Shepherds for Sale or What Happens When Christians are Too Nice

The consequences of churches being too slow to cancel

Over at Stand Firm yesterday, I posted my book review of Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale.  The book is getting a lot of attention and, to a lesser extent, so is my review.  Good!  I want this book to succeed, and it really is a must read, particularly for my frequent readers.  So do go read my review if you haven’t already and help out by spreading it around.

Here I want to use Shepherds for Sale as a stepping off point to continue the discussion among several substacks on “right-wing” cancelling.  The hijacking of evangelicalism documented by Basham illustrates what can happen if churches and Christians are too slow to cancel.

That Christians should cancel at all may seem strange to some readers.  But Scripture commands a sort of cancelling, especially when it comes to false teachers within the church.  That is the main subject of the short epistle, 2nd John.  The church is instructed to not even give a greeting to a false teacher; “for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”  (vv. 10,11)

If you think that’s harsh then don’t read St. Paul in his letter to the church in Galatia.  Actually, do read it.  Early on, he writes:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (1:6-9)

That is more cancelling than cancelling! And these are just two passages on false teachers and how to deal with them.  There are several others, not to mention the frequently spicy and mocking writings of the church Fathers who came after the Apostles.

This vehemence did not come out of petty intolerance of disagreement.  St. Paul himself frequently urged churches to avoid arguments and divisions over less important matters.  Still, the Apostles and Fathers were passionate about passing on the Faith from generation to generation.  And they knew that false teaching could spread and pollute churches so they teach not the Faith but false Gospels.  Therefore the Apostles and Fathers insisted on orthodoxy, particularly from teachers, and on church discipline, on dealing with the errant even to the point of what we call cancelling if needed.

And church history has proven them right!  In the 4th century much of the church was taken over by the Arian heresy that denied that Jesus was God!    In the 20th century the mainline Protestant denominations fell away from the Faith into apostasy.  In the 21st century, much of the Church of Rome seems to be in a hurry to follow them.

Evangelicals are not that far gone — yet, for the most part.  But as Shepherds for Sale documents, many of their churches and institutions have been hijacked to be tools for the Regime and for Critical Theory, not unlike the “German Christians” under Nazism or the Liberation Theologians under the influence of Communism.  This has happened in part because the laity and more sound leaders were slow to stand up and say “No!”

The recent and still current slowness is understandable and not just because we’d rather get along in church.  False teachers have always cloaked their unfaithfulness with pious language.  Basham notes how “Love your neighbor” has been hijacked to push COVID compliance and LGBTQXYZ capitulation.  “Justice”, “love”, and “racism” are among the many words the woke church cabal have hijacked.  Gutting good words and filling them with divisive definitions is core to Critical Theory.  But such manipulations are nothing new.  Marxists redefined “democracy” in the 20th Century.  “Mainline” liberal church leaders kept using Christian words as they jettisoned the Christian faith so that the laity were slow to catch on.

So slowness to catch and stop pseudo-pious deception in the church is understandable.  In the case of the waves of wokeness that have flooded evangelicals and other orthodox churches, I’m sure most at first thought, “Yeah, we should oppose racism and promote justice and love our neighbor” etc., not realizing those good principles had already been redefined for evil purposes.  Nonetheless, we have to be more alert and quick to say, “Wait a minute.”

I am not saying cancelling should be the first step. (And in the case of seekers or laity, it usually should not be done at all.  Teachers are to be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)) Well meaning leaders can be deceived, too, and may be open to correction.  So at first you lovingly confront and correct.  If they don’t respond, you make it more clear their error is not acceptable, perhaps becoming more public and bringing cohorts with you.  If at that point the leaders continue in error or even double down, you expose them and get them fired or, failing that, you move on to another church if he’s the leader of your church.  This might seem overdoing it, but as I’ve oft said: A church that does not care enough about the Faith to discipline does not care enough about the Faith, period.

And that is one reason the Southern Baptists’ failure so far to deal with Brent Leatherwood and the ERLC is disturbing.

But this process of church discipline should start early on.  It is much easier to defeat error early than after the errant have consolidated power in your church or institution. Shepherds for Sale documents an important ongoing episode of what can happen and has happened when church people are too slow to insist on church discipline, even to cancel.

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To clarify, even when churches “cancel”, they should do so in hope of eventual repentance, forgiveness and restoration.  St. Paul dealing with gross immorality in the church at Corinth illustrates that well in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 2:5-8.

At the same time, whether errant but repentant leaders should be restored to their previous positions of authority is a complex question, and I’m not going to dive into that here.

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Yes, I know “Shepherds for Sale” is not italicized in the title. Substack would not let me do that. Grrr.