Christianity & Culture with Kierstyn St. John

The biggest problem with Megan Basham's book "Shepherds For Sale"

• Kierstyn St. John of Zoetic • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Megan Basham wrote a bestselling book called “Shepherds for Sale” where she exposed Christian leaders and large Christian organizations that have “sold out”, either figuratively or literally to a leftist agenda. The idea of the book was excellent, but the execution was flawed, as she included California pastor and theologian Gavin Ortlund as an example. 

I talk about both the good and the bad things about the book and why Christians have to be really careful when we start lumping in true brothers and sisters who might be misguided on a non-essential issue with real wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

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Kierstyn St. John:

Megan Basham has caused quite a stir in American Christianity with her new book Shepherds for Sale. Gavin Ortling claims that she misrepresented him on climate change. Megan Basham claims that she didn't. Is she right? Is he right? Here's the truth. He should have never been in the book in the first place. All right, I have read the book. I've read Shepherds for Sale. I own the book. I agree with a good majority of the book and I feel it is well-researched. For the most part. I am conservative politically.

Kierstyn St. John:

There are problems, though, okay, so first of all, I want to talk about the good that came out of this book. There has been an unbiblical agenda that has seeped into churches all over America. This has completely destroyed or schismed a lot of mainline denominations we've seen, such as the Episcopalians, the Methodists, presbyterians, lutherans, etc. Even in non-denominational and Baptist churches. There are plenty examples of churches that have compromised on biblical sexuality, marriage, gender, the life issue, and Megan Basham does a really good job of exposing this in her book Shepherds for Sales. She exposes corruption in organizations like Christianity Today, who have accepted money from very progressive sources that have also donated to LGBTQ causes, such as like the Lilly Foundation or the Trinity Foundation, which has accepted funding from, I think, pierre Omidyar, the left-wing billionaire who founded eBay. And so Megan Basham exposes something called Big Eva in a big way, and Big Eva was coined by Carl Truman in 2018. And it's basically a group of evangelical elites who run the most popular Christian institutions, such as the Gospel Coalition, christianity Today, nine Marks Crew, navigators, wheaton College, fuller Seminary, so on and so forth, and many of these organizations have either been funded or infiltrated by leftist sources, and Megan Basham does a really good job of exposing that in this book.

Kierstyn St. John:

Sources, and Megan Basham does a really good job of exposing that in this book. She also exposes some people who I do believe are shepherds for sale or deceptive teachers wolves in sheep's clothing, if you'd want to call them such as Andy Stanley, matthew Vine, you know, preston Sprinkle, arguably JD Greer, but there is a fatal flaw, I believe, in this book. The main idea of it is good. I don't disagree with that but the execution of that, at least in part, is flawed. Megan Basham, in chapter one of her book Shepherds for Sale, talks about Gavin Ortland, and Gavin Ortland, by the way, is a Baptist pastor who is incredibly smart, incredibly intelligent. He has a YouTube channel called True Few Nights and he's done all sorts of videos basically defending Protestantism. He has defended traditional marriage, he is pro-life and so I want to get into that.

Kierstyn St. John:

Megan Basham's critical error is that some of the topics chosen for the book are not essential biblical issues. They are less clear political issues. Okay, so, for instance, the first two chapters of the book are about the subjects of climate change and immigration. This is where she starts her claim that a leftist agenda has been put into churches. And my question is why are these issues the first two chapters? The first two chapters are what most people are going to read.

Kierstyn St. John:

Why not have more clear scriptural issues, like there are political issues of today that are clearly discussed in scripture? The pro-life issue, you know, personhood in the womb is confirmed in Psalms and there's a command not to murder, which is taking innocent human life, right Marriage being between one man and one woman, romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6. The difference between men and women obviously found in Genesis echoed all throughout the New Testament and Christians should come to the same conclusions on all of these issues because they are so clear. And, by the way, I also think that the race issue is relatively clear, pretty clear when Paul says that there is no Jew or Greek, that we are all one in Christ. Okay, so it seems that churches that were like during George Floyd and all that stuff, that were coercing their white congregants to apologize to the black congregants for the sins of their ancestors or for their white privilege, were erring from that passage.

Kierstyn St. John:

And I will say that I do question the Christianity of people who are pro-LGBTQ or pro-abortion. They are either very new Christians, deeply misinformed, or they don't believe in the inerrancy of scripture, which is a problem Like. Once these people are corrected, they do need to adopt the scriptural view. So there are issues that are clear, but climate change and immigration, which again are the first two chapters in her book and as they are articulated in 21st century American politics, these issues are less clear in scripture. You could get vague references to things, but Christians can and do have different views on these subjects.

Kierstyn St. John:

So she spends and I've heard different numbers as to the length about this. She said about four and a half pages, talking at length, 14 pages on the Kindle version in her first chapter about Gavin Ortlund's view on climate change. She spends like a decent amount of time and, by the way, I don't agree with Gavin Ortlund on climate change. He has a very alarmist view on climate change, in my opinion. But to use him as an example in a book called Shepherds for Sale is really bad. And when confronted with this, basham has said well, I didn't call him a shepherd for sale.

Megan Basham:

So he was actually not an example of somebody who is for sale though there are certainly some people for sale in that chapter. He was an example of somebody who is in the environment that they created, and that is talking about this subject within the parameters that they deliberately tried to set up.

Kierstyn St. John:

Okay, but you didn't clarify that.

Kierstyn St. John:

He wasn't that in your book. You talked about him at length in your first chapter. If Gavin Ortlund is not a shepherd for sale, then why is he in chapter one of your book for multiple pages? Okay, and and and she also says in the introduction of her book you know some people mentioned are, yes, wolves, wolves, unfaithful pastors and teachers deliberately leading the sheep astray. I believe you'll have little trouble pinpointing in these pages who they are. But that isn't good enough. Okay, that's just not good enough to say the reader can can decide who is a shepherd for sale and who isn't, okay. So I'm going to give an example. If I write a book and I would not write a book called this but if I wrote a book called Stupid Blonde Women and Megan Basham, who is blonde, I put her in this book and I write at length about her in there. But then I say in the introduction not all blonde women in this book are stupid. I'm sure you'll have no trouble deciphering which ones are Okay. Does that hold water? No, you're going to think that because I put Megan Basham in a book called Stupid Blonde Women, by the way, I don't think Megan Basham is stupid, by the way. I want to make that clear. But putting her in a book called that and just saying some of these people are some of these people aren't, that's just very sloppy. The main point is, by making climate change and immigration chapters in your book, you are, megan Basham, whether you want to or not, lumping these things in with the clear scriptural issues of marriage and life. You didn't include all minor issues. You don't include chapters about people who disagree with you, about alcohol or Calvinism or eschatology or tattoos, right Like?

Kierstyn St. John:

Gavin Ortland, in his video about climate change, never said that you have to agree with him on climate change to be a Christian. In fact, he specifically said you don't have to do that. So if somebody says that you have to agree with them on climate change in order to be a Christian, that is a huge problem, but he did not say that. Now, the title of his video his YouTube video that you know Megan Basham wrote about is climate change why Christians should engage. You know, here's the thing. I think that's a little manipulative on his part. Like I, I disagree with him that Christians should engage with the issue of climate change, but he did not say that Christians have to engage, much less agree with him, in order to be Christians. The point that I'm making is that some other Christians point of view on climate change, even a prominent Christian shouldn't have anything to do with our faith as individuals or the safety or the health of the church.

Kierstyn St. John:

It's also worth noting that Gavin Ortland I'm not going to say he invented this, but he popularized the concept of theological triage, which is ranking doctrines based on importance or ranking issues based on importance to the Christian faith. So it's very, very funny that Megan Basham is showing a lack of triage here. She is lumping less important issues in with more important issues, and so that's my main problem there is no triage or ranking of these issues in her book. If I had to rank these issues in order of importance for unity among Christians, I would rank them by how clear they are in scripture. If Christians reject things that are clearly laid out in scripture, the big problem is that they don't take all of scripture seriously. They cherry pick what they like and they leave the rest, and again, that is a problem of biblical inerrancy. They don't believe the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God, and it's usually only a matter of time before they reject core doctrines. But this is very important. The entire Republican Party line is not laid out in scripture clearly, so you cannot lump people like Gavin Ortland who have a more progressive view on climate change in with people like Andy Stanley in your book, who are basically endorsing LGBTQ behavior, something that is clearly sinful in scripture. When you put both of these people in the same book, it diminishes the seriousness of the worst thing. The other point that I'm going to mention is that Andy Stanley is in the eighth chapter of the book, which is basically the final chapter.

Kierstyn St. John:

Gavin Ortland is in the first chapter of this book. The first two chapters are what people are going to read. There's going to be a drop-off of people. After that point, she accomplishes the opposite of what she's trying to do by lumping all of this stuff in together and she's looking to the reader to be discerning, and I just think that is putting too much trust in the reader. You are the one teaching people about these things, megan, so you have to yeah, spell it out for them.

Kierstyn St. John:

A false teacher, a true shepherd for sale, a wolf in sheep's clothing, is not just someone you disagree with on political issues that are unclear in scripture. A false teacher isn't even someone who is genuinely mistaken. A false teacher is someone who rejects clear moral or theological teachings into scripture and knowingly pushes those from the pulpit and we do have a lot of those. It is a problem, but when you sound the alarm too much, when you cry wolf too often, it accomplishes the opposite of what you were trying to do and it hurts genuine Christians like Gavin Ortland, who are your brothers and sisters contending with you for the faith. Preachers who go directly against scriptures on LGBTQ issues, marital issues, life issues. They show that they are false teachers because they have no respect for the word of God. You know prosperity gospel preachers who also preach a different gospel worldly riches, health or fame if people follow them. You know even preachers who continually preach a different gospel, in which white people have to repent of black people. I mentioned that. Outside of that, if your leaders in Christianity or your pastors believe the creeds and that scripture is inspired and inerrant, they aren't false teachers. And if Gavin Orland is not a false teacher, he shouldn't be included as an example in a book called Shepherds for Sale. It's irresponsible.

Kierstyn St. John:

Some people won't read the rest of the book. They won't read her good points because she has somewhat delegitimized them. So what do we take from this? You can read the book. I'd recommend taking at least chapter one with a grain of salt a little bit, at least that section. Make sure that you put the most importance on chapters three and eight and I guess six, which seem to be the more clear scriptural issues. I would recommend, as a sister in Christ, that Megan remove Gavin from the book entirely in future prints. But I don't think she's going to do that. It's a shame because I don't disagree with her central thesis, but she muddied the waters by making a huge mistake. That's. I think I've been pretty clear. That's going to be it for me. Thank you and God bless.