Examining "Examining Doug Wilson" & Their Defamatory Lies
It’s time to hold EDWAM accountable for years of malicious slander.
Introduction
Doug Wilson recently announced that Christ Church, in Moscow, Idaho, has hired a defamation law firm as their commensurate response to a recent uptick in slander against Doug Wilson and the various ministries associated with him. As Pastor Wilson pointed out, in an interview on CrossPolitic, they believe they have a responsibility to protect those who choose to freely associate with them, and that this is especially crucial for countless start-up schools (ACCS) and churches (CREC) around the globe who lack the strength of number to weather the devastating impact of defamation.
This is my story, and I believe I’m representative of hundreds, if not thousands, of people and organizations around the world that have been maligned and mistreated, to one degree or another, for simply associating with Doug Wilson.
As I wrote, in my previous post: “One of the most notorious liars out there; and, hands down, the most rabid Doug Wilson defamer of all, is the psychopathic social media page called, “Examining Doug Wilson & Moscow” (Otherwise known as EDWAM). Hiding behind a mask of anonymity, they have relentlessly fomented Doug Derangement Syndrome (DDS)…”
In April of 2021, EDWAM set their sights on me—despite the fact that I’ve never met Doug Wilson, never visited Moscow, Idaho, nor have I any formal affiliation with the CREC or ACCS. Nonetheless, EDWAM unleashed a series of false and defamatory statements about me and about a Christian dating platform I am launching (to serve Biblically-faithful singles).
So, why did EDWAM attack me? In their own words (see here and below), they did so because of my “heavy promotion of Wilson”—and just so there’s no doubt in our minds as to what constitutes “heavy promotion of Wilson,” they included a screenshot of me nodding in agreement to a Doug Wilson quote on Twitter. (see below) That’s right—merely expressing a pro-Doug Wilson sentiment on social media is enough, in their mind, to warrant a dedicated witch hunt. Imagine what they would do to someone for recommending Wilson’s books!
In this post, I want to show how even a casual association with Doug Wilson made me a casualty of war; prompting a malicious smear campaign that destroyed my reputation, cost me my ministry, and severely impaired my ability to provide for my wife as she battles chronic illness and cancer.
I want to show why it’s important that these unhinged cry bullies be held accountable. To that end, I’m going to highlight two of EDWAM’s malicious lies against me, then demonstrate their patently false nature, and finally, show how these lies were used as ammunition against me in a local smear campaign.
Smeared As A Racist
In this first example, EDWAM spread the very lazy lie that I featured ‘blackface” in a promotional video for a Christian Dating site, and then they double down on it when I denied it.
You can see from the post, itself, EDWAM isn’t actually concerned about racism, but rather obsessed with smashing the patriarchy. (In a post ostensibly about racism, they meantion “patriarchy” five times.) They understand that accusing of racism is one of the fastest ways to get someone canceled.
EDWAM claimed they did an extensive internet search and found no stock images or videos matching the screenshot which they alleged is ‘black face.’ The truth is, I published a link to the exact free stock video that I used in the promotional, three years ago, at the time of the false accusastion, but they disregarded that information and never once reached out to me to ask for a link. EDWAM is driven by agenda, and they aren’t about to let truth get in the way.
Before I publish that link again (below), I’d simply point out two things:
1) If you simple zoom in on the screenshot EDWAM posted, you can see, with your own eyes, that you’re looking at the face of a black man wearing white paint, and not at the face of a white man wearing black paint. It strains credulity that they would believe this is ‘black face.’
2) In the same commercial as the alleged ‘black face,’ we also featured a black couple meeting on our dating site. On what planet would a start-up business think ‘black face’ would help them reach black customers?
As it happened, I made an entire promotional video on a budget of exactly zero dollars, which means I used nothing but free stock photos and videos. When I decided I needed a creepy clown to spice up my bootleg promotional video, I simply typed “creepy clown” into the search engine, and used the first clown that showed up in my search, as you can clearly see by the picture below.
Here’s the link. See for yourself.
For anyone who isn’t blinded by Doug Derangement Syndrome (DDS), the ‘creepy clown’ in question is quite obviously played by a black man, and because we’re not racist, we were more than happy to feature a black actor in our short commercial.
As we said in our official response: “We’re grieved that SO MANY professing Christians took umbrage with us having a black man in our film. To black people everywhere, we apologize for all the racists out there who aren’t more accepting of black people in film. Clearly racism is still a big problem among the CRT crowd. Lord, help us! You’re ALWAYS WELCOME to show your smiling faces on our dating platform! …The creepy clown, in white face paint, represents the modern evangelical feminist subversion of Gen 1:28 (“be fruitful, multiply, exercise dominion…") which, for decades, has pushed "singleness is a gift,” and ruined countless lives in a generation now sunken into barren bitterness & porn-addicted decay.”
My novice video struck a feminist nerve, and for that they did everything in their might to strike me down. EDWAM maliciously smeared me as a racist because they have an axe to grind with anyone promoting biblical sexuality.
Three years later, the libelous post is still up, and continues to defame me as a “racist.” Imagine trying to establish a new ministry, or find a new job when atop the list of Google search results for your name is ‘blackface.’
Painted As A Dangerous Predator
In this second example, EDWAM took my wedding picture, plus a sound bite from an interview, which they wrested from context, and used it to maliciously paint me as a child sex trafficker. (link)
For context, as I’ve previously explained: “In an interview (on Christian dating and marriage), Eric Conn and I briefly contrasted previous generations (like our Grandparents’) that married much earlier, and our modern era that delays marriage and family. I made a straightforward comment that age 18 is arbitrary, and I said, “I’ve known people who were married at 15.” Actually, I know tons of people who married before the arbitrary age of 18, including some as young as 15. So do you! Hello Grandma. Hello Mary, mother of Jesus. I made no endorsement of anyone marrying at 15, or at any age before they’re mature and responsible adults. (See for yourself. Episode # 20) The fact is, like every other Christian dating site, you must be 18, at minimum, to even join our site, and our target audience is in their mid 20’s & 30’s. My wife and I met on such a site. I was 36. She was 33. Our vision for this project is a marriage reformation, to the glory of God.”
EDWAM maliciously ascribed the worst possible meaning to my words: “What Durham is expressing is a view widely held in Patriarchal circles, which is that men in Patriarchal circles should seek young wives…and thus can be “trained” by their husbands exactly the way the husbands want them to be…Think horse training or dog training, only for human beings made in the image of God.”
As per the first example, EDWAM never once reached out to ask for clarification. They aren’t interested in truth. They’re blinded by hatred against anyone remotely connected to Doug Wilson. They profaned our wedding day, maligned my character, and helped enable a mob to destroy my reputation.
Three years later, this post is still up, defaming me as a sexual predator.
The Detrimental Impact of EDWAM’s Defamatory Lies
As someone once said, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” It didn’t take long for EDWAM’s lies to reach my neck of the woods where I was newly installed as pastor of the most historic church in our town.
The church had barely reopened its doors after shutting down for an entire year due to Covid hysteria. When I arrived, the elderly, declining church was in a panic-stricken state—you could barely walk in the building without someone trying to scan your temperature, force a mask on you, and coerce you into getting vaccinated. It was a desperate situation—one I was eager to provide leadership for.
Unfortunately, in the prolonged absence of a pastor, this beleaguered church had been inundated with goats and wolves. As I set about to preaching the unvarnished truth of God’s Word, a group of bad actors set about to trashing my reputation and running me out of town. By the end of my first sermon, they were already digging for “dirt,” and it didn’t take long for them to stumble upon EDWAM.
In the picture below, you can see one of my former church members—and one of the most prominent citizens in our town—coming to drink from EDWAM’s gossip troughs.
This person, along with another prominent person in the town, administrates the main Facebook community group for the entire town. They control the flow of information for thousands of people. In a very real way, they act as gatekeepers of the city.
Together, along with a group of prominent citizens, connected all the way to the Mayor, they launched a concerted effort to smear my reputation and run me out of town. They used EDWAM’s lies to do it. In the picture below, you can see one of these prominent citizens spreading an EDWAM lie all over our small town: “He believes our children should be married by 15 and pregnant shortly after.”
As you can see in the next picture, EDWAM’s false and defamatory posts were eventually amplified by TikTok influencers, who shared them out to hundreds of thousands of people and then directed these people to bombard me and the church I pastored with phone calls and emails.
Our church secretary resigned. Our already anemic attendance was cut in half. Our giving dropped to the point that we could barely keep the lights on. We had to cut staff. Our Google Maps was trashed in the reviews. Visitors stopped coming. Our church was boycotted. Folks demanded my head on a platter.
I’ve chronicled all of this here, here, and here. To give you an idea of how bad it got, at one point, I was featured on the Destin In The News Facebook page, which reaches an audience of 30,000 people in our area. They only removed that post after I threatened them for defamation.
The local smear campaign was so severe that, after I resigned, the 150 year old church actually changed their name. I can empathize. I’ve thought about changing mine!
Imagine being in my shoes—trying to recover from being smeared as a “racist” and “child sex trafficker” just weeks into a new pastorate, in a new town, in a new state where nobody knew me from Adam. Needless to say, my reputation was destroyed overnight, and my ministry was over before it even started. I was blacklisted all over town, and I’ve spent the past three years trying to get back on my feet. My wife has been treated like she has leprosy, simply for standing by my side. I have no doubt all of this contributed to making her very sick. During this time, Amanda was diagnosed with cancer and underwent two major surgeries. Amanda was grief stricken over losing her womb before we could have children, and over losing friend after friend due to slander.
I’ve tried to plant a new church. I took a part-time job, took out a loan to pay for health care, and sold my car to make ends meet. We’ve been unable to afford housing for a year now. We’d be homeless if it weren’t for the kindness of Christians opening up their home to us.
Defamation destroys.
Time to Put A Muzzle On It
EDWAM has shown their true colors, and they’ve exposed a lot of gullible, gossip hungry people in the process. They are malicious liars with an axe to grind, and they attract that same kind of people with their smut content. It’s time to pull the curtain back and see who’s behind this devilish clown show. Or, at the very least, it’s time to put a muzzle on it.