Left-wing money is destroying evangelical Christian institutions, said Megan Basham, culture reporter for the Daily Wire, in a speech this week.

“It’s the most tried and true journalistic advice: Follow the money,” Basham said. “About 10 years ago, foundations funded by secular billionaires began to take a serious interest in overcoming the problem of evangelical resistance.”

The Dow Journalism Program sponsored Basham’s speech, titled “Bad Shepherds: How Evangelical Leaders are Smuggling Leftism into the Church.” The talk revealed many ways in which leftist groups have put large amounts of money towards corrupting the Christian church. Her book on the subject is scheduled for publication in 2024.

The reason Christian institutions are targeted this way, Basham said, is ultimately because of the influence they have at the polls.

“Evangelicals are simply America’s most powerful voting block,” Basham said. “So they don’t always win at the ballot box. But in most regions of the country, they represent the most significant hurdle to leftist power grabs.”

In response to this, many left-wing groups monetarily began to support Christian organizations with intentions of promoting their own agenda. They do this, Basham said, by manipulating pastors and leaders into thinking their beliefs are incongruent with the rest of society and that they should change what they believe. 

Basham used the term “astroturf” to describe the inauthenticity of this movement, mentioning big-name pastors, authors, and publications, such as Christianity Today.

“It’s a form of manipulation that uses influential personalities, who do things like get interviews and publish essays claiming to represent a group in order to convince you that everyone else agrees that this is a reasonable, respectable opinion,” Basham said. “If you don’t want to be left alone, or thought unintelligent or heartless, even then you better adopt that opinion.”

Ben Cuthbert, pastor of College Baptist Church, attended the speech and said it was informative.

“What was eye-opening for me, was the fact that there is funding coming from left-wing political movements that have infiltrated evangelical organizations that I wouldn’t have known before I came here,” he said.  

Basham focused on immigration and LGBT rights as two ideas left-wing organizations like George Soros’s Open Society Foundation,  a left-wing group that, according to their website funds “independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights,” have used to divide Christians.

“Open Society was planning to spread a lot of money around to Christian organizations to spread its messages,” Basham said.

Audience members said they were startled by the fact that secular groups would so deceptively infiltrate evangelical groups.

“It’s not a conspiracy to say that non-Christian causes are using money to infiltrate resources,” freshman Sophia Mandt said. “I think that it has been a conspiracy because we don’t have evidence, so it was interesting to listen to a speech in which actual evidence was provided.”

Freshman Lauren Bixler said it was alarming to learn how many areas of society have been invaded by leftist groups. 

“All the evidence was there and it was just a solid reminder that in every facet of life is being taken over by the left,” she said. “We can’t escape it, and we forget how much it’s really taken over our society and that there’s an open attack on every aspect of life. And if we don’t recognize it, then every protected institution is going to be destroyed.”

Assistant Professor of History Miles Smith also attended the speech and said he was alarmed by the corruption present in many evangelical organizations. Smith said he grew up around these groups and has had intuitions about the problems Basham spoke on.

“Megan was like ‘Yeah, that intuition you have, it’s actually happening, and here’s all the receipts for why it’s actually happening,’” Smith said.

Despite Basham having detailed  a long list of negative events and unethical actions, she ended the speech on a positive note, quoting Presbyterian scholar Gresham Machen and encouraging Christian audience members that despite all the evil happening in the world, there is still work to be done through hope in Christ. 

Cuthbert said he appreciated Basham’s optimistic outlook and encouragement to the audience.

“What was encouraging was where she landed with the supremacy of God’s word being at the heart of churches and Christian journalism,” he said.

Basham told the audience that now is the time for action.

“I will say now is our moment,” Basham said. “Whether we do it with the tools of journalism, exposing the deeds of darkness, or whether we do that from our pulpits, or speaking to our friends, and acknowledging what is happening is our moment to pray that the Lord will strengthen our hands and embolden our hearts for the task.”