Biblical Proportions

WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR that the invisible tentacles of the pandemic would spare no one, not even people in remote North Idaho, the leader of one controversial church knew the word of God could pause for nothing.

So Doug Wilson pivoted. Christ Church — a popular Communion of Reformed Evangelical church in liberal Moscow, Idaho — took things outside, in compliance with social distancing restrictions put in place by Idaho Gov. Brad Little. Sunday services looked like drive-in movies: Wilson preaching on a raised wooden platform in a yellowing field to a line of sedans and SUVs and minivans, parishioners honking their hallelujahs.

The church also recorded indoor services and uploaded the videos to its YouTube page, which has over 870 subscribers. In a recording from April 1, Wilson — a bearded 67-year-old, professorial in a sweater vest and necktie — told those watching that they should not seek a return to normal, everyday, pre-COVID-19 life when restrictions lifted, presumably in May. “In mid-May we will be just days away from Pride month. Pride month. A time of LGBTQ celebrations. Now, is that what we mean by back to normal? … Back to Pride month?” he asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to call it ‘dog returning to its vomit’ month? Isn’t that what it is?”

For Wilson, this was typical sermon material. The pulpit is where he talks politics, abortion, the need for wives to be subservient to their husbands, his belief that same-sex marriage is a sin and that Christians have a continual duty to repent. His views have long been the subject of heated debate in Moscow — a college town he intends to be