Onward Christian Soldiers: Wolves Among The Flock

Summary

**Extremely American: Onward Christian Soldiers

Episode: Onward Christian Soldiers: Wolves Among The Flock
Release Date: July 24, 2024
Hosts: Heath Druzen and James Dawson
Description: Season 2 of Extremely American delves into the perilous rise of Christian nationalism, specifically focusing on a movement intent on dismantling American democracy to establish a theocratic regime. This season navigates through the intricacies of this movement via the lens of an influential far-right church, its audacious attempt to dominate a small town, and the harrowing abuses that lie beneath its facade.

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Introduction: Unveiling the Christchurch Scandal

Heath Druzen opens the episode with a somber warning about the sensitive and distressing topics to be discussed, including child sex abuse, sexual assault, and suicide (00:48). The narrative begins in 2005 with the introduction of Steven Sitler, a 20-year-old student at New St. Andrews in Moscow, Idaho. The school, affiliated with the Christchurch community, employs a unique boarding system where students live with church families to avoid the typical distractions of dorm life.

The Steven Sitler Case: A Hidden Menace

Steven Sitler's tenure at New St. Andrews took a dark turn when allegations surfaced about his inappropriate behavior. Jimmy Dawson recounts that in March 2005, Sitler molested a friend's daughter during a sleepover (01:55). Further investigations by Sitler's host family revealed that he had also been molesting their own children for over a year and a half (02:37).

Response from Church Leadership

Facing these revelations, the Sitler family consulted Pastor Doug Wilson, who advised them to involve law enforcement (03:04). Contrary to expectations of a swift and protective action towards the victims, the situation rapidly unraveled. Sitler, deeply ingrained in the Christchurch community with his father serving as a deacon, confessed his abuses to Wilson and subsequently turned himself in (03:04). Despite the gravity of his actions, Wilson publicly took credit for Sitler's confession, stating:

Doug Wilson [04:15]: "He confessed to years of abusing others, and that was at my instigation, him doing that."

However, Wilson's handling of the situation drew significant criticism from within and outside the community.

Rachel Shubin’s Investigation: Exposing the Flaws

Rachel Shubin, an attendee of an Oregon church within the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CRECK) founded by Wilson, became increasingly disturbed by the handling of the Sitler case and another simultaneous sex abuse scandal. When her pastor dismissed her concerns, she embarked on a rigorous investigation.

Rachel Shubin [04:40]: "I had a whole bunch of younger kids that were all right in the age ranges of silver speakers. It's soul-crushing for the parents and the children and the community at large."

Determined to uncover the truth, Shubin meticulously researched police records, court documents, and conducted interviews with legal authorities. Her extensive 500-page report unveils a pattern of prioritizing abusers over victims, with Wilson often minimizing the severity of the abuse and shielding perpetrators.

Emily Paige Dye’s Story: A Personal Tragedy

The episode shifts focus to Emily Paige Dye, a survivor of sexual abuse within the Christchurch community. Emily's journey began at Logos School, a Christchurch-affiliated institution, where she was subjected to a rigidly repressive environment.

Life at Logos School

Emily describes the school's strict emphasis on modesty and gender roles, leaving no room for open discussions about sex education:

Emily Paige Dye [07:36]: "I still didn't know the word vagina. I learned that as a 19 year old in university."

This environment fostered fear and misunderstanding among students, making them vulnerable to predatory behavior.

Abuse by Jim Nance

Jim Nance, a respected teacher and elder within Christchurch, became Emily's abuser. Initially perceived as a father figure, Nance's overstepping of personal boundaries escalated from inappropriate hugging to outright molestation.

Emily Paige Dye [10:28]: "And then it was like right before Christmas break, he gave me a full frontal hug and it went on for way too long and I was like, that was weird."

Despite Emily's discomfort, the school's response was tepid. A chaperone reported Nance's behavior, but the administration, including Superintendent Tom Garfield, failed to take substantial action beyond asking Nance to resign (16:48).

Emily Paige Dye [19:29]: "I think it was a very specific choice on the part of the school not to ask me questions, to choose to be ignorant, to choose not to learn what actually happened because I would have shared it."

Continued Abuse and Aftermath

Nance's abuse persisted until Emily's mother discovered a text message from Nance, prompting him to confess to the superintendent. However, minimal action was taken, and Nance remained a member of the Christchurch community. Eventually, Emily reached out for counseling from Nancy Wilson, Doug Wilson's wife, only to be met with condemnation and blame.

Emily Paige Dye [23:43]: "She told me that I was slutty and I needed to change the way I dress and I should go home and clean out my closet and that I should stop trying to seduce university boys and other men and people's husbands."

Feeling unsupported and silenced, Emily eventually broke away from the Christchurch ideology, seeking solace and understanding outside the community.

Doug Wilson’s Defense and Controversial Actions

Doug Wilson remains a central figure in the narrative, defending his actions and the Christchurch community's responses to abuse allegations. He maintains that the church provides pastoral support to victims but distances himself from legal proceedings.

Doug Wilson [30:06]: "We would discipline someone if I officiated a wedding and five years later the husband ran off with his secretary. ... we would excommunicate someone like that."

However, critics like Rachel Shubin argue that Wilson consistently protects abusers while neglecting victims. This is exemplified by his defense and continued support for offenders like Steven Sitler and Jim Nance, despite their criminal actions.

The Aftermath: Lingering Impact and Unresolved Issues

Despite Emily's attempts to seek justice and transparency, Moscow Police declined to file charges against Nance, citing legal challenges in prosecuting the case (34:43). Nance remains a member of Christchurch, and Sitler was even married by Doug Wilson post-conviction.

Community and Legal Repercussions

The handling of these cases has left deep scars within the Christchurch community, with survivors like Emily fighting to have their voices heard and seeking accountability for their abusers. However, systemic failures and a culture of silence continue to impede meaningful resolution.

Conclusion: The Enduring Struggle for Accountability

Extremely American: Onward Christian Soldiers paints a troubling picture of how religious institutions can sometimes prioritize their reputation over the well-being of their members. Through meticulous reporting and personal testimonies, the episode underscores the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and support for survivors within such communities.

Emily Paige Dye [36:30]: "I think there's probably nothing scarier for people like Wilson and Nance and all of the people in that community when the women that they have downtrodden and they've abused and they've taken away their voices and have told them that they must submit and obey, actually start speaking up and telling their stories."

The episode serves as a powerful reminder of the human cost of unchecked power and the resilience required to confront deeply ingrained abuses within influential institutions.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Heath Druzen [00:48]: "It's 2005. A 20 year old named Steven Sitler is a student at New St. Andrews..."
• Doug Wilson [04:15]: "He confessed to years of abusing others, and that was at my instigation, him doing that."
• Rachel Shubin [04:40]: "I had a whole bunch of younger kids that were all right in the age ranges of silver speakers. It's soul-crushing for the parents and the children and the community at large."
• Emily Paige Dye [07:36]: "I still didn't know the word vagina. I learned that as a 19 year old in university."
• Emily Paige Dye [19:29]: "I think it was a very specific choice on the part of the school not to ask me questions..."
• Emily Paige Dye [23:43]: "She told me that I was slutty and I needed to change the way I dress..."
• Doug Wilson [30:06]: "We would discipline someone if I officiated a wedding and five years later the husband ran off with his secretary..."
• Emily Paige Dye [36:30]: "I think there's probably nothing scarier for people like Wilson and Nance..."

---

This episode of Extremely American provides a comprehensive and unsettling exploration of the intersection between religious authority and systemic abuse, highlighting the profound challenges faced by survivors seeking justice and healing.

Transcript

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[Heath Druzen]

A heads up to listeners this episode deals with child sex abuse and sexual assault. And there's swearing. There's also a mention of suicide. If you or a loved one are considering suicide, please call or text the national suicide hotline at 988-there-soft available. Okay, here we go. It's 2005. A 20 year old named Steven Sitler is a student at New St. Andrews. That's the Christchurch Affiliated College in Moscow, Idaho. Stephen is staying with the Christchurch family while he goes to school. New St. Andrews doesn't have dorms. By design, they want to keep students from the temptations that come with cramming a bunch of 18 to 22 year olds together. Instead, students are encouraged to board with church families. But when it comes to Stephen, that idea of keeping students away from sin, it horribly backfires. Jimmy read through a detailed report about what happened next.

[Jimmy]

So it was March of 2005 and the family that Steven Sitler had been staying with, they had a few children and there was a sleepover one night with some children of another family friend. And after that sleepover, the family friends reported to the father that Steven Sitler had molested their their daughter while they were sleeping.

[Heath Druzen]

The kids had been sleeping upstairs and boarders weren't allowed to go there. But apparently Stephen went up anyway and touched the friend's daughter inappropriately.

[Jimmy]

And eventually the father worked out that Sitler had also been molesting his own children, at least one of the daughters for a year and a half. And that's almost the entire time that he had been with the family. So the father and the mother approached. Pastor Doug Wilson got his advice. He told them to go to law enforcement.

[Heath Druzen]

And that's when it all started unraveling with Stephen. Stephen grew up in the Christchurch world. His dad is a deacon at an affiliated church. Steven actually went to Doug Wilson first to confess to molesting multiple children, not just the daughter he was boarding with and the friend's daughter, children from other places he'd lived outside Moscow, Idaho. He then turned himself in to police and confessed to them, too. I actually spoke to Steven briefly on the phone. He didn't want to do a recorded interview. He was kind of defiant, said people had been dishonest about him, though he wouldn't give specifics. When I asked him once more if he would consider a recorded interview, he said, quote, I address it with God. I don't need to with man. Doug Wilson takes credit for the whole Steven Sitler episode coming to light.

[Doug Wilson]

He confessed to years of abusing others, and that was at my instigation, him doing that.

[Heath Druzen]

Plenty of people, however, are not impressed with how Doug handled the situation. One of them is Rachel Shubin. As the details of the abuse trickled out to affiliated churches, she wanted to know more.

[Rachel Shubin]

I had a whole bunch of younger kids that were all right in the age ranges of silver speakers. It's soul crushing for the parents and the children and the community at large.

[Heath Druzen]

At the time, she was attending an Oregon church. It's part of the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or creck, the church association Doug Wilson founded. Rachel was horrified by the Steven Sitler case. And there was actually one other Christchurch sex abuse scandal unfolding nearly simultaneously. So Rachel went to her pastor. She was like, hey, I want to figure out what's happening here with our sister church.

[Rachel Shubin]

And he told me that I couldn't, that I shouldn't talk about things I didn't know anything about. And that went over badly. So I started researching.

[Heath Druzen]

When he said that. When you said. When you said it went over badly, can you. I mean, like, what. So what was your reaction?

[Rachel Shubin]

No, I was like. My reaction was like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna learn every single thing there is to know about this now.

[Heath Druzen]

And Rachel pretty much did. We'll come back to what she learned later, but we wanted to get the perspective of survivors of abuse in the Christchurch world. We weren't able to talk to Sitler's victims or their families, but we did hear directly from another survivor about her experience. And it happened at Doug Wilson's school.

[Emily Paige Dye]

Basically, you have to not care in order to have so many stories coming out of your community and to keep doing the same thing over and over again and keep addressing them. The exact same way and continuing to treat victims in the way that he's been treating victims.

[Heath Druzen]

I'm Heath Druzen and this is extremely. Onward Christian Soldiers. A story about a small town, a big church, and the people who want to make America a Christian nation. Episode 6 Wolves among the Flock the first part of Emily Paige Dye's story is not so different from Helen Shore's Peters. She started at Logos School in her early teens and was all in for the Christchurch ideology. In Emily's case, her parents were too.

[Emily Paige Dye]

They wanted us to go to a Christian school. They wanted us to get that Christian education. My mom started reading Doug Wilson's book books, so she really bought into it and became very excited about the idea that we could go to this school. We'd be wearing uniforms, we would be learning Latin. And it was kind of this very idealization of what a private school would be like.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says one thing Logos didn't offer was sex education.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I didn't know any of it. I. There was no explanation. I think my parents are like, the school teach them that and the school's like, that's the parents responsibility. There was nothing. So I learned about periods from the Diary of Anne Frank.

[Heath Druzen]

So Emily had no idea how people actually got pregnant, but she knew she wanted nothing to do with whatever it was.

[Emily Paige Dye]

It was 100% on the women to protect the purity of the men around them. We were responsible to be modest. We don't want to cause our Christian brothers to stumble. I was terrified of being sick, seen as flirting or interacting with the boys in an appropriate manner. I had a pretty bubbly personality. And so there's a couple of times where, and this was very much the culture at Logos where one of your classmates would call you out and it's like, oh, you were flirting with him. And then you feel awful because you feel like you've sinned and you have to repent. Even if that wasn't the intention at all. You had no idea. So there's actually like boys in my class that I went to school with for four years that I've probably said one or two sentences to at most.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says defined gender roles were also ingrained in her. It's that Christchurch focus on headship again.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I actually remember thinking that somewhat consciously of women are supposed to submit. I've been told that women are supposed to submit.

[Heath Druzen]

She says that idea would set her up for the nightmare that came next. And that nightmare begins with a guy named Jim Nance. Jim was a longtime teacher at Logos. He was also an Elder in Christchurch. Middle aged guy, married with kids. Kind of a big deal in the Kirker universe. Given the seriousness of the allegations to come, I want to pause to say we reached out to Jim several times for comment. He didn't respond. Emily was in his physics class and at one point in her junior year, Emily started studying in his classroom. During her free period, while he graded papers, they would chat. She looked up to him.

[Emily Paige Dye]

So I started to go close to him, started to view him as kind of like a father like figure.

[Heath Druzen]

Okay, here I have to explain something that will become important to the story because there's a whole hugging protocol in the purity obsessed world of Christchurch.

[Emily Paige Dye]

Yeah, the Christian side hug. It's this weird and so like if someone tried to do it to me now, I'd probably slap him. It's so weird. And also it feels way more intimate than just a normal hug where like they, they grab you like on the side and like put your, their hand on your waist and it's like this Christian side hug thing.

[Heath Druzen]

She says Jim was a big side hugger. At some point though, something started to change.

[Emily Paige Dye]

And then it was like right before Christmas break, he gave me a full frontal hug and it went on for way too long and I was like, that was weird. It was, it felt very uncomfortable. This, like you don't do the full frontal hug because then the woman's breast would be pushing up against you and that would be totally inappropriate by the weird Christian standards.

[Heath Druzen]

But partly because of who Jim was, at first, she brushed it off.

[Emily Paige Dye]

He was hugely powerful in my life. He was. He's an elder at the church, he's my teacher. He's super well respected within the community.

[Heath Druzen]

But it didn't stop.

[Emily Paige Dye]

He would just hug me. Constant, like all the time. It became like every time, like every Friday I would be leaving for the weekend, he would hug me and it would get longer and longer and it would have been sometime during this period, probably early spring, still cold. He gave me the full frontal hug and like felt my ass.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily was 17. She had never kissed a boy. Remember, she barely talked to them for fear of appearing to flirt. This sent her head spinning.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I remember going and standing in my locker and just like staring into my locker for a crazy amount of time. Like, did that really happen? Did he mean to? Was it an accident? What was going on? Not knowing what to do. And so I ended up doing nothing.

[Heath Druzen]

After the break, things escalate and people start to notice.

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[Emily Paige Dye]

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[Heath Druzen]

Emily says after the groping incident, Jim would keep touching her whenever he had the chance.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I was doing the musical, the school musical, which I was super excited about. He was also in the musical in some part, I don't remember which. And yeah, it would be. He constantly asked. Like every time I came up, he'd ask to see me, I would meet him, he would feel me up and it was just this thing that would happen.

[Heath Druzen]

And this seems obvious, but this is not something that you wanted and this is not something that was like you were. It sounds like this was something that was really freaking you out.

[Emily Paige Dye]

Oh yeah, it fully freaked me out. I was fully wigged out by it. I didn't know. I didn't know what to do or how to cope with it. But I feel like by this point in the dynamic, like he said he wanted me to do something and so I did it. Yeah, because he would have. He would have been touching my breasts, touching my ass.

[Heath Druzen]

You're, you're a kid in high school and yes, you're a kid in high school who had to learn about your period from Anne Frank. So you're not, it's not like you're a savvy adult by any stretch at this point.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I still didn't know the word vagina. I learned that as a 19 year old in university.

[Heath Druzen]

And then Emily says Jim starts to get careless on their senior physics trip.

[Emily Paige Dye]

And so we were all going to Seattle. It was a small class, super excited, super stoked about it. And leading up to that trip, he planned out what I would wear on the trip. And I. I believe at this point it would have been. I'd have been sending him photos. He'd ask for photos regularly of me, sometimes not fully closed photos. He asked for photos of all of my outfits and chose what outfits I would wear on the trip.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says it's a sexually repressive culture of Christchurch that got her to go along with that. That's because she saw Jim as a father figure.

[Emily Paige Dye]

It felt like it made sense. Like, in a weird way, there's. With the modesty culture, there's this idea that your father chooses, like, can inspect your outfit, make sure your outfit's appropriate.

[Heath Druzen]

And so they go on this field trip to Seattle with a bunch of other students. I looked at Jim's Facebook page, scrolled back to that time and knowing what was happening, it's surreal to see the photos he posted with Emily. Tagged a smiling teenage girl on the Space Needle, but with an awful secret.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I remember he'd play footsie with me under the table in front of everyone. It was this pretty apparent to some extent what was going on.

[Heath Druzen]

And it was particularly apparent to a school chaperone on the trip who was a Logos mom and employee.

[Emily Paige Dye]

So the other mother reported it to the school as soon as we got back that Nance was acting inappropriately with me.

[Heath Druzen]

As far as Emily knows, this was the first time anyone had stepped in. According to Emily, school leadership talked to Jim and that was that. No notification of Emily's parents, no conversation with Emily. Whatever Jim said to leadership, they dropped it. Doug Wilson, who has continued to serve on the Logos board since its founding, confirmed the basic details, but says the chaperone's report was vague. He says Jim was told to keep a professional distance with his students.

[Doug Wilson]

There was no inkling on the part of anybody that something illegal, criminal or immoral, sexually immoral, was going on.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says at the time, she was actually relieved that nothing happened to Jim. Her abuser was protected, but so was her secret. Emily says Jim was not chastened by his close call. Quite the opposite, she says. He was emboldened.

[Emily Paige Dye]

It escalated like he was fully molesting me. His hands were under my clothes and my underwear and all of the things. He had me meet him on the school property, like one Saturday. I had come to town for something or other, and he met, had me, him in his classroom, took off my clothes and molested me.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says she was desperate for it to stop, but she didn't know how. Then Jim reported himself. Here's how it happened. Emily's mom saw a text from Jim pop up on her daughter's phone. The message wasn't sexual, but seemed overly familiar for a teacher. And it was 9:30 at night. Emily told Jim her mom had seen the text. So Jim confessed to Logos superintendent Tom Garfield, saying he had been texting Emily.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I got called into the office with my parents and Tom Garfield.

[Heath Druzen]

And Emily says Tom asked her just one question about their physical relationship. Did he kiss you?

[Emily Paige Dye]

He had honestly not kissed me at this point in time. He had done a lot of other things. He had molested me repeatedly, but he had not kissed me. And so I was able to answer honestly. I said, no, he's not kissed me.

[Heath Druzen]

And according to Emily, after that, it was basically no further questions, your honor. Tom Garfield didn't respond to requests for an interview. And I just can't let this one go. How can you ask one question in a situation like this? The second time this teacher has been reported? Emily can't either.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I think it was a very specific choice on the part of the school not to ask me questions, to choose to be ignorant, to choose not to learn what actually happened because I would have shared it. I was not in any position to hide what had happened. I was willing and ready to be honest. And Nance had told me not to say anything and that I would ruin his marriage and had threatened me and had done the whole thing. But at that point, like, I was done lying. So if someone had asked the question, I would have given an honest answer, but no one bothered. My parents then had a meeting with Doug Wilson. Wilson assured them that nothing illegal had happened, that they had approached the correct authorities. Everyone had been notified, the police weren't concerned, et cetera, et cetera, and that the school had decided to ask Nance to resign.

[Heath Druzen]

And again, another shot to ask more questions. And Emily says Doug didn't even include her in the meeting. But Doug did follow through with Jim Nance.

[Doug Wilson]

He was dismissed because we had zero. We had zero tolerance for that kind of thing.

[Heath Druzen]

Doug says at the time, all they knew about was the text. Given that he says firing Jim was a strong measure here, I think it's important to mention one more thing. Jim has a long personal history with Doug. In Doug's early days as a pastor, Jim was in church leadership. And critics say Doug stuck up for Jim. Back in 1997, Jim was an elder at Community Evangelical Fellowship, which would become Christchurch. He committed some kind of, quote, sin that required punishment. I asked Doug for specifics and if it had to do with any kind of transgression with women or girls.

[Doug Wilson]

I can't talk about the particulars of that, but I can tell you that he was given a leave of absence from the Elder Board for a sin that he committed.

[Heath Druzen]

Doug confirmed he made Jim take a six month hiatus, but allowed him to return to his position. Doug says it was a fair punishment. That history is one of the many reasons Emily doesn't buy Doug's story that he didn't suspect more was happening between her and Jim.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I feel like you'd have to be an idiot to not realize that there was more going on.

[Heath Druzen]

After Jim was fired, no one filed a police report, but the school did write a letter letting parents and students know Jim was leaving. It was short on details, but did ask everyone to thank him for his service and pray for him. After high school, Emily went far away to college in D.C. thinking she could escape her nightmare. One trip back home in 2016, Emily ran into Tom Garfield. He was the Logos superintendent when she attended the school. He was also friends with Jim Nance.

[Emily Paige Dye]

He's like, yeah, really glad we caught everything that happened with Nance. That could have been really bad. I just looked, I was like, it was really bad. Like, it was so bad. It was so beyond bad. And he said, what? And then I told him what had happened while I was at the school and I told him that it still happened and that it only until recently ended and that I had ended it.

[Heath Druzen]

Emily says what sticks in her mind was Tom's reaction after she told him everything.

[Emily Paige Dye]

He wanted me to describe in detail Nance going down on me. And I did not do that. And he wanted to know if I liked it. That was a question he kept asking.

[Heath Druzen]

At this point, Emily was wrestling with a lot of her views. She knew what Jim Nance had done to her was wrong, but she wasn't fully out of the ideology of obedience and fundamentalism. She actually reached out to Doug Wilson's wife, Nancy for counseling. Nancy Wilson is not a licensed counselor, but she does something called biblical counseling. Emily says it went badly.

[Emily Paige Dye]

She told me that I was slutty and I needed to change the way I dress and I should go home and clean out my closet and that I should stop trying to seduce university boys and other men and people's husbands. She treated me like I was a threat to her and her husband.

[Heath Druzen]

Nancy declined our request for an interview. In an email reply, she wrote she would never discuss counseling sessions publicly. But she did defend headship and women submitting to men. The ideas Emily says helped groom her for abuse. Some female abuse survivors like Emily, say the way Christchurch treats them is directly tied to headship, that the perspective of women and girls is not valued. After the break How Christchurch deals with abusers or doesn't according to critics.

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[Emily Paige Dye]

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[Heath Druzen]

Emily feels like Christchurch leadership swept her case under the rug, and Rachel Shubin says that's exactly how Christchurch deals with their scandals. She says Doug Wilson takes action against whistleblowers, not abusers.

[Rachel Shubin]

Wilson does not clean his own house. Ever, from what I can see. Unless it's somebody that's saying, hey, we should stop doing this in our house. Then he cleans them right out.

[Heath Druzen]

Rachel was that congregant at that Christchurch affiliate who decided to investigate Doug Wilson's response to sex abuse. After her pastor told her not to, she embarked on a months long investigation. She was looking into Christchurch's response to Steven Sitler's molestation case and another case of sexual abuse in the congregation. She tracked down police records and court documents, had email exchanges with a judge and Parole officer even interviewed the county prosecutor. She carried on a lengthy email exchange with Doug Wilson. To say a woman doing something like this is unusual in the hyper patriarchal world of Christchurch is an understatement.

[Rachel Shubin]

And that is a large portion of why my report is 400 pages of footnotes on 100 pages pages of text is because, you know, if you're gonna say something in that community, you have.

[Emily Paige Dye]

To be able to back up every.

[Rachel Shubin]

Single line because especially if you're a woman, because otherwise it just gets like dismissed.

[Heath Druzen]

Yes, she wrote a 500 page report. One thing Rachel found in her research really shocked her. After Steven Sitler confessed to Doug, Doug waited a full eight months to tell his congregation about the abuse.

[Rachel Shubin]

I don't think they had the faintest idea of what was going on or what had happened. So which means that there was, you know, wolves over there.

[Heath Druzen]

Wolves, as in Doug Wilson was letting wolves run loose amongst the flock, his congregation. In the case of Steven Sitler, there was more. Before Steven was sentenced for being a Child Molester In September 2005, Doug went to bat for him. He wrote a letter to the judge on Steven's behalf. Here's how it ends. Quote. I am grateful Stephen was caught and am grateful he has been brought to account for these actions so early in his life. I am grateful that he will be sentenced for his behavior and that there will be hard consequences for him in real time. At the same time, I would urge that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited. I have a good hope that Stephen has genuinely repented and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society. End quote. Stephen was given a life sentence, but with the possibility of parole, he was free in about a year and a half. The even wilder part is that he wasn't the only accused sex abuser Doug went to bat for. At about the Same time, a 25 year old Christchurch seminary student faced sentencing for an alleged sexual relationship with a 14 year old church member. Doug wrote a letter to a police officer on behalf of that seminary student, Jamin White. In the end, Jamin's charges were reduced to felony injury to a child. The judge in Jamin's case actually threw out a plea agreement and gave him a lesser sentence than agreed to. Jamin didn't even have to register as a sex offender. I had a brief email exchange with Jamin, but he declined to comment for the podcast. Doug still calls Jamin's relationship with a.

[Doug Wilson]

14 year old girl an underage consensual Relationship.

[Heath Druzen]

Rachel Shubin says her research led her to the conclusion that Doug and Christchurch were trying to minimize the impact of the scandals. And she says Doug prioritized helping abusers over looking out for victims.

[Rachel Shubin]

I was pretty horrified at how Wilson had handled all that stuff with his own churches.

[Heath Druzen]

In the end, Rachel says she heard almost nothing from the Christchurch community about the report. She says she emailed it to Doug and he said thanks, and that was that. Doug said he didn't read the report, but he denies he sweeps abuse under the rug, and he denies he helps abusers find a soft landing.

[Doug Wilson]

All the help that we provide for victims is not happening in the court. It's not happening with cameras running. It's not happening with recording devices. That's in the pastoral work of the church. Okay. And I can't go back and talk about all those things in detail without violating confidences.

[Jimmy]

But.

[Heath Druzen]

But he certainly doesn't banish the abusers. After Steven Sitler was released, Doug officiated his wedding, married him to another church member. And that brings us to a wrinkle in Stephen's case, a particularly twisted one. Stephen and his wife now have a young son. You have a diagnosed pedophile. Multiple victims, probation for life. And he now has a child who is defenseless. That's Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson at a court hearing talking about Stephen's son. A son. Stephen is legally bound to never be alone with. Mr. Sitler irresponsibly and recklessly brought this child, this innocent child, into this untenable situation. Prosecutors said Stephen admitted to being aroused by his own child during a polygraph in 2015, but there have been no allegations of him molesting his son. Doug says he has no regrets about officiating Stephen's wedding.

[Doug Wilson]

Because I believe that someone who manifestly does not have the gift of celibacy.

[Advertiser 2]

Right.

[Doug Wilson]

And the Bible teaches that an active sexual life is one of the helps toward a guard against sexual temptation. If that's the case, then this is going to help, not hurt. Okay? Now, them having a baby was a. That's a different separate question. But when I married them, they had to get the blessing of a judge to do it. The judge agreed, and I performed the wedding. So I don't. I don't have a problem with that by itself. I would do that.

[Heath Druzen]

That part again, if you're thinking that's not how it works. The research is messy. I spoke to a couple experts who said strong support networks can help keep pedophiles from offending. But they also said simply getting married is not enough. Doug Wilson handles cases like these in a little corner of his blog called Controversy Library. It's not exactly a mea culpa. It reads more like a series of explanations for why he and Christchurch did the right thing. Steven Sitler's case is in there. So is Jamin White, the guy who sexually abused a 14 year old girl. Emily Page Dye didn't even make the Controversy Library. But I think the ending of her story is notable because unfortunately there is more about Jim Nance. You might think a teacher who had to resign because of inappropriate conduct would have trouble getting an education job. Not Jim. After he resigned from Logos, he quickly landed a job at a Christchurch connected education company. And after the full story came out, he bounced to another church connected company, though not in Education. There was no legal action until years after the abuse when Emily told the former Logos superintendent what had happened. At that point, Doug got involved again. He filed a police report and for the first time, Emily spoke to the police. It was early 2017.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I spoke to the police. I then attempted suicide after speaking to the police. Backed out of it because I didn't want my parents. I was so freaked out about my parents finding out.

[Heath Druzen]

Moscow police didn't file charges then. Emily says they actually reached out to her again in 2020 to look into the case. Emily said. The officer she spoke to said Idaho law made it difficult to prosecute Nance. He was never charged. I reached out to Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dollinger to ask why. He declined to comment and told me to file a public records request for the case file. I did that and the city of Moscow denied my request, citing privacy concerns. To this day, Nance is still a member of Christchurch. So is convicted child molester Steven Sitler. In light of that, I want to share something Doug Wilson told us. I, I think it's particularly notable given that Christchurch has welcomed these wolves back to the flock.

[Doug Wilson]

We would discipline someone if I officiated a wedding and five years later the husband ran off with his secretary. Well, I was in the church where you promised not to do that and so we would excommunicate someone like that.

[Heath Druzen]

Doug says he'd kick out someone for adultery, but he welcomed back a man who molested Christchurch members and a teacher who allegedly preyed on a student. In a follow up interview, Doug says he meant that an adulterous man would be excommunicated if he didn't repent. He says Steven Sitler and Jim Nance have repented. Emily would still like to see Jim face legal consequences for what he did. And she says she's open to speaking to police again. In the meantime, she has taken back her life. She's speaking out about what happened to her, even wrote about it publicly in the online publishing platform called Medium. It's been a long process, she says. College helped.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I tried alcohol for the first time, got drunk for the first time. Just very fun. Started to make friends with non Christians, made friends with lesbians, which was really taboo.

[Heath Druzen]

Part of her still thought these otherwise friendly people were going to hell. But she had more and more trouble squaring that in her head.

[Emily Paige Dye]

And I saw them being good people. I think one of my closest friends was doing all of these incredible things, and I had so much respect for her, but she was also a lesbian. And so, like, my mind was like, how can this person be so amazing? But also like the worst. The worst by Christchurch standards.

[Heath Druzen]

So she turned her back on the church, turned her back on the belief that men should be in charge. She moved to Australia and is an analyst at a think tank. She hopes her story will reach other girls or women struggling in the Christchurch sphere.

[Emily Paige Dye]

I think there's probably nothing scarier for people like Wilson and Nance and all of the people in that community when the women that they have downtrodden and they've abused and they've taken away their voices and have told them that they must submit and obey, actually start speaking up and telling their stories.

[Heath Druzen]

Next time on Extremely American. Onward Christian Soldiers. How to take over America for Jesus. You know those ratty stores you see golden lion or whatever when you're driving? They're like adult store zoning can just keep it out. We just keep losing their applications or whatever. We'll just keep them out. They're pagans. They're wicked. We don't want that in here.

[Doug Wilson]

We want to turn the world upside down. And you don't turn the world upside down by being nice. I believe that we are in this polytheistic.

[Heath Druzen]

Extremely American was created by me, Heath Druzen. This season was written and reported by me and James Dawson. Story editing by Morgan Springer. Mixing and sound engineering by James Dawson. Fact checking by Naomi Barr. Additional reporting and special thanks to Mary Ellen Pitney, who was a big help early on and throughout the project. Shout out to Madeline Beck, Sasha Woodruff and Rachel Cohen, who lent us their ears while we were writing this season. Music from Artlist. Boise State Public Radio is our partner for this podcast with distribution by the NPR Network. This podcast is made possible through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. If you're enjoying this season, check out season one of Extremely American. It's an inside look at armed militias and how they're influencing mainstream politics. Thanks for listening.

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