Shepherds for Sale
Love your neighbor--shut up about marriage and life. Love your neighbor--get an experimental vaccine and wear a mask. Love your neighbor-support and say Black Lives Matter. Love your neighbor-repent of your white supremacy. Love your neighbor and support this left wing social justice cause and shut up about and stop politicizing the gospel and obsessing over rightwing causes. If you have found yourself wondering why a number of public evangelical leaders you once trusted have been supporting leftwing ideas and causes the last few years you are not wrong. In fact it is probably worse than you know. Journalist Megan Basham has written a recent book titled Shepherds for Sale that is receiving a lot of attention (some high praise and some harsh criticism). Here are a few key quotes from the introduction:
“My ultimate purpose is to confirm for average evangelicals in the pews that the uneasy feelings many of you have been having (perhaps for some years now) that your pulpits and your institutions are being co-opted by political forces with explicitly secular progressive aims are justified. That is indeed happening. (Though one development that has cheered me immensely is to see how many of my fellow sheep have not, for the most part, wandered away with their shepherds. You are pushing back against that which you know is not biblical. My prayer is that this book will arm you to do so to an even greater degree.)
Let us learn from what is happening now so that we can elevate the right leaders, those like King Hezekiah, who will tear down the false idols, eject the false prophets, and restore the temple. Hebrews 10:25 commands Christians not to give up meeting together, and as we learned during Covid-19, there are very good reasons for that. Iron cannot sharpen iron while we watch online sermons from the couch. Nor should we abandon the seminaries and Christian colleges to liberals without a fight—these are the institutions training the majority of our nation’s pastors and ministry leaders. I am not here to call for a leaderless church—we need pastors, deacons, and elders who exercise godly authority. Finally, while this book focuses on false or misguided shepherds, this country is still blessed with many, many good shepherds, many of whom are laboring in obscurity.
Finally, while this book focuses on false or misguided shepherds, this country is still blessed with many, many good shepherds, many of whom are laboring in obscurity. As the Andersons did, we must put in the effort to find them and become members of their local bodies. (I’m happy to report that the Andersons did eventually find a church home where James is teaching Bible study classes.) And as we expose darkness, let it inspire us all the more to thank God for such good and faithful shepherds bringing His Word to light.“ -Megan Basham in Shepherds for Sale introduction p. XXVIII-XXIX
I think this book will continue to be an important one. Hopefully this only helps the true church to exercise more biblical discernment and walk in wisdom without being captive to the spirit of the age. Christians ought to be those who live under Christ's rule in all of life and who are not beholden to any political ideology as if it is God's absolute truth. We cannot ignore the evidence around the rot in many of our institutions that has stemmed from the very words and hearts of those we put in positions of influence and power (or often had a hand in). She was interviewed by the Founders men here. May the Lord use this to lead His true church to greater discernment, faith and unity in the truth!