Shepherds, Defend Your Flock
The Impact of Shepherds for Sale is Only Just Beginning
It’s the summer of 2017 and we all have cultural whiplash. Between the explosion of the MeToo movement and the election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land, it was not difficult to feel like we were all trapped in a poorly written reality TV show. I hadn’t heard the term “patriarchy” bandied about much since I stopped being around Riot Girls reading zines in high school, yet suddenly even nice young women without shaved heads were marching against them. Upon questioning, hardly a single one of them seemed quite able to explain why, but they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the genesis of all of their angst was a hierarchical relationship in which men were firmly on the top of the ladder.
By this point, it was normal to see Christian women online having regular conversations about the importance of “holding space” for “people of color.” So-called “empathy” particularly for the “oppressed” was treated as a given for Christian conduct. Anyone who dared ask questions like, “Who is being oppressed?” or “How is this oppression?” or “What is white privilege?” were quickly shut down as unloving or even racist. It was in these conversations that I first learned of a concept called “intersectionality” and a quick google search led me down a rabbit hole of philosophies that quickly explained all the new lingo these Christian women were using, and where, exactly, their ideas of oppression, racism, and even the “patriarchy” were coming from.
The thing I hadn’t quite figured out yet was why women from solid, biblical churches were using the same language as atheists, feminists, and otherwise explicitly anti-Christian movements. And it wasn’t just similar language—they were moving almost lock-step with the exact same talking points one could find in any secular humanities course on a university campus across the US.
In short order, it became perfectly normal for popular Christian conservatives to parrot left-leaning social justice advocates in reframing the conversation around abortion. They would often decry their fellow evangelicals as not caring about children AFTER they’re born, which, turns out, is code for “not supporting expansive government social programs.” Quickly, many popular evangelicals began to adopt the phrase “pro-life from womb to tomb,” signaling in Christianese that they, too, wanted to see the expansion of government social programs that would supposedly make it easier for those considering abortion due to economic factors to consider not killing their child in exchange for taxpayer funded healthcare, childcare, and government checks.
By the time TGC held a women’s conference in 2018 with a special meeting explicitly and only for “women of color” so that they could share their “distinct experiences”, the jig was clearly up. Major evangelical institutions had already drunk deeply from the well of Marxist philosophy. Language that had typically been reserved for social justice advocates influenced by the most insidious of philosophies, such as critical theory and intersectionality, was commonplace. In what can only be described as a massive gaslight, the people using language from these playbooks were quick to assure their followers that not only did critical theory have no influence over them, but no one also even knows what critical theory is!
That same year, TGC hosted a conference commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. A quick perusal of the recorded sessions would tell you that what the actual conference was about was slaying the giant of “white privilege” in the church. This is also where we were given Matt Chandler’s now-famous line about his recent hiring practices for his new church plant. When asked by the person helping him find a potential pastor for the plant, “If we find an Anglo 8, and an African American 7, which one would you want?” He responded, “I want the African American 7.”
Later in 2018, Nate Collins, an alumnus of the largest seminary in the US, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, would found Revoice, a group formed with the explicit aim to encourage “gay/same sex attracted” Christians. This group has gone on to normalize the idea that unrepentant homosexuals are some of the most faithful Christians in the pew.
By 2019, it was standard for major conservative evangelical institutions to produce content that pushed the ideas of leftists social engineers, albeit with more of a “love your neighbor” twist. Love your neighbor, be quiet if you’re white. Love your neighbor, accept homosexuality in the pews. Love your neighbor, let women lead the church. It’s not so shocking that in 2020, when the next “love your neighbor” dropped (wear a mask, get this jab) evangelicals largely fell in line when it came to the Covid-19 pandemic. After all, under the guise of loving neighbor, we had been selling out for years.
If it seems as though I’ve been all over the place so far because I’ve mentioned racism, abortion, so-called gay-christianity, and the patriarchy, it is because the leftist assault on Christianity has been multifaceted by design. Saul Alinsky’s rule number 8 for radicals that want to change the very face of a nation is this:
“Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
Ultimately, each of these issues are social issues; they have to do with how we interact with each other. What moral obligation does a Christian have to their black neighbor, their unborn neighbor, their “same-sex attracted” neighbor? What obligations exist between a man and his wife, or between all men and all women? These are the very questions of what it means to be a person that is moving through the world; since we know that we have a duty before God to love our neighbor, these issues matter. Many Christians fear being accused of a failure to love their neighbor, and if it isn’t obvious by now, enemies both inside and outside the church are acutely aware of this.
In the introduction to Shepherds for Sale, Megan Basham outlines how the Communist party infiltrated mainline denominations between 1920 and 1950 through pastors, which the communists referred to as “the biggest suckers of them all.” It is not a secret that any of this happened, but in our typical modern-day hubris, we tend to think it couldn’t possibly still be happening to us today. “What leftward drift?” they type into their Twitter feeds before inviting us to join their “Evangelicals for Harris” #faithvoters #christiansforharris Zoom call.
Shepherds for Sale hadn’t been on the shelves for 24 hours before a fully edited and well-produced response video was available for your viewing pleasure. Gavin Ortlund, who was not accused of being “for sale”, and was mentioned in a total of 7 out of 30 pages in the first chapter, immediately uploaded a video to his YouTube channel with a thumbnail of a grumpy-looking Megan Basham alongside a pretending-to-be-shocked Gavin with the words “SHE’S TALKING ABOUT ME” (yes, in all caps).
While Ortlund was mentioned in the chapter, you’d be hard-pressed to come away from actually reading the content believing that he was in any way the point of the chapter. Interestingly, the full court press of Ortlund and his followers was unleashed, announcing that this book was full of errors and misprints. No need to read this rag if you can even stomach chapter one! Is it a coincidence that Ortlund’s fellow “minister in residence” at Immanuel Nashville, Russell Moore, is a major player in chapter two because of his involvement with the Evangelical Immigration Table (a group that has been majorly funded by George Soros’ Open Society)? Or perhaps many would not like you to read on to chapter 3, which details Moore’s strange lack of excitement about the reversal of Roe v Wade? Perhaps Moore’s co belligerents would not want you to read on to chapter 7, which details Moore’s less than ideal involvement in several abuse cover-ups in the SBC?
If you’ve been taking notes, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the release of Shepherds for Sale, which clearly outlines the ways in which large evangelical institutions have been intentionally influenced by leftist political aims over the last several years, has felt like someone has finally taken a match to a powder keg. While the proof of the leftward drift has been evident to anyone also capable of reading The Cat in the Hat for years, Basham has given us the receipts. And now we must begin asking the questions.
Why are major Christian institutions seemingly interested in finding corruption amongst their own ranks via the #ChurchToo movement but vehemently opposed to dealing with the content of Basham’s book past chapter one, which clearly outlines plenty of corruption in their ranks? Further, why does there seem to be a concerted effort to paint Basham as a poor journalist shilling for Trump? (For the answer here, see Saul Alinsky’s Rule #12). Why are pastors with ties to organizations like TGC assuring us that this book is not needed for the average Christian in the pew? Why are we being assured this is just a mere distraction from real work?
Surely the work of being a shepherd involves much care and tenderness. It must also involve being willing to take up arms against wolves. If the nerve required to stare down wolves amongst the sheep is a qualifying characteristic of a pastor, wouldn’t it follow that shepherds who are fearful or unnecessarily rattled at the first unveiling of a controversy be the shepherds least needed in our current cultural moment?
The hoopla around Shepherds for Sale has helped it climb to the bestsellers list. In terms of Basham’s ability to make muddy waters clear, it is well-deserved. This book is going to accomplish more than that, however. For too long, modern Christians have not been known for their wisdom and discernment. The world does not stand in awe of our love for neighbor—it is much more common for them (and for the evangelical elites) to decry us as hypocrites. Unbelievers who read this book looking for one more reason to despise Christians are in for a taste of an unrelenting allegiance to Scripture as the standard for what it truly means to love thy neighbor. She never misses an opportunity to remind the reader of the Gospel and the supremacy of Scripture as our ultimate authority when it comes to our orthodoxy and our orthopraxy.
It has not been uncommon to hear that we must first interrogate our own before looking outward for problems in the larger culture. Yes, and Amen. Shepherds for Sale has come along to do just that. Now we are left to wonder why the first major interlocutor against the leftward drift of conservative evangelicals has elicited calls for repentance and retraction before the average person has even had time to crack the spine. I think the answer is clear, and it has a lot to do with spine.
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