Thank you for this, Anne, and bless you for reading through that entire review.
“Basham seems completely unconcerned by the fact that on nearly every issue...her own views are directly opposed to the positions of most Chr leaders in the US, including Catholic bishops, leading ev theologians, &other Chr thought leaders outside of partisan conservative circles.”
Seriously, did this person even read the book? If they did, they seem to have badly missed the point. I just finished it yesterday and it was excellent. When she quotes Aragorn speaking to Theoden, so good. Open war is upon us. In Rosaria Butterfields Five Lies of our Anti Christian Age, she frequently implores Christians to wake up and know what time it is. I am thankful for Rosaria, Megan, and you, Anne, for speaking the truth so boldly. We need to diligently pray our church leaders remain faithful.
Excellent, Anne. And, yes, when Du Mez says mainstream church leaders support Globalist positions on climate change, "racial justice," etc., she is utterly missing the point. For that is the very problem Basham addresses in the context of evangelicalism.
Frankly, I think the situation is getting so bad that we have to be willing to leave the mainstream of the institutional church to join smaller faithful churches. That is how corrupt the mainstream church, including Big Eva and the Church of Rome, has become.
Excellent Anne. This piece finally convinced me to subscribe. I spent 20 years in a left leaning but supposedly evangelical theological environment before I finally escaped in 2022. Finding voices like yours has been a lifeline. I read and loved Megan's book, and I'm really thankful for this piece defending it and exposing the shallowness and dishonesty of so many of her critics.
"In fact, on nearly every issue covered in this book, both the last half-century of evangelical articles in magazines such as CT and the last few decades of denominational and NAE resolutions line up closely with the views that Basham labels a 'leftist agenda, ...'"
Absolutely the ONLY effect of Daniel K Williams' gripe here is to shift the timing of the move away from the old (and truer) Center ... to an earlier date. In other words the softening, rotting, and corruption have been going on for a longer time than some of us realized. That's it.
My favorite part of Megan’s book was her testimony at the end which so clearly signaled hope and the ability of God to reach down and save us from this mess.
(I also felt so frustrated with myself for getting the V after a sermon from a pastor.)
Suit-up brothers and sisters, the war is getting more strategic, heated and ferocious by the day. Our weapons of warfare must be at the ready! Somehow I'm reminded of the film, Braveheart, when William Wallace's scrappy Scotsmen were about to be rushed by the English. Megan B's book has become the war cry for those of us who have seen and experienced all manner of Progressivism attempting to encompass us round about and defeat the remnant Church holding to the Truth of the ancient and Apostolic Church. Great work, Anne!
Great review. I confess when I first read SfS I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but good journalism is so rare these days one has to let it be tested by responses. Anne has done an excellent job doing that with her evaluation of Williams’ review, especially showing the shift over recent decades. Basham in some of her engagements with reviewers has shown all people she mentions in the book are not accommodating culture to the same extent, but even faithful teachers can confuse the gospel if not alert. It is important not to lump everyone together and she doesn’t do that, but you have to read the book. I’ve noticed much of the responses revolve around Megan”s motives rather than the substance of the book. It isn’t about populism, or being centrist (what does that mean theologically), or even who one votes for. It is about upholding the truth and authority of Scripture and how the culture is eating away at that (Red-letter Bibles, After-party, Embracing the Journey).
“It is often said that the divided condition of Christendom is an evil, and so it is. But the evil consists in the existence of the errors which cause the divisions and not at all in the recognition of those errors when once they exist”. J. Gresham Machen
Love the Machen quote! My grandfather was a friend of JGM, and so I have a signed, early edition of Machen's "Christianity and Liberalism." We are still reaping the corrupt fruit of the rotten seed he warned us was being planted even in 1923.
I'm still in the early chapters of Shepherds for Sale. It's great.
These excerpts from Daniel K Williams' review reminded me how treacherously subtle the enemy is. I follow the social media account of a Charismatic Episcopal Church rector ... his teachings are similarly subtle. They sound so loving, but each contains at least one nugget of heresy. He will have a LOT to answer for on Judgment Day.
Thank you Anne! I loved the book but it left me heartbroken at how lost so much of the church is and how it is leading the flock astray. Your essay gives me hope.
I appreciated Basham's book, but I wish it had been written by someone with a better understanding (or even just an acknowledgement) of Shepherds "for sale" to subversive pagan political influences on the right.
Thank you for this, Anne, and bless you for reading through that entire review.
“Basham seems completely unconcerned by the fact that on nearly every issue...her own views are directly opposed to the positions of most Chr leaders in the US, including Catholic bishops, leading ev theologians, &other Chr thought leaders outside of partisan conservative circles.”
Seriously, did this person even read the book? If they did, they seem to have badly missed the point. I just finished it yesterday and it was excellent. When she quotes Aragorn speaking to Theoden, so good. Open war is upon us. In Rosaria Butterfields Five Lies of our Anti Christian Age, she frequently implores Christians to wake up and know what time it is. I am thankful for Rosaria, Megan, and you, Anne, for speaking the truth so boldly. We need to diligently pray our church leaders remain faithful.
Excellent, Anne. And, yes, when Du Mez says mainstream church leaders support Globalist positions on climate change, "racial justice," etc., she is utterly missing the point. For that is the very problem Basham addresses in the context of evangelicalism.
Frankly, I think the situation is getting so bad that we have to be willing to leave the mainstream of the institutional church to join smaller faithful churches. That is how corrupt the mainstream church, including Big Eva and the Church of Rome, has become.
Excellent Anne. This piece finally convinced me to subscribe. I spent 20 years in a left leaning but supposedly evangelical theological environment before I finally escaped in 2022. Finding voices like yours has been a lifeline. I read and loved Megan's book, and I'm really thankful for this piece defending it and exposing the shallowness and dishonesty of so many of her critics.
"In fact, on nearly every issue covered in this book, both the last half-century of evangelical articles in magazines such as CT and the last few decades of denominational and NAE resolutions line up closely with the views that Basham labels a 'leftist agenda, ...'"
Absolutely the ONLY effect of Daniel K Williams' gripe here is to shift the timing of the move away from the old (and truer) Center ... to an earlier date. In other words the softening, rotting, and corruption have been going on for a longer time than some of us realized. That's it.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
-- William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
My favorite part of Megan’s book was her testimony at the end which so clearly signaled hope and the ability of God to reach down and save us from this mess.
(I also felt so frustrated with myself for getting the V after a sermon from a pastor.)
Suit-up brothers and sisters, the war is getting more strategic, heated and ferocious by the day. Our weapons of warfare must be at the ready! Somehow I'm reminded of the film, Braveheart, when William Wallace's scrappy Scotsmen were about to be rushed by the English. Megan B's book has become the war cry for those of us who have seen and experienced all manner of Progressivism attempting to encompass us round about and defeat the remnant Church holding to the Truth of the ancient and Apostolic Church. Great work, Anne!
Great review. I confess when I first read SfS I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but good journalism is so rare these days one has to let it be tested by responses. Anne has done an excellent job doing that with her evaluation of Williams’ review, especially showing the shift over recent decades. Basham in some of her engagements with reviewers has shown all people she mentions in the book are not accommodating culture to the same extent, but even faithful teachers can confuse the gospel if not alert. It is important not to lump everyone together and she doesn’t do that, but you have to read the book. I’ve noticed much of the responses revolve around Megan”s motives rather than the substance of the book. It isn’t about populism, or being centrist (what does that mean theologically), or even who one votes for. It is about upholding the truth and authority of Scripture and how the culture is eating away at that (Red-letter Bibles, After-party, Embracing the Journey).
“It is often said that the divided condition of Christendom is an evil, and so it is. But the evil consists in the existence of the errors which cause the divisions and not at all in the recognition of those errors when once they exist”. J. Gresham Machen
Love the Machen quote! My grandfather was a friend of JGM, and so I have a signed, early edition of Machen's "Christianity and Liberalism." We are still reaping the corrupt fruit of the rotten seed he warned us was being planted even in 1923.
Hmmm DuMez is calling someone out for not using scripture? Tragically funny!
Loved this piece and will comment later when I have a bit of time!
I'm still in the early chapters of Shepherds for Sale. It's great.
These excerpts from Daniel K Williams' review reminded me how treacherously subtle the enemy is. I follow the social media account of a Charismatic Episcopal Church rector ... his teachings are similarly subtle. They sound so loving, but each contains at least one nugget of heresy. He will have a LOT to answer for on Judgment Day.
Thank you Anne! I loved the book but it left me heartbroken at how lost so much of the church is and how it is leading the flock astray. Your essay gives me hope.
I appreciated Basham's book, but I wish it had been written by someone with a better understanding (or even just an acknowledgement) of Shepherds "for sale" to subversive pagan political influences on the right.
“Now that it is happening to the SBC, the PCA, the Methodists, and everyone else, it seems old hat, nay even centrist, but it is not.”
The PCA or the PCUSA?