Matthew 7: 15 Beware of false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles?
Forgive the mixed metaphor.... There is a new book out: “Shepherds for Sale,” by Megan
Basham, a journalist for the Daily Wire.
From what I gather, it is a book dedicated to exposing those Christian
shepherds who are dedicated to or otherwise advancing leftist political agendas
as opposed to focusing on what might be considered a traditional, or
conservative, or even a “true” understanding of the gospel.
Normally, a book like this and on this topic would be right
down my alley. I have written occasionally
about this issue and how it strikes me that we may be living through a time of
testing in the Church – separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to
Christian leaders and Christians in general.
Apparently, this book has been much anticipated. I, not being on X-twitter or any social
media, knew nothing of it until Gavin Ortlund did a video about it. Then a second. Each is at thirty minutes or a bit less. He did the videos because he found himself
right in the opening chapter – a prominent shepherd for sale apparently.
The topic of the opening chapter is global warming and man’s
effect (if any) on climate change. In
some earlier video some time ago, Ortlund said he has studied the issues and
basically agrees with the scientific consensus (although, in truth, there isn’t
a consensus – but that isn’t really important here).
However, Ortlund does not make this a faith issue or
anything of the sort. He does say
Christians should be concerned about the environment, and this is quite correct. God put this responsibility there, right in
the beginning of His book:
Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let
Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 2: 15 Then the Lord God
took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
For Ortlund, his main point was that we should study the
issue of climate change before pushing any strong opinion.
Basham has included Ortlund in the book – in the first
chapter – because of this. Not via a
steelman of his argument, but a strawman.
Ortlund addresses this in the two videos – the second of which was
prompted by the social media commentary that followed his first video.
There is a very thorough article that walks through just how
careless Basham is in her work on Ortlund and this topic. The author (it appears anonymously) isn’t shy
about his conclusion: “In
Defense of Gavin Ortlund.” His summary,
which he defends very well (emphasis in original):
I think [Ortlund] is correct in his
complaint that Basham badly misrepresented and mischaracterized his
original video on climate change and, given the highly controversial nature of
the book in which it appears, I think he has a right to be upset about it.
The book is entitled Shepherds FOR SALE. It is not a soft charge to be included in a
book with such a title. One should be
quite careful about who is included in such a book, and that the charges are
accurate. In any case, if it is
meaningful to you, take a quick read of this
author’s defense of Ortlund.
Now, why am I going through all of this? As noted, it is a subject important to me and
one that I have written about occasionally.
Most recently here. Looking at just the last decade or so: the
embrace of pride, the reaction to covid, and now the genocide in
Palestine. In each case, many Christian
leaders have failed. In many cases,
those who were strong on the first two failed and continue to fail at the
third.
And this comes to my point.
When one wants to write about shepherds for sale in the Christian church,
I would expect that the first several chapters are dedicated to those well-known
Christian Zionists, especially those who head up or are involved in Zionist or Zionist-adjacent
organizations. If there is any group
that might be considered “for sale,” it is this one, and it is a group that is
supporting the most immediate violence against innocents.