Last night Jenni and I watched Doug Wilson’s new 90-minute film: The Free Speech Apocalypse (Amazon). Then I listened to it again this afternoon.

It releases in November. Doug Wilson blogged about it two days ago.

Here’s a 3-minute preview:

Some thoughts:

1. The film is witty. Several times we laughed out loud. The above preview captures one of those moments. Students chant, “Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Douglas Wilson, go away!” An interviewer repeats this charge, and Doug calmly replies, “Right, and it’s stated in such a way as to rhyme.” Or, “A racist is anyone who is winning an argument with a liberal.” Or, “This is not the first time I’ve run into the tolerance buzzsaw.” Or more soberly, “You can’t take your chainsaw to the orchard and then go out in the fall and ask, ‘Where are my apples?'”
2. It brought back memories from 2012 when Jenni and I watched videos of Doug Wilson controversially addressing sexuality to a group on Indiana University’s campus. Students hypocritically yelled hateful slurs at Wilson for his “hate speech.” They intolerantly castigated him for being “intolerant.” (The Free Speech Apocalypse features some footage from that event.)
3. An academic book that makes many of the same points this film does is D. A. Carson’s The Intolerance of Tolerance. If you haven’t read it, add it to your reading queue. A similar but more popular-level book releases later this month: Albert Mohler, We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong.
4. Like the film Collision, which features Doug Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, this film is fast-paced, fascinating, and creative. (Darren Doane directed both films.) Sometimes it’s a little too fast-paced for me. A few times I found it hard to keep up with the swiftly changing footage and soundbites.
5. Warning: This film is not appropriate for some contexts (e.g., church services or young children). Several times it includes coarse language (usually from disrespectful, arrogant, incoherent college students) or brief immodest images.
6. Doug Wilson is brilliant, and he communicates brilliantly. That’s a rare combination. I’ve said before that when I read or hear Doug Wilson, he usually evokes one of three responses: (a) I strongly agree. Witty, pithy, insightful. I wish I would’ve written or said that. (b) I strongly agree, but an improved tone could win others over. (Think Tim Keller.) (c) I strongly disagree, and the tone is off-putting. (For example, in 2012 he called the NIV a “gender bender” translation, asking, “Who wants a Bible translation with hormone shots and breast implants?”) The Free Speech Apocalypse evokes mainly the first response—at least for me. It would probably evoke the third response for many political liberals and non-Christians.
7. This film reminded me of a 10-minute exchange between Doug Wilson and John Piper in February 2012. John Piper’s instinct is to respond to cultural sins with tears of sorrow, and Doug Wilson’s instinct is to respond with stinging satire. Piper is a weeping prophet, and Wilson is a taunting prophet. Wilson is a poke-you-in-the-eye-with-a-stick prophet—like Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal. There’s a place for that, and Wilson is gifted at it. That 10-minute exchange between Wilson and Piper occurs in this video from 1:49:00 to 1:58:30:

https://vimeo.com/50719419