I have the audio book on order, and it’s read by THE Megan Basham herself. But you can already get it in some stores. The audio book is live TODAY (July 30th, 2024). Anyway, I’m excited about this book for many reasons. One reason is that I’ve long held the conviction that evidential apologetics is needed in order for Christians to be bold. I think their compromising with the left is related to that.

Anyway, here is the early book review from Amy Simmons, published in Truth Script. (H/T Dr. Jonathan Sarfati)

First, let’s just see what the book is even about, and then I’ll share my favorite paragraph in the review.

This is what the book is about:

In this extensively researched exposé, Basham unravels how the progressive left has infiltrated the conservative church through shadowy non-governmental organization (NGO) initiatives with benign-sounding front groups that well-respected pastors, theologians, and para-church leaders promoted under the banner of “loving your neighbor.” Based on a compilation of her years of reporting on church issues for the conservative news and media outlet The Daily Wire, Shepherds uncovers the behind-the-scenes political machinations of evangelical elites that have led venerated Christian institutions and publications.

Utilizing her research acumen, personal anecdotes, and connections with evangelical insiders, Basham systematically unmasks the benefactors of current progressive left ideologies being pushed into conservative evangelical churches. The amount of players involved in what is akin to a conservative evangelical ”deep state” is overwhelming at times, but that serves to show the level of obfuscation under which the current regime operates. Basham writes with precision and thoroughness while still wearing her layperson’s hat. The reader senses her righteous indignation as she does not hide her own beliefs and convictions, and her commentary is fortified throughout with biblical refutations. The following are some takeaways one can glean from a good-faith reading of Shepherds.

So, I have some experience dealing with this compromise myself, as someone who has tried to get evidential Christianity into the church. I have seen all kinds of pushback to learning how to defend your faith from within the church, and this paragraph from the review nails what I’ve seen in many different churches:

Since our society has become more feminized, we’ve seen a propensity for leaders to cater to the whims of those who are led by their emotions. Rigney is again helpful here by describing this inclination as “untethered empathy,” which is “a concern for the hurting and vulnerable that is unmoored from truth, goodness, and reality.” Basham goes to great lengths to show how the SBC abuse reforms are based on specious arguments from “trauma-informed” counseling and the now-rescinded Obama-era Title IX Sexual Abuse guidance. In fact, it’s a deception that will keep women in bondage to a “victim status” rather than taking accountability for their own actions, which Basham demonstrates through powerful anecdotes.

You can read the review to see which specific areas Megan talks about in her book.

So I want to make one point about why church leaders are so prone to bend over backwards to please the secular left.

In my experience with apologetics, my goal has been to provide evidence to people, because I think that evidence sets boundaries on what a person can and cannot believe. And then their actions run within the boundaries of their beliefs. I think the root cause of our problems in the church is that pastors and other church leaders have not rooted their beliefs in evidence. People like Russell Moore and JD Greear don’t know whether God exists, or whether Jesus rose from the dead. They don’t know where to look in nature for signs of intelligent design. They don’t know how to answer philosophical challenges to Christian doctrines. They don’t study these topics, and they can’t convince non-Christians about any of it. On the contrary, for them Christianity is about proving to other people how good they are. And it’s this mad rush to feel good and look good to others that causes them to capitulate to the secular left, lest they appear to be “mean”.

So, on global warming, I would immediately go to the evidence, from books by authors like Judith Curry, Fred Singer, Roy Spencer, Roger Pielke, etc. On economics, I would immediately go to Thomas Sowell, Jay Richards, Jennifer Roback Morse, F. A. Hayek, etc. On race / CRT, I would immediately go to Thomas Sowell, Heather MacDonald, Voddie Baucham, etc. On abortion, I would look to people like Robert George, Maureen Condic, Scott Rae, Francis J. Beckwith, Christopher Kaczor, etc. On marriage, I would immediately go to Ryan T. Anderson, Jennifer Roback Morse, Robert George, etc. And so on. I look for people who have studied, published and debated on these topics. Not people who are trying to be noticed by secular leftist elites in the New York Times. Basically, you have to study the evidence if you want to have convictions. And our Christian leaders haven’t done that. They think studying is a waste of time.

Kamala Harris has received over $200 million of donations, some from Democrat billionaires, and many more from first time donors. It’s not going to be easy for Republicans to beat her in November with her huge advantage in fundraising. But, one thing we can do right now is to take a look at her record on issues, and then share these stories with our friends and family members.

Here’s the first article from Daily Signal:

The “Biden Accountability Tracker” presents a list of “disturbing and harmful actions,” including “each significant policy decision made, executive action taken, or regulation promulgated by the administration that hurts the American people,” the organization’s letter to lawmakers explains.

“Our organization has kept a rolling record of the failures of the Biden-Harris administration since 2021, from reversing Trump-Pence border policies, to pushing an expensive and burdensome climate agenda, failing to protect women’s sports, and using the FDA to make the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone available by mail,” Teller told The Daily Signal. “Kamala Harris owns each and every one of these failings, along with her own record from her time as California attorney general and as a senator.”

“It is clear her policies are left of Biden and that she has it out for conservatives and the freedom-loving community,” Teller added.

Teller’s reference to Harris’ having it out for conservatives touched on the vice president’s record from her time as California attorney general. For example, Harris directed her office to search the home of pro-life investigative journalist David Daleiden, who had exposed Planned Parenthood officials’ selling aborted baby body parts for profit. She prepared a legal case against Daleiden, which her successor as California attorney general—now Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra—brought against the pro-life journalist.

Harris also demanded sensitive donor information from two conservative organizations, Americans for Prosperity and the American Freedom Law Center, after her office had leaked sensitive donor information and after some on the Left had launched a video game in which players acted out a shooting at Americans for Prosperity headquarters.

If you look through that issue tracker, you’re bound to find something to convince an independent voter not to vote for Harris. Stuff like climate regulation (which caused our energy prices to skyrocket) and open borders (which caused housing prices to increase due to a shortage of housing) should be of interest to anyone.

Here are a few more of Kamala Harris’ specific actions, reported by the Daily Signal:

A newly resurfaced memo put out by Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign outlines her plan to “fundamentally transform” the criminal justice system by reducing penalties for criminals.

In 2019, Harris promised to end cash bail, get rid of court-ordered fines, expunge the records of some felons, discontinue federal mandatory minimum sentences, and to place greater federal scrutiny on local police departments, according to a memo resurfaced Thursday by the Washington Free Beacon.

[…]“It is long past time to re-envision public safety by strengthening and supporting our communities and drastically limiting the number of people we expose to our criminal justice system,” the memo reads. “As president, Kamala will fundamentally transform how we approach public safety.”

And ending cash bail, which has already been tried in many Democrat cities:

“Excessive cash bail disproportionately harms people from low-income communities and communities of color,” Harris’ 2019 memo reads. She characterized cash bail systems as “criminalizing poverty” and vowed to end them.

Ending cash bail has led to a backlash in some major cities, with New Yorkers in February 2022 overwhelmingly supporting tightening bail laws following an increase in crime, the New York Post reported. The Texas Organizing Project, a George Soros-backed nonprofit that opposes cash bail, bonded out a man who allegedly went on to murder six people and shoot three others in December 2023.

I remember that she’s a big supporter of “defunding the police” as well, but that’s not all:

She also supported restoring voting rights to all those who have served criminal records, per the memo, and advocated for more federal oversight of local police departments, citing alleged “racial profiling” and “excessive force.”

The now-vice president proposed a “National Police Systems Review Board” that “would collect data and review police shootings and other cases of severe misconduct,” according to the memo. She also promised to provide the Department of Justice with resources to provide grants to fund greater scrutiny of officers who shoot suspects and pledged to reinstate an executive order restricting the sale of certain military equipment to police departments.

So, it’s not enough for her that unvetted illegal immigrants are coming into the country in droves. She looks at the taxpayers who pay her salary, and she thinks “I side with the killers and the rapists against those taxpayers – my job is to help the killers and the rapists, and not the taxpayers who pay my salary”. Do you think that independents would care about that? I think they would.