After Evan left the church (the brothers remain estranged), Doug continued exploring niche theological movements, taking a particular interest in a fundamentalist Calvinist movement that seeks to establish “theonomy”, a kind of Christian governance. His fiefdom in Idaho now counts about 3,000 people across three churches, and his followers – known as “kirkers” – are increasingly flexing their muscle in local politics and land-use disputes, and CREC has grown to 150 churches worldwide. Meanwhile, Wilson built a business empire promoting CCE books, schools and home-schooling materials that grew his influence in the more mainstream evangelical world.

Wilson’s views are extreme, even for the Christian right. A staunch proponent of “biblical patriarchy”, he advocates for wives to submit to their husbands, for parents to inflict “painful” discipline on children, and for boys to be taught the “theology of fist fighting”.

Wilson is opposed to women’s right to vote. He is not opposed to the death penalty for homosexuality. He describes himself as a Christian nationalist and wants “to take over the world for Christ”, Ingersoll said. “The whole world is going to become Christian, and that version of civilization is filled with all kinds of really powerful, strong punishments for people who don’t agree or go along.”

His praise of the Christian governance of the Confederate States of America has led some critics to call him a neo-Confederate, but he prefers the term “paleo-Confederate”. In 1996, he co-authored an apologia for the antebellum south that characterized slavery as “a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence” and abolitionists as being “driven by a zealous hatred of the Word of God”. The book was withdrawn over allegations of plagiarism, but Wilson returned to the topic in 2005’s Black and Tan, in which he argued that southern slavery was “far more humane than that of ancient Rome” and that southern Christian enslavers were “on firm scriptural ground”.

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