Needed: Christians Who Understand Our Times
Protestants Must Navigate Today’s Biggest Challenges
Big Eva still doesn’t seem to know what time it is. Despite the obvious attempts at a rehabilitation tour, they are still mired in bad thinking and an inability to see political reality. From former SBC President JD Greear continuing to mouth platitudes that were already stale 15 years ago to an apparent case of church excommunication over a perfectly normal opinion on H-1B visas, they are proving yet again why new institutions, leaders, and pastors are needed to meet the needs of congregants in Protestant churches across America.
In a case that was reported by The Blaze, entrepreneur Daniel Keene was reprimanded by his elders for the following post: “We have to cancel the H-1Bs. I want my kids to grow up in America. Not India.” The since-deleted post featured a video of a block party that Indian immigrants who live in his neighborhood were attending. For that single post, The Blaze’s Sebastian Pestritto reports, “Keene and his family were subjected to doxxing and threats, his business was review-bombed, and someone claiming to have access to millions of Indian-American contacts apparently tried to extort him for $20,000.” His gym membership was abruptly canceled as well.
But things didn’t stop there. Even worse, the elders at Keene’s church ultimately asked him and his family to leave after a number of meetings where they questioned Keene mainly on his views on immigration. Now, there could be more going on that we are not privy to, but from everything that’s been reported and said so far, this case portends a dark future for the church in America. It’s sad that this even needs to be said, but a perfectly legitimate opinion on policy—limiting legal immigration—should not be treated as unrepentant sin, and therefore subject to church discipline.
Voicing opinions on immigration that touch on the very character of American citizenship is crucial to recovering our country and our way of life. At The American Mind, Andrew Beck pointed out the same problems in his own Dallas neighborhood that Keene witnessed, urging Americans to confront these issues head-on:
What we face now is more intractable. The newest arrivals—not only Indians but many others as well—are coming in greater numbers than any prior groups and do not believe they need to change for America. To the contrary, America must change for them. They establish communities that replicate the political and cultural norms of their homelands. They vote as blocs. They see the issues of their native countries as taking preeminence over their present states. And they raise monuments to foreign gods—not in private devotion, but in public affirmation of the lands, lives, and loyalties they were supposed to have left behind.
These are the facts on the ground in Dallas and in many other major cities. Getting mad over tone or simply waving away the problem of legal immigration won’t do. Pluralism is not a principle of justice. Shouting “Racist!” for noticing the rapid demographic changes that are taking place is not a response that Christians—who should love truth and strive to uphold the civil order that God gave us—should have. We need Christians in America who have the courage, knowledge, prudence, and political smarts to deal with these very real issues that are affecting our nation—issues that, if not dealt with, will make it impossible to return to our country as it once was.
After all, as John Calvin pointed out, Christ did not come to bring chaos to the civil order. Rather, he came to perfect it by pointing it to its ultimate end. None of the Reformers would’ve thought that spreading the Gospel meant destroying one’s community by inviting the world in, irrespective of the vast differences in character and virtue of those various peoples.
In the United States, as elsewhere in the West, what we’ve been witnessing over at least the past few decades, as Beck points out, “is not assimilation. It is colonization. And it is too often encouraged by Americans who have lost the sense of what this country is and ought to be.” Assimilation to the American way of life demands not just assent to our political principles as set out in our founding documents but a total way of life that is conducive to a thriving republican government, American-style.
For many in Big Eva, immigration is a “Gospel issue”—but this means an acceptance of Gang of 8-style “immigration reform” policies that generally adhere to the Left’s positions. Anything that smacks of the right-wing views, like limiting legal immigration, is frowned upon or, in Daniel Keene’s case, apparently grounds for excommunication.
The Big Eva strategy is to pair something unobjectionable that Christians are called to do, such as personally treating immigrants well, with open borders policies that are acceptable to Senate Democrats. Even worse, the nakedly partisan positions they take are treated as something above politics—a message straight from Scripture itself. I don’t recall a single article from any Big Eva outlet decrying the evils caused by Biden’s open border policies. But many have spoken freely and frequently about Trump’s immigration policies, among others, as well as his personal character flaws.
However, when the Right notices something—say, that prominent people are being targeted by assassins for voicing right-wing views on transgenderism, immigration, or other topics—two things generally happen. It is waved away as not being a widespread problem. Or pastors who mention such things during a prayer or a sermon are denounced for turning their church into a campaign rally and ignoring the “apolitical” nature of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Commenting on Big Eva’s general rhetorical strategy, American Reformer executive director Josh Abbottoy wrote, “When progressives are ascendant, social justice issues are gospel issues. When conservatives are ascendant, the church is neither right nor left.” Railing against “mass incarceration” with out-of-context verses from the Bible? That’s the Gospel! But even hint that the legal immigration spigot should be turned down? That very well might be grounds for church discipline.
When Christians with the political views of Charlie Kirk are not welcome in Protestant churches, there is a major problem.
As the Anglican priest Bart Gingerich has noted, “If you’re scared of upsetting people all the time and driving certain folks away because of clear moral stances that have political implications, lose that fear or stop pastoring.” While Christians shouldn’t simply be an appendage of the Republican Party—that is, they shouldn’t simply go along with whatever the party dictates—it’s obvious that the political Right is far closer to implementing the moral order that Christianity envisions than the Left. And it’s not particularly close.
The Bible’s moral teachings outline a way of life that has clear political implications. This includes getting rid of no-fault divorce at a minimum, outlawing abortion and gay marriage, and instituting a quick death penalty process for those who are convicted of serious crimes. The Left shrieks in disgust against any one of these things, thinking you’re a fascist and have spit on the graves of the Founding Fathers (who were racist, by the way) if you agree.
The choice is between understanding our political and cultural moment or continuing to be the third wheel of the Left, which, though weakened, is still a capable and willing force for evil. A good example of the former is Michael Clary’s admonition at the Center for Baptist Leadership that right-wingers are a particularly fertile ground for evangelism. While a good example of the latter is the both-sideism that too many churches have indulged in after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
A strategy that’s part of the vision Clary lays out is taking seriously the podcasters that many Zoomers and some Alphas are listening to, whether you agree with them or not. Rather than bashing them nonstop for listening to the wrong people, we should come up alongside them, speaking to their concerns and fears without immediately calling them names as the Left and too many on the “Right” do. Michael Anton’s review of Bronze Age Pervert’s Bronze Age Mindset in the Claremont Review of Books is just one example of how this can be done well.
Protestants must show that they can navigate the top challenges of our day, including the rise of AI, the temptations of transhumanism, plummeting marriage rates, and increasingly alienated citizens—men especially—who are looking for friendship, guidance, and direction.
As President Trump recently stated, “If a country doesn’t have religion, doesn’t have faith, doesn’t have God, it’s going to be very hard to be a good country.” Even the atheist Richard Dawkins can see that the disappearance of a Christian culture is a calamity for a people. We are starting to see the consequences of what happens in America when that occurs—and we must do everything we can to reverse course.