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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: [unidentified voice in the background] And I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we're talking about the influence of left-wing billionaires on American Christians and how they vote. Joining me is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham, author of the new book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Megan, let's dive right in. You've been researching this topic for a while now. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've found?
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--:-- Megan Basham: Evangelical Christians make up roughly 30% of the electorate, leading the legacy media to name them America's most powerful voting bloc. In the past, they have overwhelmingly supported the GOP, but recent elections suggest that could be changing, thanks in part to secular foundations on the left that have devoted significant money to capturing evangelical institutions and changing evangelical votes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's fascinating. In your book, you talk about the history of this phenomenon, dating back to the 1930s and 40s with the Communist Party USA. Can you tell us more about that?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, you know, so I thought it was really important to start the book out with that because you want to remind people that this is not the first time that we've seen activity like this. So in the 30s and 40s, you saw the Communist Party USA infiltrate churches in a very deliberate way in order to sway their views on politics and on social justice and on Marxism.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really interesting. And you also talk about the connection between George Soros and evangelical institutions. Can you explain that to our listeners?
--:-- Megan Basham: So essentially what you're seeing is something very similar to what I just described with the Communist Party USA. So right around 2013, George Soros's Open Society Foundation began to write internal memos that later leaked where they talked about the fact that they were running into a roadblock getting their policy preferences enacted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what was that roadblock?
--:-- Megan Basham: And they recognized that what that roadblock was, was religious Americans, specifically evangelicals.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And how did they plan to overcome that roadblock?
--:-- Megan Basham: And so in this discussion among various members of Open Society's board, the question came up, how do we harness that power of religious life for ourselves? And they spoke about things like distributing grants to influencers and other church members and well-known leaders who would then be able to use their influence with the rank and file to get them to sign on to policies that typically you don't see a lot of Christians agreeing with.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really disturbing. And you also talk about how these secular influences are using language that sounds Christian, but is actually just a way to manipulate people into supporting their policies.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, well, typically gospel issue would mean something that pertains to salvation. So if you're a Christian, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ died on the cross as the propitiation for our sins. And it is only through faith in him alone that we are able to obtain salvation and eternal life.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And how do you think this has affected the way evangelicals vote?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, I think there's different motivations for different evangelical leadership. In some cases, I think you can point to some fairly transactional arrangements. So when you see a group like the National Association of Evangelicals, which was once so conservative that Ronald Reagan gave his famous evil empire speech to its national convention, suddenly partnering with these left-wing foundations to do things like promote climate change legislation to Christians.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really interesting. And what about the idea that some evangelicals are being accused of being "political" if they resist being drafted into this project?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah. So when you see some of these evangelical environmental activists lobbying for climate change, if they say you're doing this because you believe it is a gospel issue, again, then people are much more likely to sign on. And if you conversely using the stick say if you do not sign on to this program that is proof that you have been politicized then that's really a way if you haven't given the matter a lot of thought to say well I don't want to be viewed as someone who been politicized.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really insightful. And finally, what advice would you give to our listeners who are concerned about this issue?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, a few things that I think we can go back to how we opened this discussion, which was how the Communist Party USA did it in the 1940s and 50s and how it continues today is using that lingo. So if your church is suddenly using phrases like creation care, but they're not being very specific about what they mean by that, and they're not tying it to specific scripture, but at the same time suggesting that you need to engage in activism on some political policy, to me, that would be a red flag.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights on this very important topic.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham discussing her new book, Shepherds for Sale, out July 30th. And this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
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