Controversial Idaho pastor Doug Wilson’s school gears up to build ‘Charlie Kirk Memorial Track and Field’
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Alexandra Duggan, The Spokesman-Review
MOSCOW (The Spokesman-Review) — A controversial traditional Christian school founded in Moscow is preparing to build a track and field stadium to memorialize conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The Logos School, founded by self-described Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson in 1981, is in the process of building its new 30-acre campus in northeast Moscow that includes the field. Its board approved naming the field after Kirk earlier this month, the school announced in a news release earlier this week. The school defines itself as teaching “a classical education in a Christian context.”
Initial renderings published online show the school’s new sports stadium will host an eight-lane track, 2,500 seats, an alumni fieldhouse, locker rooms, concessions and miscellaneous storage. The western entrance will feature Kirk’s name above the breezeway, the renderings show. It’s part of a continuing expansion of the school, which is enrolling around 700 students from grades K-12.
Logos was founded in the years after the formation of Christ Church, a traditionally conservative church part of the “Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches,” or “CREC” – a larger congregation that Wilson also helped found. Though the school is its own entity, it has close ties with Wilson’s church.
Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder known for his public political debates, was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem last year. Kirk was an outspoken Christian whose faith was at the center of many of his political debates. He believed the country should be a Christian nation, NPR reported. His death prompted hundreds of memorials across the U.S. and spurred one of his allies, President Donald Trump, to order all flags at half-staff following his death.
Kirk was also controversial for his views about a multitude of other issues, like implying a Black pilot was unqualified, saying he would want his 10-year-old daughter to still deliver a child conceived out of rape, claiming gun rights are “worth” some deaths every year and saying the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was “a huge mistake.”
Four months before Kirk was killed, he appeared on stage with Wilson at a Moscow theater for a live recording of “Man Rampant,” Wilson’s YouTube series. In the video, the two explore a number of political topics, like abortion, immigration and religious issues. In another video after Kirk’s killing, Wilson makes a plea to his viewers on a different YouTube channel of his to pray for Kirk’s children.
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“Ask the Lord to sustain them, and that they may grow up knowing in their bones that their father had not abandoned them, but had died in battle defending them,” Wilson said.
The Logos School said in the release that Kirk exemplifies their standards of gratitude, excellence and sacrifice.
“It was due to the example Charlie Kirk set in all three of those categories that made leaders of the school want to honor his memory,” the release said.
Aaron Rench, a Logos board member, said Wednesday via text message that Logos does not often name buildings after influential people.
“So it’s a very meaningful thing for the Logos community that this facility is being named after Charlie,” Rench wrote. “Our goal for this athletic complex is that it be a training ground for learning how to sacrifice for others; a place where our students, and our entire community, internalize the spirit of ‘my life for yours.’ ”
Wilson has long planned a strategic takeover to make Moscow, a college town, into a Christian town of his liking. He has faced criticism for decades for his co-authored book about slavery, in which he claims the relationship between Black enslaved people and their white owners were affectionate and in harmony, even “godly” in some instances. His previous statements about barring same-sex marriage and his comments about women, like referring to the Super Bowl as a “skankfest,” have drawn pushback and protests from the local University of Idaho students that live there.
He’s also faced criticism over his belief that women should not serve in combat roles. The congregation has posted online that its denomination is “uniformly hostile” to abortion, gay marriage, “the leftist agenda” and women participating in combat. Wilson’s own church also bars women from serving in any leadership roles, and women are banned from serving on the Logos School board. The board is currently made up of 10 men, according to its website.
One of them is Andrew Crapuchettes, the founder of RedBalloon, a company that describes itself as “America’s non-woke job board.”
“We are so grateful for Charlie’s legacy,” Crapuchettes said in the news release. “We don’t want it forgotten, and we want to honor it with something lasting and beautiful. For decades to come, as our students learn to sacrifice and pursue excellence from a place of gratitude, they will know they are following Charlie Kirk’s example. He was our brother in Christ and a tremendous ally to believers everywhere.”
The U.S. Department of State recently signed a contract with one of Crapuchettes’ company subsidiaries, Military Hire, to find better “cultural fits,” Mother Jones reported. But the government turning to Wilson’s affiliates is not out of the norm – U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited Wilson himself to Washington, D.C., earlier this year to lead the Pentagon’s newly formed prayer service. Hegseth is a member of Wilson’s larger congregation, CREC.
Hegseth also spoke at Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona last year. He called the activist “a patriot, a conservative, a leader, a builder, an advocate, an author, a lover of freedom” and “a husband, a father, a Christian.”
The push to memorialize Kirk in writing already reached Idaho once this year when a conservative Christian lobbyist pushed to rename a state highway after him. The Idaho Statesman reported in April the proposal to lawmakers fell short when they couldn’t agree on “which approach was best.”