Doug Wilson has a white beard and a round belly, and is therefore somewhat Santa-like in appearance. He does not seem at all like someone who delivers denunciations of homosexuality and women’s suffrage, and who takes an ambivalent position on the subject of pre–Civil War slavery.

On a recent Sunday morning, Wilson preached from the lectern at a conference center near Washington, D.C. The Idaho pastor’s sermon was mostly an academic examination of Ephesians 3:1–6 and its offering of God’s salvation. In this setting, at least, he skipped the hellfire rhetoric for which he’s known, making no reference to his theocratic vision of America’s future or his belief that the apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation already took place—and is enabling a project of global Christian conquest. Th

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