Shepherds for Sale

Megan Basham

Reviewed by: Mike Myers

Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, by Megan Basham. Broadside, 2024. Hardcover, 352 pages, $32.99. Reviewed by OP pastor Mike Myers.

Many readers may have heard of Megan Basham’s book because of the controversies surrounding it. Make no mistake, it is controversial, and not just because it wades into cultural hotbeds of our day. It discusses how influential evangelical (and Reformed) leaders and institutions have been enticed into adopting socio-political-moral stances that do not clearly align with the Word of God.

In straightforward, journalistic style, Basham examines and analyzes topics including the climate change agenda, illegal immigration, abortion, the pandemic, race relations, abuse, and perversions of sexual morality. Her goal is to explore the positions that some leaders in the church have taken with respect to these issues and, more importantly, what and who has influenced them in those directions. It is this reviewer’s opinion that this book is an important read for the following reasons.

First, her writing highlights the danger and reality of church leaders being courted and targeted by worldly powers. For example, the introduction tells of how communists placed pastors on what they called “suckers lists” in the 1920s–1950s! The documentation that this existed (and similar pressures exist) is a call to pray for your pastors and elders to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work (1 Cor. 15:58).

Second, Basham sanely addresses the pressures of global and domestic political entities upon our society and churches. For many, this line of thinking can be alarming and discomforting. What compounds this problem is that many who discuss these matters do so in a manner that is largely unhelpful. Shepherds for Sale navigates this well, as the author carefully documents how some evangelical publications, centers of learning, and leaders are being steered by social pressures and questionable financial backers.

Third, this book is an encouragement to faithfulness to Jesus Christ and his Word. In the last chapter, Basham highlights how the clear witness and preaching of Charles Spurgeon was blessed by God not merely to convert sinners but also in resisting the lies of Karl Marx and socialism in his day. She connected this historical illustration to the work of Dr. Cal Beisner and the Cornwall Alliance. This single, small-budget entity has been standing in the way of global purveyors of the climate change agenda for some time. Her point is that even one seemingly insignificant but faithful witness to the truth can have far-reaching effects in a world full of deceit.

If you are skeptical of this book, I recommend beginning at the end. The first half of the final chapter is autobiographical, and it reveals the heart behind a book that is direct and hard hitting. Knowing the author may help the reader hear what she has to say, and while you may not agree with everything, it may help you listen to her in a more understanding way.

In every generation, the church has a responsibility to walk worthy of its calling (Eph. 4:1). This includes coming to terms with the world that stands in defiance against the Lord and his anointed (Ps. 2:2). Basham’s book calls for the church to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16), and to resist being conformed to this world (Rom. 12:1). This is an encouragement the church always needs to hear.