Many influential leaders within Evangelicalism’s largest organizations (a.k.a. Big Eva) have compromised on several important issues in recent times. Issues such as Critical Social Justice, LBGTQ and gender roles, a failure to uphold the Lordship of Christ by applying a Biblical worldview to engagement in the public square and complacent acquisal to the growing government tyranny over the past few years are a few that come to mind.

This is something every Christian should mourn.¹I will be providing a lot of links to sources in this article.

However, beyond mourning, many have felt deeply indignant and aghast at the betrayal from these shepherds of the Church. In a scathing article in The Washington Times, Everett Piper echoes the sentiments of many Christians when he writes to Evangelical leaders who pandered to the Black Lives Matter Movement,

“What in the world is wrong with you? Why in God’s name would you stand in solidarity with an organization that seeks the destruction of Christianity?”

What has happened to Big Eva indeed?

The term “Big Eva” here refers to the collection of large and influential institutions and leaders who, for a while, exerted significant influence over the shape and direction of much of North American Evangelicalism. They owned the publishing houses, ran the conferences, taught in the seminaries and pastored the largest churches.

The failure to remain faithful on several cultural battles of men who were held in high regard by many for their orthodoxy to Scripture such as David Platt, Russell Moore, Matt Chandler, David French, Rick Warren, Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, and more has taken many Christians off guard. Many of these are/were a part of hugely influential movements like The Gospel Coalition, the ACTS 29 Network, the ERLC and Together For The Gospel which at one point was the centre and vanguard of the growing Reformed Evangelical movement. Personally, I benefitted greatly from many of them and they helped to shape my spiritual growth to where I am today. So, it is sad to see ministries I one found helpful compromise so drastically.

While the leftward drift of some was being called out by a few faithful prophetic voices, many other Christians were blissfully ignorant of the rot growing within the ranks of Evangelicalism’s most influential institutions.

Infiltration in Big Eva

Many may ask, “what does it profit to bring up these things again now? Why not just forget and move on?”

It matters because unless we learn from our past, we’re doomed to repeat it. And, even with all the external threats to the Church, perhaps the most dangerous are the ones that come from inside. 

In his book, “The Devil and Karl Marx”, Paul Kengor describes the strategy of Communists during the Cold War to intentionally plant communist moles and sleeper cells, not just in institutions of political power, but specifically into seminaries, denominations and churches. They understood the strategic power of being able to coopt religious institutions to further their own agenda.

The Radical Leftists, the children of Marx, also understand the strategic importance of this as well. When we see certain Big Eva leaders such as Russell Moore and Tim Keller, who seem to always nudge the Evangelical church leftward and punch right, one has to wonder to what end? At the very least, the infiltration of Leftist ideology into the Evangelical church and influential institutions should be very concerning and taken seriously.

Now, I do not at all mean to imply that all of these men are wolves or not Chrisitans. I believe that many of them may be true Christians but perhaps ignorant or misguided on the issues.

However, it is concerning that in these times of shaking, as these failures and compromise are being revealed to all, that some of these men, instead of humbly repenting have decided to slander and attack the faithful brothers and shepherds bringing the critique. Instead of seeing their error and joining the resistance against our present darkness, they doubled down on their positions and defended their compromise.

COVID Compromise and Big Eva

Now, there are many cultural issues we could examine to illustrate the compromise (such as social justice ideology, wokeness, and cultural Marxism, in this article, I want to hone in on the issue of how COVID was handled. I think that now, 4 years removed and having much better information, we are able to assess the situation more clearly.

Although there were some faithful leaders who were encouraging Christians to think cricitally about the response to the pandemic, at the very least, when we look at the leadership of many pastors and leaders within Evangelicalism, during COVID they acted as hired hands. 

They closed their churches and when the government said “jump” they said “how high?” Some delighted in virtue signalling their selfies of getting their jab on social media, donning the captions of “in this together” and how loving they were being to their faceless neighbour while forsaking their actual embodied neighbours and flock. Some even teamed up with governments to overtly spread its propaganda like Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren and former ERLC leader and Editor in Chief of Christianity Today, Russell Moore.

But why?

I think Carl R. Trueman nails it in his analysis on The Failure of Evangelical Elites:

“Within Christian circles, particularly those of the leadership class and its associated institutions, the desire to appease religion’s cultured despisers has become a powerful force.”

Dr. Carl R. Trueman

While many lay-people in churches may have never heard of these “Evangelical Elites”, many local church pastors looked to them for guidance and followed them in their compromise. They exercise significant influence over the seminaries, institutions, publishers and conferences that inform and equip many Evangelical pastors today—and unless these pastors are aware of the issues, they often will give much deferrence to them.

Francis Collins and Big Eva

Daily Wire reporter, Megan Basham, has been one of the most vocal voices exposing the corruption within Big Eva. She published an eye-opening expose piece on how the Federal Government co-opted influential Evangelical leaders to promote the COVID propaganda. These are no small names in it either.

In her article, she exposes how the former director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Francis Collins, cooperated with Ed Stetzer, who was the executive director of the Billy Graham Center, the editor-in-chief of Outreach media group, a previous editor at Christianity Today and an executive director at LifeWay, one of the largest religious publishers in the world. Stetzer said that the Billy Graham Center would partner with the Biden administration and together with the NIH and the CDC launched a website, coronavirusandthechurch.com (which is now taken down), to provide clergy Covid resources they could then convey to their congregations. These men are hugely influential within Evangelicalism and specifically towards local church pastors.

Basham reports,

During their discussion, Collins and Stetzer were hardly shy about the fact that they were asking ministers to act as the administration’s go-between with their congregants. “I want to exhort pastors once again to try to use your credibility with your flock to put forward the public health measures that we know can work,” Collins said. Stetzer replied that he sometimes hears from ministers who don’t feel comfortable preaching about Covid vaccines, and he advises them, in those cases, to simply promote the jab through social media.

“I just tell them, when you get vaccinated, post a picture and say, ‘So thankful I was able to get vaccinated,’” Stetzer said. “People need to see that it is the reasonable view.”

Collins was lifted up by various Evangelical leaders as a credible “Christian” voice that we should all listen to. I even heard this said by leaders at my former church.²Whether or not they knew all of the details about Collins, I don’t know. If not, it was certainly an oversight by them. However, I don’t believe Collins is a credible Christian voice and may in fact be a wolf.

Collins is on record stating he does not believe that life begins at conception, and while at the NIH he had given approval and participated in extreme anti-life, pro-LGBT policies. He defended experimentation on fetuses obtained by abortion, and directed record-level spending toward it. Collins funded through the NIH a University of Pittsburgh experiment grafting infant scalps onto lab rats and projects that utilized the harvested organs of aborted, full-term babies. He’s even been charged of giving money to research that extracted the kidneys, ureters, and bladders from living infants and Collins has endorsed the unrestricted funding of embryonic stem cell research. Collins also is a supporter of all the woke leftist causes like Critical Race Theory and DEI, and is an ally of LBGTQ causes. His organization, BioLogos, has been known for pushing the lines on questioning the historicity of Genesis and Adam, promoting Theistic Evolution and other issues which challenge conservative Christian views which have major theological implications.

In the very least, all of these issues and more are solid reasons to state plainly that he is hardly a trustworthy conservative Christian voice. As John G. West notes in the Federalist,

“For more than 12 years, Collins served his purpose at NIH by providing cover for the secularists to do what they wanted to do anyway. That’s not something to celebrate. It’s something to grieve.”

Big Eva Misinformation and Gaslighting the Faithful

Yet Collins was thrust as one of the authoritative sources and “experts” during the COVID debacle.

Basham notes that,

Certainly The Gospel Coalition, a publication largely written for and by pastors, didn’t probe beyond the “facts” Collins’ offered or consider any conflicts of interest the NIH director might have had before publishing several essays that cited him as almost their lone source of information. As with CT, one article by Gospel Coalition editor Joe Carter linked the reasonable hypothesis that the virus might have been human-made with wilder QAnon fantasies. It then lectured readers that spreading such ideas would damage the church’s witness in the world.

Of course, almost all of those “conspiracies” have been shown to be credible and that Collins and Fauci were aware of the virus’s origins, its possible links with the NIH funding gain-of-function research, and that they used Christian media contacts to discredit and suppress opinions they didn’t like.

Other Big Eva leaders like Russell Moore hosted webinars to encourage people to get vaxxed and mask up. New York megachurch pastor Tim Keller³There are a lot of other theological problems with Keller that I cannot get into here. The book, “Engaging with Keller”, explores some of his problematic theology. Here is a review and summary of the book. did an interview with Collins where they called John MacArthur and other faithful pastors who kept their churches open the “bad and ugly” of COVID responses. Megachurch pastor, Rich Warren, who is known to rub shoulders at the WEF, hosted Collins and equated wearing a mask to “loving one’s neighbour”. Rick Warren said, “One of the responsibilities of faith leaders is to tell people to…trust the science. They’re not going to put out a vaccine that’s going to hurt people.” Famous theologian N.T. Wright also joined in with Collins, mocking churches that continued to meet. The Gospel Coalition Canada even denied publishing an article they asked Dr. Joe Boot to write on his opposition to the COVID narrative and TGC Canada leaders sharply criticized pastors and churches who chose to take a stand.

While these Big Eva hirelings were gas lighting Christians who had questions about the official narrative, Fauci and Collins were waging their own misinformation war.

There’s a reason why a majority of Evangelical churches and leaders all had the same response to COVID. The influence these Big Eva leaders have over local church pastors is quite significant (though waning now).

It doesn’t end with COVID propaganda though. Many pastors compromise to try to appease the left. There is now a Bible Study curriculum in development to promote woke, leftist causes within conservative Evangelicalism veiled under the guise of correcting “political idolatry” with massive funding from the Rockerfeller, Ford, Tides Foundation, the Hewlett Foundations. Basham rightly notes that,

“Creating a Bible study curriculum to teach churches how to engage politics is by nature a political act. That’s even truer if you’ve turned for financial support to unbelievers committed to advancing left-wing policies. If these critics of conservative evangelicals are correct that their Trump-voting brothers and sisters are sick with political obsession, then they have the same disease. One would be hard-pressed to identify evangelical voices who’ve done more to bring a divisive focus on politics into the pews—all under the pretense of de-escalation and bipartisanship.”

But why target Evangelicalism?

Simply put, in the US, Evangelicals still represent 35% of the voting block—which is a massive group with similar and higher numbers in other countries—that the powers that be want to control. The WEF and other elites who want to usher in the Great Reset⁴That link may be taken down, here is a Rumble backup link may see Evangelicals as an important block to them achieving their goals. We’ve seen this manipulation of Christians and religion to the nefarious ends of dictators all throughout history—Hitler did it, Soviet and Chinese Communism did it. So, it’s not so far fetched really for elites to try to hijack Evangelicals to inact something so far reaching and broad.

Basham has a new book coming out that demonstrates how many Evangelical leaders helped to push a leftist agenda and continue to do so today. So, it’s not over yet. The influence of Big Eva’s Faithless Shepherds continues to be a threat.

Misguided Pastors and Hirelings

Stephen Wolfe in his insightful analysis of “The Rise and Fall of the Evangelical Elite” writes about these Big Eva leaders that,

“They exhibited naïve trust in and absurd deference to institutions and the “experts” who openly lied and laughed off charges of tyranny as they closed playgrounds and schools, dumped sand in skate parks, locked people in their homes, and insisted that loved ones die alone. One notable pastor-theologian, Jonathan Leeman, authored several articles against churches that defied COVID restrictions, including against MacArthur’s church. In the height of the pandemic and while his church was forbidden from meeting, Leeman (being very on-brand) attended a crowded BLM protest, even inviting his church to join him.”

Many more of these leaders misled their people to believe a false narrative and called dissenters divisive and unsubmissive and uncaring. They came up with erroneous interpretations of Romans 13 that compelled Christians’ consciences to submit unquestioningly to the dictates of the State.

While many local church pastors were not part of the Big Eva elite who were having interviews with Collins, they were naively disseminating the misinformation they were hearing from those leaders. But regardless of their connections to Big Eva, it doesn’t take an expert to recognize that wolves are attacking your sheep. You just need to be a simple shepherd who is attentive to and cares for the sheep.

Jesus says in John 10:12–13 that the hired hand is the one who sees the wolf coming and flees instead of defending the sheep because he cares nothing for the sheep. This is in contrast to the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Some faithless pastors had congregants who were suspended or fired from their jobs, were prevented from seeing dying loved ones, were deprived of medical treatment and even had bank accounts frozen. Some refused to write religious exemption letters for congregants who were threatened with job loss from now wanting to participate in the medical experiment. Some of these pastors even had large sums of resources at their disposal which could have been used in civil litigation cases to actually defend the rights of the oppressed (and not just signal their woke virtues) or be used to aid those in their fold who faced financial repercussions for standing on their convictions.

This is not to say that there weren’t any faithful local shepherds.

I know of faithful pastors who did support the costly stance that some of their flocks took out of their own pockets! I know of pastors who initially complied uncritically but then repented publicly later to their congregations as they gained clarity and led them courageously. I personally know several pastors who received heavy fines and charges for standing up, yet the LORD has provided for and rewarded their faithfulness. So, there are some pastors who were actual shepherds through COVID.

But the hirelings would not risk their own reputation or money to interpose for the sheep.

They sat comfortably indifferent to the situation with the job security of their church positions. They didn’t have to sit through mandatory DEI training sessions and land acknowledgements. They didn’t have to comply with vaccine mandates to keep their jobs.

And some of them did this, even when they had experts in their communities telling them that the mainstream COVID narrative was false.⁵I had to get creative with the naming of videos and how we spoke about topics like vaccines online to not get banned or taken down—hence the name of this video

Sure wearing a mask might be inconvenient and not being able to go move around freely, but we’re all in this together right?

Nevermind the fact that people lost loved ones and were not allowed to see them on their death bed because of State-led mass psychosis over fear of the air. Nevermind the fact that they had dozens of opportunities to take a stand publicly or let their people know about various rallies, declarations and petitions that could have helped turn the tide. The Great Barrington Declaration and the Niagara Declaration were published early on in the pandemic stating clearly what many refused to acknowledge. The Frankfurt Declaration was published in 2022 with many influential Reformed leaders signing it, yet largely ignored by much of Big Eva. Some pastors thought that throwing up their hands and doing nothing was somehow pious because “what could they do and what would it matter anyways”?

Well, it would have mattered immensely to the sheep they are called to shepherd (even if they failed). But furthermore, think of how much more could have been accomplished if more pastors and churches took a courageous stance? Even with the small contingent of faithful pastors and churches who did take a public stance, in Canada we saw that it was able to affect some change and slow overreach of the government. A little resistance is better than none, and there is no virtue in passivity.

For shame, it took a Trucker Convoy to do what these limp-wristed leaders were too cowardly to do.

With all their bravado and preaching over the years of “being willing to suffer for Christ”, when the opportunity came and it actually cost them something to take a stand for Christ and His Church, they crumbled like wet noodles.

They showed themselves to act as hirelings, letting the wolves ravage the sheep, with many sheep feeling lost, betrayed and bewildered.

Repentance and Integrity

Now, some pastors were genuinely misguided and misinformed. I get that.

Lest anyone think me ungracious in my assessment, I think every one of us when we were presented with the possibility of the Bubonic Plague 2.0 gave the benefit of the doubt and took the precautionary measures. I can still remember Lysolling watermelon and fruits before bringing them inside!

No one wanted to see their neighbours and loved ones die from a terrible disease and it was right when presented with a dire situation to err on the side of caution to preserve life.

So many of the narratives we were fed in 2020 have totally unravelled and objectively been shown to be false including the severity of the threat of the virus, its origin, the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, the gas-lighting of alternative treatments, the conflicts of interest between Big Pharma and regulating bodies and a myriad of other details. The facts are all there to discover, well documented and easily found for those who care to look outside of mainstream propaganda. And not just by flat-earth conspiracy wackos either. We have well-known and respected scholars in their field who risked their careers and reputations to get the truth out there.

So, what gives? Are you telling me that these pastors haven’t cared enough to look into things since then?

It would seem to me that if these leaders had a shred of integrity, it would be no big issue to confess your previous ignorance and repent of your failures to your flock.

Repentance and forgiveness are marks of the Christian life, is it not?

And at least for myself and many other godly Christians, there would be ample forgiveness and celebration over such repentance and reconciliation.

But many of these pastors haven’t actually repented, they’ve just pivoted and want people to forget what happened and move on.

Unless there is public repentance, I think that it is fair to be weary of such men—whether they have been naively duped, willfully ignorant, or maliciously complicit.

If there is to be any restoration of trust after leaders have made such a huge blunder, then public repentance is necessary. However, though some few have done so and experienced much blessing through it, many others have not and remain untrustworthy. As a result, the sheep have been scattered. But many are finding new flocks and shepherds who are faithful and a great reshuffle has been in progress in the Evangelical church.

The Great Reshuffle

God has an uncanny way of using bad for good.

As a result of the shaking, it has woken many formerly sleepy Christians and opened the eyes of many others to the reality of the situation.

Like never before, I have been hearing testimony after testimony of how God used these times to wake men out of their slumber, call them to truth faith, move them out of unhealthy churches and into faithful ones. It has made clear the importance of some of the issues which were disregarded before. There is a renewed interest in things like cultural apologetics, a biblical theology of politics, public engagement on social issues, what is true justice, biblical patriarchy and gender roles, theonomy and Postmillennialism, and a whole host of other topics.

Just a few years ago you could have never gotten much interest and far less fill a room for a conference on these. Now the conferences are packed!

Now there is a resurgence of interest in these topics and applying all of God’s Word to all of life. As Stephen Wolfe notes,

“The energy in American evangelicalism is now on the Christian right, who have become emboldened in their efforts to return America to its heritage of faith. They affirm the goodness of Christian nations, an assertive Christian politics, and the predominate heritage of faith in American history. For them, Christian politics is not loser theology, nor meant only to carve out a safe existence for churches. The goal is the complete re-Christianization of civil society, institutions, and government.”

Many churches who compromised without repentance have seen a decline in attendance and their most faithful leave to find other pastures.

At the same time, many of the churches who took a costly stance for Christ’s Lordship during the COVID era have seen major revivals. It was not uncommon to read reports from them of dozens of baptisms weekly at some points! I’ve been to these churches and seen it myself. There is an electricity of renewed passion for God’s Word and godly living, as well as a noteable hunger among the men especially that you don’t see at other churches. Just in Ontario, churches like Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Crossroads Bible Church in Ingersol, Westminster Chapel in Toronto, Hill City Baptist in Peterborough, Harvest Bible Chapel in Winsor, and Trinity Baptist Church in Burlington—to name a few—have seen their ministries grow and multiply even with all the opposition they’ve faced for staying open and faithful.⁶If you live in Ontario and are looking for a church, I’d recommend checking out one of these if you are close. There are many more lesser known churches who have also remained faithful or seen their previous error and turned.

Pagans and unbelievers who would have never stepped foot in a church before, particularly men, suddenly paid attention to churches who took a manly stance against tyranny.

Meanwhile, the effeminate churches singing Jesus is my boyfriend songs on ZOOM continued to dwindle. After convincing their congregation that ZOOM church is real church, they struggled to reverse that  gnostic view when the lockdowns subsided. All of a sudden they conveniently remembered again the proper interpretation of Hebrews 10:25 and were using it to urge their people back into the pews—perhaps too little too late.

There is a shifting of power and influence within Evangelicalism, and Big Eva’s old guard doesn’t like it. This has been seen in some of the slander and criticisms thrown toward up and coming faithful ministries that are thriving. The criticism of “The Moscow Mood” is a recent example of this. However, I’m encouraged to see at least some fruitful dialogue on the matter.

The shift is one towards more independent, smaller churches without all the glitz and production. Many men today are more attracted to strong, masculine Christianity with simple hymn and Psalm singing, deep liturgy, historic rootedness, expositional and applicational preaching, direct address of culturally taboo topics, emphasis on traditional family and building generationally, and a recovery of many of the insights of the Reformed and Puritan traditions.

In many ways, this shift is a return to the old paths that we’ve forgotten or lost.

Ministries like the Ezra Institute, Canon Press, The Fight Laugh Feast Network, Dominion Press, Rebel Podcast, Liberty Coalition Canada, Right Response Ministries, Christ Over All, The King’s Hall, Renaissance of Men, Hard Men Podcast, Apologia Studios, Bright Hearth, Reformation Red Pill, Eschatology Matters, Alpha and Omega Ministries, and many more that tackle real cultural issues of today head on and directly from an unapologetically Biblical perspective have taken off in recent years.⁷And yes, feel free to check out and subscribe to all of those links!

Now, obviously, there are exceptions to these generalized observations. I’ve known faithful churches who continue to struggle and compromised ones who continue to attract people because of their programs, big bands and lights, etc.

However, I do believe that God has done some shaking and reshuffling in the Evangelical church, the fruits of which we will see in the coming generations. Many of the churches to which the faithful are flocking are the churches currently thinking intentionally about how to build, how to fight, how to resist and stay faithful, how to embrace God’s design for the sexes and equip men to lead, and how to disciple the next generation. These churches are bursting at the seams.

And if the LORD keeps them faithful, this cannot help but shape the future of these churches and their communities.

Where Judgment Must Begin

I personally know local church pastors who likewise have compromised or been ignorant on several of these issues in the past. Their actions have been deeply disappointing and concerning.

I do sincerely pray for their repentance. I pray for the restoration of once solid Christian ministries and institutions. I pray for men who once benefitted me greatly to see their sin and turn.

What those who see these issues need to guard their hearts from is giving place to a root of bitterness. While those men are responsible for their actions, we are responsible for ours and being right does not excuse sinful dispositions. We should yearn for the unity of the church and the restoration of fallen men—especially men who have had long, faithful ministries that benefitted the saints greatly.

If we find ourselves in churches where the leadership failed, we should graciously approach the elders and seek clarity—always giving room for understanding, repentance and forgiveness. In pursuing these issues Biblically, we cannot forsake Scripture’s clear commands to honour our leaders (e.g. 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; Hebrews 13:7 &17). Our desire should always be for reconciliation. However, this does not always happen and we must be able to navigate what are legitimate reasons for leaving a church.

Many of the men listed above may be true believers and brothers in the Lord who are sincerely misled. This does not excuse their actions and speaks to their disqualification to hold such positions of influence in the Church—especially apart from explicit repentance from those errors. However, there is bountiful mercy and forgiveness available—but biblically, the prerequisite is repentance.

Every one of us falls, and the LORD is gracious to restore. If not for the grace of God, we would all be done.

Whether or not these men are false brothers, I’ll let the Lord figure that out—for he knows his own sheep. However, we know from Scripture that He does discipline every legitimate son (Hebrews 12:7–8) and that this discipline is meant to bring us to repentance. So, without public repentance for public sins, at least from an external perspective, we would have no confidence to know for certain.

Ultimately though, this whole reflection just serves to show more clearly the state of the Western Church today. And although harder times may be in our future, persecution and trials tend to be God’s sharpening stone for refining his Church. So, I have hope that while the Church in the West may look in bad shape today, the same LORD who promised that Hell’s gates won’t prevail against it is able to use the chisel of affliction to shape it more into the image of the Son.

I believe that the reform we’re already starting to see is just the beginning.

So, find yourself a church with faithful shepherds and patiently plod along in your callings, knowing that our labour is not in vain in the LORD.

“…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Ephesians 3:21

Footnotes

• 1
  I will be providing a lot of links to sources in this article.
• 2
  Whether or not they knew all of the details about Collins, I don’t know. If not, it was certainly an oversight by them.
• 3
  There are a lot of other theological problems with Keller that I cannot get into here. The book, “Engaging with Keller”, explores some of his problematic theology. Here is a review and summary of the book.
• 4
  That link may be taken down, here is a Rumble backup link
• 5
  I had to get creative with the naming of videos and how we spoke about topics like vaccines online to not get banned or taken down—hence the name of this video
• 6
  If you live in Ontario and are looking for a church, I’d recommend checking out one of these if you are close. There are many more lesser known churches who have also remained faithful or seen their previous error and turned.
• 7
  And yes, feel free to check out and subscribe to all of those links!