Megan Basham Takes TGC Author Gavin Ortlund Behind The Woodshed For Advocating Climate Science
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
In recent years, evangelical leftists have frequently taken the term ‘Gospel’, emptied it of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; and then stuffed it with leftist political agenda items that they label “Gospel issues”. In the summer of 2020, this playbook was run with the promotion of Social Justice and Critical Theory. The teachings of Biblical justice and Biblical impartiality were flipped on their head by leftist activists who claimed that the blood of Christ and the impartiality exemplified by the New Testament Church were insufficient to bring together believers of different skin colors. Instead, these woke activists claimed that white-skinned Christians needed to perform penance for the wrongs of generations past, in a cycle that left adherents beholden to a false Gospel of works that could never atone for anything.
This same playbook is currently being run in Evangelical Society by side-B homosexuality advocates who claim that advocating for abominable sexual identities is a Gospel issue; and egalitarians, who have taken up the cause of female church leadership under the guise of promoting “gender justice” as a Gospel issue.
So-Called “Climate Science” has been an issue in leftist political circles for a number of years, so it shouldn’t be surprising that leftist Evangelicals like Gavin Ortlund support climate change discussions as an “important issue”, setting up climate science as the next big “Gospel Issue” to distract the church from the true Gospel. Ortlund recently released a vlog in which he argues that Climate Change is an issue that should concern all Christians.
In the first five minutes, Gavin admits that he is not an expert on Climate Science, but thinks that it is important to “have a conversation” on the issue. In 2020, Ortlund published Finding The Right Hills To Die On, a book that purports to teach Christians how to prioritize the defense of doctrine, from essential doctrines to fourth-tier issues. The book was endorsed by many Big Eva leftists, including Russell Moore, Sam Allberry, Danny Akin, and JD Greear. One would think that if a pastor did not have what was considered expert knowledge about a controversial topic that would be considered extremely low on a scale of doctrinal importance, he should relegate that particular topic to fourth-tier importance and focus on the clear teaching of Gospel truth.
In recent months, however, Ortlund has taken heretical positions on many primary doctrinal truths, including the belief that LGBTQ identifying persons and universalists could maintain their sin identities and be saved, the belief that Sola Fide (Salvation by Faith alone) is not necessarily true, and the belief that examples from church history should be used to trump clear scriptural teaching on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Apparently, Ortlund ran out of first and second-order doctrinal issues to botch and decided that it was time to ignore his own advice and take up the leftist mantle of Climate Science.
Journalist Megan Basham of the Daily Wire has been recently picking apart leftist Big-Eva figures, like Ortlund, who failed to call out former NIH head Francis Collins. As a scientist who claimed to be Christian, Collins was hailed as a Big Eva standard bearer on how to live as a Christian in a secular leadership role. Collins was exposed by Basham as a fraud who advocated for an increase in experimentation on the body parts of murdered babies, the promotion of LGBTQ propaganda by the NIH, and the promotion of lies about the origins and nature of COVID-19. Basham caught wind of Ortlund’s political antics and took him out behind the twitter woodshed on account of his attempts to “baptize” his leftist climate change policy position in “Christianese”.
Basham is on point in regard to Climate Change policy decimating the free market. Pastors like Ortlund who use “Climate Science” as a rallying cry for increased regulation, ignore the fact that while many Christians in western countries would likely survive the destructive interference of climate science policy in free markets, such regulations would have devastating affects on poor believers in third world countries who already suffer the implications of leftist monetary and COVID lockdown policies. Ortlund’s only defense against Basham’s indictment was that his motives came from a non-partisan Christian position, and her motives came from a politically partisan position.
Basham informed Ortlund that her husband is a meteorologist, who understands that “climate science” is a highly debatable topic, and suggested that Ortlund should stick to his field of expertise. (Given Ortlund’s history of taking leftist anti-Biblical positions, it is actually debatable whether or not Ortlund has a field of expertise.)
Believers should take note of Megan’s tactics. Leftists often lead the argument with an accusation that conservative Christians are politically motivated. In reality, nothing can be completely detached from politics, because neutrality is a myth. Megan brushes off accusations of political partisanship by demonstrating that her opponents are political partisans themselves, focusing on the destructive implications of leftist ideology in the church. In reality, those who accuse conservative Christians of engaging in “culture war” are merely identifying themselves as enemy combatants who have adopted the standards of the world, rather than the teachings of scripture.
Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia.
About Author
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” – Gen. 8:22