The Book That’s Making Many Evangelical Leaders Squirm

I recently finished listening to “Shepherds for Sale” by Megan Basham. It was a very interesting book and I highly recommend getting a copy to see what all the fuss is about. I have some thoughts I would like to share, as Tim Keller might say; ‘not so much about what the book says but about what the book is doing.’

What is it doing? Well, it is making many leaders in evangelical institutions squirm. These leaders have been accustomed to a certain lifestyle and modus operandi. The fact of the matter is their whole livelihood is predicated on serving the needs of evangelicals. Unfortunately, they find many of the beliefs and values of said evangelicals to be primitive and contemptible. So how do they get grandma to keep writing those checks to support their institutions? Well, it involves a lot of posturing, manipulative religious language, and of course, a considerable buy-in from other members of those institutions to keep the whole thing going.

But then comes a sort of whistleblower, naming names a showing the receipts. This doesn’t happen all that often, but it is sort of the role Megan seems to be playing in her book. For the elites, the only thing worse than a hick evangelical is one of these whistleblowers. Naming names in that fashion to them seems so deplorable, ‘it’s just not how we do things around here’. It doesn’t matter the background or credentials that said whistleblower might have, they simply become the enemy that needs to be destroyed.

I believe this is what we are seeing with many of the attacks against Megan’s book. Notice they are not simply taking issue with a few footnotes here and there, they are desperate to keep people from reading the book and in some cases actually trying to get interviews the author did wiped from the internet (which usually indicates that you probably should read the book for yourself).

This whole situation brought to mind a book I read a number of years ago “Reforming Fundamentalism” by George Marsden. The author tells the story of Fuller Seminary and in the process mentions Harold Lindsell (who similar to Megan) ended up becoming one of those deplorables by sounding the alarm and naming names in his book “The Battle For The Bible”. Of course, many of the men he named attempted to attack him and destroy his credibility. Many of those named found ways to obfuscate, and somehow remain in those “evangelical” institutions. But it did cause a stir, and it did weaken the cause of the progressives.

We are still in the thick of it, with Megan’s recently released book. I am not sure what the overall result will be. At the very least, I hope it will slow down the progressive rot in some corners of evangelicalism. Who knows, maybe it will be the death knell for some who have strayed too far. Either way, it is always encouraging to see this kind of boldness and clarity.