"It's just a feeling, and things that people say or don't say," Crouch says about an undercurrent of racism that she's found in Moscow. "I told my husband when he asked me to marry him that he would never get elected."

The two met, says Crouch, at a Moscow Chamber of Commerce meeting. There was an immediate attraction. "We were color blind," she says, "but my family was not at all happy ... and some are still not." She says her husband's family was much more accepting.

Jeff Crouch has already moved to Norwich, Conn., where he will teach criminal justice classes and be a program director at Three River Community College. Barbara Crouch's last day with LEDC was Tuesday. She left Wednesday with her children to be with her husband and take a new job.

"I clearly wanted to get the hell out of Dodge 18 months ago," says Crouch, recalling how the controversy over what she believes to be Wilson's racist writings and statements became the subject of public debate.

Wilson co-authored the booklet "Southern Slavery: As it was," which provides a biblical defense of slavery. Wilson also recently published a second book, titled "Black and Tan: Essays and Exursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America." In the book's epilogue, Wilson writes:

"We are trinitarian Christians, and our absolute trust is in the Word of God. We are biblical absolutists. So the egalitarians are outraged because we say it was possible for a godly man to be a slave owner -- because that is what the Bible says. And the white separatists are infuriated by us because we won't echo their follies on racial intermarriage -- because the standard they advance is found nowhere in the Scripture."

Crouch says she was taken aback when only a few outspoken people were upset by what Wilson wrote about slavery.

"The first thing I want to say is that there are some wonderful, wonderful people here in Latah County," says Crouch, who at her job with LEDC was charged with helping diversify and strengthen the local economy.

"It's that just regular people won't say this is a racist thing." And while Crouch says many good people belong to Wilson's church, she's disappointed they don't take their pastor to task about his views on race.

"It just floored me," Wilson says of Crouch's public declaration that she didn't want to raise her family here. "That just came out of left field."

Wilson says Crouch apparently bought into the rhetoric of his detractors.

"Basically, we had a lot of people looking for rocks to throw," Wilson says, "and they found the race rock."

Christ Church, New St. Andrews College and other local properties with which Wilson is connected, continue to be the source of debate over zoning and tax-exempt status.

"They want to make everyone live by their idea of Christianity. Ultimately, if you say you're a church or school, you're above zoning," Crouch says.