Church leaders: If you think you’re neutral, you’re drifting left

If I could pick one prevailing ethos that has defined much of American Evangelicalism over the last 20 years, it’s the belief that the gospel calls faithful Christians to be politically neutral. No one defined the thinking more clearly or winsomely than Tim Keller in his now-famous NYT Op-Ed, entitled: “How Do Christians Fit Into the Two-Party System? They Don't.” It was a welcome call to Christians who were still embarrassed by the Jerry Falwell “moral majority” era of American Christendom, yet who didn’t consider themselves leftists either.

Having been raised in a hardcore fundamentalist family, I entered college in the 2000s feeling some of that same embarrassment over the world I grew up in. I was enamored by what seemed to be a fresh new movement that was holding true to biblical orthodoxy while leaving the “obnoxious culture warrior” baggage of the 90s behind for good. I listened to preachers like Matt Chandler, David Platt, Tim Keller, and John Piper. I read all their books. I visited The Gospel Coalition regularly. 

But something strange happened in the ensuing two decades. Every one of these “politically neutral,” “gospel-centered” leaders and institutions, almost to the last man, drifted left politically.

There’s been a lot written about how and why this happened, the latest of which is Megan Basham’s excellent new bestseller Shepherds for Sale, which talks about how lust for money, power, influence, and respect from the world led our Evangelical leaders astray. 

It’s impossible to judge the hearts and motives of everyone involved, but I think I can safely say one thing: gospel-centered political neutrality is a myth.

Many leaders who fell into this trap have treated their faith in a very gnostic way–as a pure, untouchable thing that exists in a plane above the messiness of the physical world. These leaders look down from their elevated towers and see the two political parties as little more than two separate toolboxes. The gospel-centered Christian, they say, should have no qualms about reaching into either of these toolboxes for the best possible tool to encourage the flourishing of our neighbors. But, sadly, that’s not what politics is at all.

The particulars of the political parties aren’t just a set of neutral tools, they are a series of conclusions that follow logically from very different starting points. The politics of the right grow from the worldview of the Right. The politics of the Left grow from the worldview of the Left. There are sinners on both sides, there are imperfect solutions on both sides. But they are far from neutral. 

And right now, the culture, all our institutions, our politics, and our pop-culture, are all moving Left. Christians aren’t leading the way in this drift. At this point, they’re just along for the ride. At the highest levels of Leftism both culturally and politically, you see people who are unapologetic about their hostility towards God and everything good, true, and beautiful. The Leftist movement starts with the assumption of a godless universe populated by an animal species that through evolution can build heaven here on earth. All their politics follow from that beginning. Every power center on earth, almost without exception, is following their lead. 

We shouldn’t be surprised. The scriptures call Satan “the god of this world who has blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We are in all in a rushing river that is flowing aggressively in one direction. If you want to know what neutrality looks like in that situation, throw a stick in a river after a thunderstorm and watch what happens. 

Yes, American Evangelicalism does have a few Leftist snakes in the grass. They’re passive-aggressive, they gaslight, they sneer, they deflect. Everything they do is designed to give them plausible deniability. They can do this because that’s all they need to do. The rush of the river is doing all the work for them. Their only job is to ridicule the people who are waking up to it. But if I’m being charitable, I think those people are in the minority. Most leaders, in their zeal to transcend politics and remain neutral, have failed to see that neutrality is movement. They are simply drifting. 

We should take a cue from our savior, who left the majesty and perfection of Heaven to enter our mess. Living out our faith practically is messy. It has the potential to expose us before the world as imperfect sinful hypocrites, as all of us are. We risk losing that air of respectability. 

If working out your own salvation isn’t messy, if you aren’t making some enemies, if it doesn’t feel like you’re pushing against a rushing force of nature that’s doing everything in its power to drag you in one direction, then you’re drifting. You’re a stick in a river. And if you look at the direction of the river in 2024, you’re drifting Left. I pray the church turns around and begins to swim upstream before it washes out to sea.