader in the Reformed Christian world.
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