More Pathetic “Fact Checking” of Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale

As Rush Limbaugh liked to say, “Liberals cannot survive in an unrigged contest in the arena of ideas.” Leftism succeeds not on its own merits but by masquerading itself and fooling people into supporting policies they don’t actually agree with. It succeeds by convincing people to act contrary to their interests and values, and it does this through various well-worn epistemological and rhetorical deceptions, exploiting people’s vulnerabilities to change their voting behavior.

In the political arena, tools for exploitation include divisive identity politics, class envy, hyperbolic scare tactics, and good old-fashioned character assassination. Leftist evangelicals are willing to use the same tactics, but they usually get the ball rolling with scripture twisting and Jesus-shaming emotional subjectivism. These uniquely effective tools for manipulating undiscerning believers often do the trick and avoid the need to resort to the more obvious political tools.

Yet evangelicals are a stubborn bunch. The possibility that regular churchgoers –  rather than be shamed into voting in opposition to their values – might instead tie their evangelical betters to the leftism they’ve long smuggled into the church is a red alert, four-alarm fire that must be put out. Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale, a book that is shooting up bestseller lists, has conducted a no-knock raid and set a fire in the left’s church kitchen, threatening to expose the secret recipes, identify by name the Big Eva sous-chefs, and cause pew-sitters to leap out of the pot before it reaches boil.

Big Eva is not worried about Basham merely providing for readers a list of leftist policies opposed by churchgoers. Many writers have done that. They are afraid of a book that successfully ties those policies around their necks. They know that normal believers do not support the left’s green agenda, borderless illegal immigration, “pro-life” being defined downward into meaninglessness, or churches bowing to COVID authoritarianism. Having long ago realized they couldn’t win the hearts and minds of faithful Christians in the arena of ideas, the left resorted to Manchurian subterfuge – empty Christianity and its leaders of moral and ethical content and replace them with a poison-laced counterfeit. Much like Democrats thought they nominated Joe Biden but wound up with Vice President Word Salad, evangelicals have blissfully trusted their Christian leaders only to find those leaders trading the church’s collective witness for thirty pieces of silver and an invitation to the next New York Times cocktail party.

Basham’s book has blown the whistle – not for progressives in mainline churches waving trans flags – but for traditional evangelicals discovering they’ve been the frogs in progressive evangelicalism’s slow boil. These churchgoers thought their leaders were stomping on the cultural brakes as the country careened towards the socialist cliff, but now see that not only are many leaders not braking, they are actually stepping on the gas.

They’re Not Sending Their Best. Or Perhaps They Are?

Pushback against Basham’s book has, thus far, not involved any particularly heavy hitters on Team Big Eva. Rather, opposition has been from the swarm of unabashedly leftist “Christians” in the Twittersphere or from Big Eva lieutenants like Gavin Ortlund and Warren Cole Smith – both sufficiently beholden to the establishment yet helpfully unknown to nearly everyone Shepherds for Sale was written for. Regular pew-sitters don’t know the Gavin Ortlund who theologizes behind Russell Moore and who doesn’t share their belief in young earth creation, the Bible’s account of a worldwide flood, or their well-grounded suspicion of big government’s climate science and COVID agendas. They don’t know Warren Cole Smith, president of Ministry Watch, who – despite positioning himself as some sort of objective watchdog for Christian ministries – unreservedly pals around with partisans like The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta and Christianity Today’s Mike Cosper. Functional ecumenism of the flavor practiced by Smith (he settled on Anglicanism after bizarrely accepting it as an “middle way” between Baptist and Roman Catholic) aptly represents the defenseless target Christianity leftism thrives on. Although frankly in Smith’s case, the answer might be that he’s simply running interference for his friends.

A little background: Warren Cole Smith is president and sole employee of Ministry Watch. His site ministrywatch.com, part of 501c3 non-profit Wall Watchers in North Carolina, saw it’s revenue climb from $50,173 in 2018 to $419,041 in 2021. Despite dedicating itself to Christian ministerial transparency, Ministry Watch (like many of the ministries on their long list of ratings) is funded anonymously, primarily through Donor Advised Funds like WaterStone and the American Endowment Foundation. In 2021, Smith’s $121K salary (and $31K in “employee benefits”) represented nearly 34% of Ministry Watch’s total expenses – expenses which included $119K in “contract services” (likely independent writers), $1900 a month in “information technology,” and $3750 a month in “management” expense.

Presumably as part of Warren Cole Smith’s stated quest for Christian accountability, he recently detoured to the opinion pages of never-Trumper Jonah Goldberg and Steven Hayes’ The Dispatch to publish a 3000-word review of Shepherds for Sale. Smith teased the review five days before the book’s release while responding on X/Twitter to an openly hostile and anti-Trump post from self-professed Basham fact-checker pastor Ben Marsh, making clear Smith’s review would similarly be using Trump as its foil and predictable evangelical-shaming cudgel. While producing eye-rolls from rank-in-file churchgoers who largely remain committed to voting red in 2024, Trump-shaming from left-leaning Christians continues to signal to secular elites that they haven’t lost their pet evangelicals.

Another Ham-Handed “Review”

Smith opens his piece with a swing at whataboutism. Ignoring that the book is specifically addressing a leftist agenda covertly entering churches, he claims that the premise of the book is “fatally flawed” because, well, the right also tries to influence churches. Setting aside for the moment the mountain of Jesus and John Wayne-themed literature attacking the right’s relationship with evangelicalism, Basham’s book is unapologetic and clear about its concern. She defines specific items of the leftist agenda, discusses the theological particulars that make the agenda unpalatable to evangelicals, and unpacks the evidence linking the agenda to specific evangelical leaders. She blames evangelicalism’s problems on leftism. Smith blames it on “departing from the Gospel to pursue ideology and political activism.” Basham reached a specific, tangible conclusion, but Smith demands she advocate for the same Great Commission-neutralizing “gospel versus ideology” toothlessness that has brought contemporary Western civilization to the brink of moral collapse. Rather than critique her book on its stated terms (a journalistic demand he makes of Basham a few paragraphs later), Smith’s opening Kelleresque critique insists Basham’s book is only credible if it grants the very premise the book was written against.

Matthew 18 Journalism

Smith tries to discredit Shepherds for Sale with personal appeals, first admitting that he “knows most of the people she criticizes in this book” before reminding readers that “Basham’s descriptions do not match the people I know” and that she “gets a whole host of basic facts wrong” by failing “an opinion journalist’s most basic duty to understand and convey the perspectives of people with whom he or she disagrees” (a standard Smith ironically fails to meet). Under this invented and illogical standard, Smith implies Basham had a duty to call everyone mentioned in the book before publishing. Yet Basham’s book is not merely a work of “opinion journalism.” It is a work of investigative, polemical journalism featuring bad actors who have spent their careers confining their bad press to pages of pesky discernment websites, very often by flushing their stash as soon as they receive the Matthew 18 phone call Smith demands. The “allow them to explain” prohibition on secular investigative journalism’s no-knock raids sounds pious to believers suffering as “love your neighbor” Stockholm Syndrome Christians (Discovery Institute’s John G. West coins this term in his terrific review). Yet rather than promote transparency and unity, it merely allows an offender time to retreat back into the motte (see Christianity Today’s bias-hiding policy change on staff political donations that Smith uses to imply their underlying bias no longer exists), regroup, and return to the bailey soon after.

Discredited Protesters

Smith cites the comically dismantled, self-important, “Does she think I’m even a Christian?” whiny video struggle session of California pastor-turned-YouTuber Gavin Ortlund, the aftermath of which saw online retail pages for Shepherds for Sale fill with Ortlund-defending one-star reviews at a far higher volume than Ortlund’s relatively short presence in Shepherds for Sale possibly justified. Shortly thereafter, Ortlund’s kind and reasonable façade was shattered as he was caught stirring animus against Basham, calling her a “relentless troll” his followers on Discord.

The quibbling of Samuel James and Phil Vischer’s juvenile and collectivist “rebuttal” likewise received unqualified endorsements from Smith, before again genuflecting at the alter of Trump Derangement Syndrome, claiming that Basham’s “true” narrative (despite her explicitly denying it multiple times in the book) is that “Christians who don’t support Donald Trump have lost their way.”

Balance on the Daily Wire

Smith returns to whataboutism in arguing that Basham’s narrative about bias at Christianity Today (whose editorial staff donated exclusively to pro-abortion candidates in 2015-2022) was somehow required to include similar information on political contributions from Basham employer The Daily Wire’s employees to Democrats during the same period – donations that were almost entirely from the company’s California-based entertainment employees rather than its editorial staff. Yet Smith clairvoyantly discovered that the essential Christianity Today/Daily Wire donation comparison he wanted was “intentionally omitted” because it “didn’t fit Basham’s preconceived narrative about Christianity Today.” One wonders why Smith doesn’t understand that Basham’s employer displaying the kind of political balance he demands of her book only serves to bolster her journalistic credibility in establishing Christianity Today’s leftward bias.

Moore Reaching

Smith’s defense of Russell Moore – perhaps the biggest shepherd for sale in the pasture – is even more shameless. Moore is the current editor-in-chief of Christianity’s so-called “flagship” publication, Christianity Today, and former head of the ERLC, the lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Despite Moore’s unique and central platform relative to Christian public issues, Smith laughably expects readers to believe that, with a Supreme Court decision on evangelicalism’s generational political priority imminent, Moore had “unplugged from American politics and social media” and was too busy “traveling in Europe and intentionally off the grid with his family” to say a single public word about the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade for weeks. This is the same Russell Moore who wasted no time rebuking the SBC as “evil and stupid” for their clumsy attempt at firing his protégé Brent Leatherwood after Leatherwood praised Joe Biden for “selflessly” stepping down from the 2024 presidential race.

Guinness Quote Was Accurate

Smith goes on to nitpick his way to a defense of the Trinity Forum, insinuating that an organization that recently platformed a “Christian” supporter of gender mutilative surgeries on children could be unfairly maligned by a claim that they could possibly think “too evangelical” might mean “unsophisticated.” Smith reportedly reached out to Trinity Forum founder Os Guinness, who confirmed that Basham’s quote (in which he casts believers not voting as failing the duties of Christian citizenship) was indeed accurate. Yet Smith assumes that Basham’s conclusion that the Trinity Forum is clearly not serious about advocating for God’s law in the political sphere) is dependent on Guinness’s quote rather that merely contrasted with it. In truth, Basham never stated nor implied that Guinness was speaking about the Trinity Forum when he talked about Christians advocating for God’s law. Smith simply inserted this fictional context in order to paint Basham as a liar.

When publisher Harper Collins reached out to Guinness, he reaffirmed the need for and purpose of books like Shepherds for Sale, stating, “There is no doubt that the subversion of Evangelicalism is the prime goal of the radical left, and superfunding is a leading tactic du jour. We must be vigilant. Faithfulness is the issue of our times, the radical left is our open adversary, and we must not be seduced.” Yet Smith expects his readers to conclude Guinness might not stand opposed to the Trinity Forum’s shift towards radical compromise. Soon after, he offered an endorsement of the book:

Some will quibble over details, but no one should miss the powerful warning in this book. We face a gathering storm, as Winston Churchill warned a century ago, but this time the enemy is inside as well as outside the gates. Every convinced and unashamed Evangelical should read, ponder, and pray over this important book.

Os Guinness, author ‘The Magna Carta of Humanity’

He Said, She Said, But Warren Knows She’s Lying

Smith characterizes as false Basham’s in-person account of being concerned with World Magazine’s former editor-in-chief Marvin Olasky suggesting (much like Tim Keller) that being pro-life might involve voting for a pro-choice candidate who would reduce abortion by covering childcare and paid family leave. Despite Smith’s attempt to credential his objection to Basham’s account with his relationship with his former boss, Olasky did not deny Basham’s account but instead offered a general recitation of his pro-life bona fides and suggested Basham’s recounting could have referred to the editorial team “discussing our (World’s) news coverage of the 2020 election, which meant taking seriously the views of evangelicals on both sides of the political divide.” Not only does Olasky not actually deny Basham’s claims, but Smith obviously has no way to determine the truth of Basham’s recollection, settling instead on “that’s not the guy I know” as his evidence that Basham must be lying.

Pay No Attention to The Ghoul Behind the Curtain

Finally, Smith addresses COVID-19 Apostle to the Evangelicals Francis Collins. Rather than expressing any concern about Collins’ indefensible spiritual abuse of Christians (and his NIH’s ghoulishly evil experimentation on aborted baby parts), Smith instead quibbles over Basham’s sentence about Ed Stetzer describing in a 2021 podcast Wheaton’s Billy Graham Center’s partnering with the Biden NIH and CDC occurring before the sentence in which she stated they “went on” to publish the deceptive and abusive “Coronavirus and the Church” website. While the website was online before the podcast where Stetzer described his organization partnering with the federal government under Biden, this fact has nothing at all to do with the real truths Smith is intent on distracting readers from: Stetzer’s Trump and Biden-era partnerships with the CDC and NIH director gave cover to Francis Collins, a truly evil enemy of Christ. In light of Smith’s clairvoyant thesis that Donald Trump is the “true hero” of Shepherds for Sale, it should be noted that it was the Biden administration, not Trump, that pushed the pinnacle evil of COVID authoritarianism – take it or you’re fired “vaccine” mandates.

Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth from wannabe Big Eva white knights and the Twitterverse Christian left, Megan Basham’s book remains solid and is – dare I say – essential reading for American evangelicals. Of course, to Never Trumpers like Warren Cole Smith and friends, any book daring to name evangelicalism’s leftist interlopers rather than perform the expected and sacred duty of dressing down Trump-voting Christians is to be discredited by any means necessary, including professional assassination of its author. Yet evangelicals who are suspicious (and know in their gut) that Basham should fear not. Warren Cole Smith’s silly “review” fails to land even a glancing blow on Basham and can easily be dispatched into the garbage with the rest of the Shepherds for Sale’s whiny protests.

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David Morrill

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