Who are the billionaires and celebrity pastors supporting Megan Basham?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on August 15, 2024.

Megan Basham may have been given the 2024 Boniface Award for “fearless and faithful” journalism by the Association of Classical Christian Schools for taking “a stand for the Christian viewpoint … without bitterness and in a godly and grace-filled way.” But her latest book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda has evangelicals across the spectrum debating whether she should even be considered a journalist to begin with, or perhaps some kind of apologist.

Megan Basham

The book sets out to prove that many conservative evangelical influencers and institutions have been bankrolled by billionaires so Satan could infiltrate Christianity with wolves. It considers such topics as climate change, illegal immigration, the definition of “pro-life,” Christian media, COVID, Critical Race Theory, the “Me Too” movement and LGBTQ issues.

As one might expect, in every instance, Basham takes the position of the most conservative Republicans and then resorts to lies and conspiracy theories to make her case.

Kristin Du Mez explains: “In reactionary movements, ‘in-group moderates’ are the real threat — in this case, devout Christians with a public voice who do not carry water for the MAGA/Christian nationalist cause. Because I’ve had more than my share of interactions with Basham in the past, I knew her tactics: selective quoting, misrepresenting subjects, and pushing her agenda regardless of facts at hand.”

“Because I’ve had more than my share of interactions with Basham in the past, I knew her tactics: selective quoting, misrepresenting subjects, and pushing her agenda regardless of facts at hand.”

According to Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales who hosts the Holy Post podcast, Basham’s book “simply fails to present evidence of ANY leader or pastor changing their position on a social issue or theological conviction IN ORDER TO receive money or curry ‘media adulation.’ Zero. Zilch. Nada.”

Many others are making a public case against the claims in her book. But perhaps the bigger story is how Basham and the evangelicals who support her book are actually the wolves in bed with billionaires.

John MacArthur gives somber warnings in a documentary about the threat of the corrupt state overtaking the biblical church.

What kind of pastors are supporting Basham’s book?

Since Basham is concerned about who supports Christian influencers such as Phil Vischer, Andy Stanley and Kristin Du Mez, it’s fair for us to ask who is supporting her work both pastorally and financially.

Perhaps her strongest endorsement comes from John MacArthur, who says, “This may just be the single most important book on modern evangelicalism in recent years. It is bold, clear, and very well-researched.”

MacArthur is so obsessed with power that he calls the pastorate “the highest location they can ascend to — that power in the evangelical church.” When defending his church’s decision to disobey the government’s ban on churches gathering in person during COVID, his elders released a statement using the word “authority” 31 times, “right” 13 times and some form of “head,” “subject,” “command” and “rule,” at least another 70 times. In other words, the hierarchical power of authority and submission is the lens he sees the world through.

“Good Shepherds never would sacralize their own power and subjugate their sheep to sexist-fueled suffering as MacArthur has.”

Despite his opposition to abortion, he claims abortion is how the Great Commission will “produce people for heaven” from “every tongue and tribe and nation.” He says Israel was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, because they are “experiencing what the wrath of God feels like” due to “rejecting the Messiah.” He publicly disciplined a woman for not reconciling with her husband who was convicted of child molestation. He applied the curse of Ham in the book of Genesis to “pygmies in Africa” and “primitive peoples … (who) run around stabbing pigs in the jungle naked,” and then claimed “slavery is not objectionable if you have the right master. It’s the perfect scenario.”

Good Shepherds never would sacralize their own power and subjugate their sheep to sexist-fueled suffering as MacArthur has. Only a wolf would say such things. And if such a wolf is the most influential pastoral supporter of Basham’s book, what does that tell you about the book?

Ben Shapiro and Barbies ablaze

The billionaires who platformed Basham’s writing

Of course, it takes more than misogynistic ministers to fund content creation these days. And in the case of Basham, her writing is featured at The Daily Wire, which was created by Ben Shapiro, who became so irate over the Barbie movie that he lit a bunch of Barbie toys on fire, showed them melting to screaming sounds, and then yelled, “Negative all the Barbies! Negative all of them! … Negative infinity Barbies!”

But creating The Daily Wire required more than the imagination and mind of Shapiro. It needed the money of billionaire frackers Dan and Farris Wilks. Since Basham is so deeply concerned about billionaires with non-orthodox theology funding platforms for evangelical leaders today, she might be interested in putting her “journalistic” skills into practice by investigating the financial and religious motivations of the Wilks brothers who funded the platform she writes for.

Dan and Farris Wilks

Financially, the Wilks brothers are oil and gas drilling billionaires from Texas who started the hydraulic fracking company Frac Tech in 2002. After selling their 70% share in 2011 for $3.5 billion, they began purchasing land in Idaho while putting up “no trespassing signs” and attempting to stop the public from driving through on public roads. According to the Idaho Statesman, they “removed logging operations, closed Forest Service roads and blocked recreational access to land that long had been open to public use.”

Their shell company, DF Development, owns 43,000 acres in Idaho County, 61,000 acres in Adams County, 32,000 acres in Boise County and 200,000 acres of Idaho forest land.

According to Reuters, they were “the biggest donors in the 2016 race for the White House,” even spending more than the Koch brothers. They apparently don’t care about climate change, as evidenced by Farris saying, “If (God) wants the polar caps to remain in place, then he will leave them there.”

They have supported cutting off all funding to Planned Parenthood, calling abortion “murder” even in cases of rape and incest. And they say homosexuality is “a perversion tantamount to bestiality, pedophilia and incest … . It’s a predatorial lifestyle in that they need your children, and straight people having kids, to fulfill their sexual habits.”

Farris is the bishop of the Assembly of Yahweh, which doesn’t even believe Jesus is God. According to their statement of faith, “Yahweh is One, the heavenly Father alone.” If that’s not clear enough for Basham, they explicitly say, “We reject the doctrine of the Trinity.”

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.