Ms. Basham’s subtitle for her book presents the essence of the book’s contents: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda.
Megan Basham is a published author and culture reporter for the The Daily Wire. She is a frequent contributor to the Morning Wire, one of the top ten news podcasts in the United States. She has written for WORLD magazine, the Spectator, the Wall Street Journal, First Things, National Review, and the Telegraph. Even before the book was released on July 30, 2024, the podcasts interviews and speaking engagements discussing the contents of the book stirred considerable of controversy and backlash from several evangelical church leaders and organizations about whom she wrote. However, the truth of the facts, narrative, and conclusions presented in the book are supported by extensive research and meticulous documentation (53 pages containing 640 endnotes in the 319 page book).
In her book Basham identifies well-funded forces outside of the church that set out to change American evangelical churches with regard to their biblical beliefs that stood in the way of achieving political change within American culture. Those power brokers include George Soros, members of the Obama administration, the founder of eBay, and a host of other wealthy and/or influential left-wing organizations and individuals. Through their secular, well-funded foundations, think tanks, non-profits, non-governmental organizations, as well as left-leaning federal government agencies and complicit national media, the progressive left deliberately devised campaigns to infiltrate and dramatically influence well-known individuals and organizations in the American evangelical church: nationally-recognized faith leaders, Christian media, universities, megachurches, nonprofit organizations, para-church organizations, and entire denominations and their subsidiaries.
Why is the left so determined to influence the American evangelical church and its associated organizations? The reason is found in a quote from Basham’s Introduction.
Around 32 percent of the U.S. electorate describe themselves as evangelical, and the vast majority of that group leans right. Among Americans who describe themselves as conservatives, Protestant evangelicals are the single largest religious group by 23 points…
Look at any issue that represents a key priority for progressives, and you will find that even when all other major demographics have signed on, Christians, and evangelicals in particular, represent the most formidable roadblock. Whether it’s the LGBTQ movement, climate changed, or illegal immigration, again and again, polling research shows that evangelicals still stand as a fortress in the way of the political left. Indeed, they often stand in the way of the political right as well, earning the ire of many GOP…[1]
In the early 2000s, foundations funded by secular billionaires began to speak earnestly, if not very openly, about how to take down this fortress.[2]
In 2010, one of those progressive left-leaning foundations issued a report targeting the roadblock they faced in advancing the agenda of the gay lobby. But rather than continuing to unsuccessfully oppose churches in their stance against homosexuality, they would need to undermine their biblical stance again homosexuality, and that change must be instigated by the leadership in the American evangelical church and affiliated organizations. The report stated, “LGBTI organizations need to appropriate Christian values for a progressive rights agenda.”[3] (emphasis added by Basham) Eventually, in addition to politically advancing the LGBTI agenda, the progressive infiltrators used these tactics in advancing climate change, illegal immigration, the #MeToo Movement to include #ChurchToo, Critical Race Theory, Covid-19 propaganda, and hijacking the Pro-life Movement and Christian media (e.g., Christianity Today).
Megan Basham’s book tracks and courageously reports the efforts and successes of the progressives in the infiltration of their non-biblical agenda into the hearts, minds, and pulpits of many evangelical leaders and pastors. In a section titled “Wolves, Cowards, Mercenaries, and Fools,” Basham writes:
The question is: Why have so many well-known evangelical institutions and leaders in recent years started promoting causes that no plain reading of Scripture would demand, like lobbying for fossil fuel regulations or dismantling white privilege, while issues that unequivocally call for Christian clarity find them silent and stymied? When the guy who created the Christian children’s program VeggieTales starts arguing that evangelicals should take a more “nuanced” position on abortion, and when successive presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention say the Bible only “whispers” about sexual sins, something is badly off in mainstream evangelicalism.[4]
Basham identifies many others individuals and organizations who have been influenced by the progressive left’s agenda and have strayed from the biblical foundations in recent years. The following list contains only a fraction of the people and organizations identified by that Basham in her book:
Francis Chan, Francis Collins, J. D. Greear, Bill Hybels, Tim Keller, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Russell Moore, Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, Evangelical Climate Initiative, Evangelical Environmental Network, Southern Baptist Convention, Ethics and Religious Liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, National Association of Evangelicals, Charisma magazine, Christianity Today.
In 1984, theologian Francis Schaeffer published The Great Evangelical Disaster, in which he wrote of his concern that evangelical groups were accommodating and surrendering themselves and their churches to the spirit of the age. He wrote:
Here the gospel has been reduced to a program for transforming social structures. This is the Marxist line. It does not mean that those who take this position are Communists. But it does mean they have a complete confusion of the kingdom of God with basic socialistic concepts. In back of this stands the Enlightenment idea of the perfectibility of man if only the cultural and economic chains are removed.
But think further what this means theologically. What has happened to the fall and sin? Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA) seem to be saying that changing economic structures is the means of salvation for modern man since only this deals with the basic “cause of the disease.” Ironically their program is not radical enough! The basic problem is that of the fall and sin and heart of man. The basic problem is much deeper than social structures, and by not recognizing this, ESA ends up with an understanding of salvation which is very different from what the Scriptures teach.[5]
Written forty-one years ago, Schaeffer’s prescient warning has been ignored by the majority in 21st century American evangelicalism which is surrendering to the Great Apostasy described by the Apostle Paul. This great falling away was prophesied to be fulfilled at the end of the last days just before the catching away of the church by the Lord. Every sign of the times now points to the fact that the world is nearing the end of the last days of the Church age which is to be concluded by the rapture or catching away of the Church, both living and dead.
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.[ (emphasis added) [2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. NIV]
The “rebellion” (Gk apostasia), which literally means “departure,” “falling away” or “abandonment,” must come before the rapture of the church occurs and before the antichrist is subsequently revealed. The rebellion that occurs within the church will have two dimensions:
• Theological apostasy – People turning from and rejecting part or all of the true and original teachings of Christ and the apostles as recorded in the New Testament.
• Moral apostasy – People who have abandoned true faith in Christ may still claim to believe the right things and to accept the Bible’s teaching, yet they reject God’s moral law and standards. By doing so they corrupt and embrace the deception.[6]
The facts, narrative, and conclusions presented in Shepherds for Sale – How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda is abundant and undeniable evidence of the great theological and moral apostasy within a large majority of the leadership of the American evangelical church, many of whom have become wolves, cowards, mercenaries, and fools.
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] Megan Basham, Shepherds for Sale – How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, (New York: Broadside Books, 2024), p. xviii.
[2] Ibid., p. xix.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., p. xxi.
[5] Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, (Arcadia, California: Focus on the Family, 1984),
[6] Donald C. Stamps, Commentary and Articles, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Ed. Donald C.Stamps, (Springfield, Missouri: Life Publishers International, 2009), pp. 2322-2323.
