I've Read Basham's Book and I Have Some Thoughts

Christian “TwiXter” (I will not call it “X”) is abuzz lately with talk of a hot new book that just debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.  It's Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham's book Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda.

Why am I talking about this book?  Well, for one, I’m in it. (Once for stating that conversations about topics like abortion needed nuance, and again for signing a statement with 9000 other evangelicals in support of the COVID vaccine. Two apparent signs that I have succumbed to a “leftist agenda.”) 

But I've been intrigued by the premise of the book for months now as Basham (a person I've interacted with so much on TwiXter that we’re probably by now official “frenemies”) had been describing the upcoming release with very colorful language.  Here's a sampler from Basham's social media feed and the book's Amazon sales page:

"How deeply have leftist billionaires infiltrated America's churches?”

"Through years of investigation, Basham uncovered compromise at the highest levels of evangelical leadership”

"For years, the American Church has been overrun with leaders who are selling out their ministries to the highest bidders, giving wolves access to their sheep in exchange for elite respectability.”

"Rather than the truth of Scripture, high-profile pastors are preaching trendy social causes and reaping the spoils of the media's adulation.”

"Who is being bought and who is doing the buying? … I’m naming names and bringing receipts.”

"You WILL learn which leaders and ministries are pimping their pulpits, cozying up to leftist sugardaddies, and embracing the world's oldest profession."

Yep. It's fun stuff. Prostitution and Leftists and sugardaddies, oh my!

If we go by the marketing copy and Basham's own statements, we would expect to hold in our hands an exposé of corrupt pastors and ministry leaders who have accepted cash and favors in exchange for adopting whatever views their new "leftist" overlords request. We would expect that, in fact, because that is what Basham has promised. And that would, indeed, be a scandal worth exposing.

So... what does the book actually deliver? Let me summarize the contents of each chapter, both what Basham believes to be the correct position for a Christian to hold, and what she has “uncovered’ instead in the church that convinces her we are in crisis:

Chapter 1: Climate Change

Basham's Position: Christians should oppose to ANY government action on climate change. If individual Christians desire to care about the environment—recycle more, compost—that's fine. But nothing at a scale that would require legislation, or, in particular, coordinated global action.

Crisis in the Church: Some evangelical leaders believe climate change is an issue that REQUIRES government action. Conservative seminaries have hosted guest speakers who’ve presented climate change as a serious threat requiring serious action, without giving climate change-skeptics an opportunity to refute. One guest speaker went so far as to describe climate change as a "gospel issue” and suggested students purchase carbon credits for their travel.  

Ministries that believe climate change is a crisis have received funds from foundations that believe climate change is a crisis and have used those funds for efforts to convince Christians that climate change is a crisis.

Chapter 2: Illegal Immigration

Basham's Position: Christians should oppose ANY effort to provide a path to citizenship for ANY immigrants currently living in the country illegally, and must advocate for policies that will stop illegal immigration entirely.

Crisis in the Church: There's a thing called the Evangelical Immigration Table that was started by a number of respected evangelical institutions (including World Relief, the Southern Baptist policy team at the ERLC, and even arch-conservative Focus on the Family) to lobby for immigration reform. Over the years, the EIT has supported bipartisan legislative efforts that would have, among other things, provided a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently living and working the US.

Making matters worse, it appears at least some of the EIT’s funding has come from the secular National Immigration Forum, a group that in turn was funded by none other than (I’ll give you one guess—did you guess George Soros?) George Soros.

Chapter 3: The Meaning of "Pro-Life"

Basham's Position: Christians should consider abortion the greatest moral evil of our age and the #1 priority when voting.

Crisis in the Church: Some evangelical leaders say things like, "We want to be pro-life cradle-to-grave" and "gun violence is also a pro-life issue," and "access to healthcare is also a pro-life issue,” and “climate change is also a pro-life issue.”  This is diluting the meaning of the term "pro-life," which could dilute the pro-life movement and impede the effort to ban all abortion.

Chapter 4: Christian Media

(This chapter should really be titled, “Christianity Today has gone Woke!”)

Basham's Position: All evangelical Christian media should prioritize the issues that are important to politically-conservative evangelicals.

Crisis in the Church: Christianity Today doesn’t appear to be sufficiently committed to the priorities of today's conservatives. They don't talk about the dangers of transgenderism, or speak of abortion as the greatest moral evil, or mention the negative effects of illegal immigration. They think climate change is a serious problem. Several of their editorial staff have donated money to Democratic candidates. (Supporting political candidates is, in fact, a violation of journalistic ethics. CT did not have an explicit rule against it. They do now.) 

Christianity Today is out of sync with today’s politically-conservative evangelicals. Furthermore, CT has received significant funding from the Lilly Endowment, which also supports Christian organizations outside the evangelical world. (Read: Liberal.) 

Elsewhere in religious media, Religion News Service (not an evangelical group) is far too liberal, and the Trinity Forum works with too many questionable characters like David French and Michael Wear who, like CT, are out of step with today’s conservative movement.

Chapter 5: Covid

Basham's Position: Covid was, by and large, a con job foisted on the American people by Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci. Everything about the response was wrong (origin theory, lockdowns, masking, vaccines, etc.), and not just "wrong," but also in some sense diabolical. Fauci and Collins didn't just make mistakes—they are evil men.

Crisis in the Church: Evangelical leaders partnered with the CDC and the NIH to spread the government's "propaganda" (Basham's term) about the virus. They hosted Collins on podcasts. They supported the shutdowns, the masking, the vaccine. Some even said following public health guidelines during a global pandemic was a way to show we "loved our neighbors."

Chapter 6: Critical Race Theory

Basham's Position: Critical Race Theory is Marxist and evil.  The flurry of efforts to pursue diversity, economic and racial justice, etc. that emerged in the summer of 2020 were based on CRT and therefore also Marxist and evil. Christians shouldn’t listen to racial justice activists. They should listen to conservative economist Thomas Sowell.

Crisis in the Church: At the peak of the racial reckoning in 2020, many pastors and leaders started reading and talking about racial justice. They sometimes used language from books or speakers closely associated with CRT. (Kendi, DiAngelo, etc.)  White evangelicals were encouraged to "confess their white privilege" and "repent" of their involvement in systemic racism.

Chapter 7: "Me, Too" Movement

Basham's Position: "The Me, Too" movement went way too far. We can't simply "believe women," because women sometimes lie and can also be complicit.

Crisis in the Church: The SBC adopted a process to deal with it's own abuse scandal that borrowed ideas from the secular "Me, Too" movement and relied too heavily on "victimhood," listening to women uncritically, and failing to consider their complicity. Furthermore, the SBC’s utilization of a particular outside entity to advise and manage their response was riddled with conflicts of interest.

Chapter 8: LGBTQ Stuff

Basham's Position:  All homosexual activity is sinful.  Same-sex attraction itself is also sinful, even if it isn't acted upon.  Becoming a Christian and being sanctified puts you on a path to freedom from same-sex attraction. Putting on the "new self" means taking off the gay self. There is no such thing as a "gay Christian.”

Crisis in the Church: Mostly Andy Stanley. But also Rick Warren and a little bit JD Greear. A few prominent mega-church pastors have softened their language or even rethought their assumptions about homosexuality, positing that being same-sex attracted may be more of an inherited condition (to be managed, for example, through celibacy) than a sinful state to be changed through sanctification. Perhaps, they suggest, there can be a celibate, gay Christian, active in the life of the church. 

Author/activist Matthew Vine goes much further and hopes to change the evangelical view that homosexual activity is sinful. He would like the evangelical church to become fully LGBT-affirming. Vine has received  funding from a pro-LGBT foundation.

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That, in a nutshell, is the book. The chapter on LGBT issues is really the only one that presents instances where prominent evangelical pastors appear to be shifting or rethinking theological positions. That's a legitimate conversation to have. We should be asking why positions are shifting and if the shifts are biblically-justifiable. (Are the shifts inspired by new biblical insights, new scientific insights, or by a strong desire to see LGBT friends and family welcomed into the life of the church?)

Every other chapter in Basham’s book is really about a social issue, a public policy or an approach to achieving a perceived common good. What's the best way to respond to climate change? Help immigrants? Reduce innocent death, either by abortion or by gun? Address racial and economic inequity? Respond to claims of abuse in the church?

These issues flow less out of clear biblical admonition (Jesus gave very little direction regarding carbon credits or refugee resettlement programs), and more out of the clear biblical call to love our neighbors. And how best to love our neighbors in these areas—how to reduce abortion, aid refugees, minimize mass displacement due to climate change, etc.—isn’t always clear in Scripture. 

We need to wrestle with various arguments, consider the data, and listen to people who have studied the questions in depth. And even after that, we may—and probably will—come to different conclusions and propose different solutions. Some of the solutions may code "right" in our current political environment, others may code "left." I believe Jesus would ask, "Why is that even a thing you're thinking about? Just try your best to help those least able to help themselves.”

Something else you'll notice after reading Shepherds for Sale: Relatively little of the content has to do with the original premise.  Remember the premise? That leaders are "selling out their ministries to the highest bidders" and pastors are "pimping their pulpits?” Basham simply fails to present evidence of ANY leader or pastor changing their position on a social issue or theological conviction IN ORDER TO receive money or curry “media adulation.” Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Do non-profit organizations apply for grants to fund activities? Absolutely. That's how a big chunk of the non-profit world works. COULD that create a case where a ministry compromises their goals or beliefs in order to receive funding? Sure. Does Basham provide ANY hard evidence of this happening anywhere in her book?  She does not.

And then we get to the conclusion of Basham's book, where things get a little, well... intense. Suddenly we aren't talking about policy positions on refugee resettlement or carbon credits. Suddenly we're in a battle with Satan.

Quoting Basham at length:

"Many forces are trying to claim American churches for many agendas, but ultimately there's only one force, one agenda. We do not battle against flesh and blood. Satan's wolves in sheep's clothing secretly slip into the church for one reason: to prevent it from snatching more souls out of the fire.” (p 237)

Yes, you read that correctly. The guest speaker who promoted carbon credits at a Southern Baptist seminary - is he one of "Satan's wolves” in Basham’s thinking, sent into the church not to talk about carbon credits but instead to be used by the Evil One to pull poor seminary students closer to Hell? (With nothing but their freshly-purchased carbon credits to soothe their parched tongues?) The Evangelical Immigration Table members lobbying for immigration reform—unwitting tools of Satan? Are they working to welcome “huddles masses” into America, or into Hell?

At some point you wonder, "Wait... am I being punk'd? Is this an SNL skit? How did we jump from differing opinions over climate mitigation directly to Satan's evil desire for none of us to spend eternity with God?”

This is, in fact, a good question. One the book does not attempt to answer.

Instead, Basham carries the ball of righteous indignation across the goal line with a William Wallace-esque call to arms:

"Now is our moment... to stand in defense of the Gospel against foreign doctrines that have come into the church.”

"Open war is upon us and has been for a number of years. But we possess a power that no other in the world can rival.”

"Because unlike any other targeted demographic, we have the objective source of truth. We have a North Star that pulls us back when we wander too far afield.... We have the Word that is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword." (pp 241-243)

Yes, conservative evangelicals, we are the only "demographic" in possession of objective truth.  And with God’s Word in hand, we can defend the Gospel and defeat Satan's evil plans for... (checks notes)… carbon credits and immigration reform.

Yep. Shepherds for Sale. It's quite a ride.

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[Additional Notes:  There is also the matter of the multitudinous misquotes, misrepresentations and misattributions in the book. Wildly inaccurate stats about World Relief’s refugee resettlement income and the crime rates of illegal immigrants. “Quoting” an NAE board member’s disparaging comments about the association’s involvement in a teen pregnancy program—a program the NAE engaged in 3 years after the board member’s death.  Etc., etc.  These has been the focus of MUCH attention on TwiXter, so I will not engage with them here.  

But even more disturbing, to me at least, is Basham’s unyieldingly low view of the motives of virtually every person and institution named in the book.  In Basham’s world, no one takes a view contrary to hers with a pure heart or good intentions.  The subjects of her writing are, almost without exception, compromising their Christian faith for personal gain.  They are seeking “the media’s adulation.”  “Elite respectability.” Or just plain filthy lucre.  Yes, the book exhibits a vast array of factual and journalistic crimes and misdemeanors.  Yes, the transition from favoring carbon credits to working as Satan’s minion is as nonsensical as it sounds.  But at it’s very core, Shepherds for Sale is a profoundly cynical work.]