Megan Basham is lying again

Many of us keep wondering how the evangelical church could have wandered so far into the wilderness of untruth. The answer is evangelical influencers like Megan Basham.

She’s not alone, however. She’s in a select group of evangelical liars that includes both people and institutions, from James Dobson to Sean Feucht to Mark Driscoll to John MacArthur to Majorie Taylor Greene to JD Vance to Focus on the Family to Alliance Defending Freedom.

There’s a whole cottage industry of evangelical liars who keep the outrage stirred. And they reap in huge amounts of money from donors and product sales. Basham is Exhibit A in this profit-reaping with her new book, Shepherds for Sale, that is a bestseller those mentioned in it say also is full of lies and misrepresentations.

Her day job seems to be keeping the outrage boiling on X, where she posts some of the most incendiary stuff out there and alleges to represent a biblical worldview. If her worldview is biblical, the Bible ought to be banned.

“Her day job seems to be keeping the outrage boiling on X, where she posts some of the most incendiary stuff out there.”

This is a person who has 127,000 followers on X and countless more through the Daily Wire website, which is a far-right propaganda machine. We’ve written before about her distorted influence.

The latest example, however, is so demonstrably false and so damaging that it must be called out.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, she is going after the Biden administration and FEMA. On Oct. 4, she posted on X:

As details emerge about the funding FEMA has spent on illegal immigrants, I’m reminded of Matthew 15:24 when Christ tells the Canaanite woman — “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

We see how Jesus ministered to his people first. As the woman humbly sought the “crumbs” of mercy that fell from Israel’s table, Jesus praised and rewarded her faith.

But he did so while indicating that his first priority was to the “house of Israel.”

If only our government similarly prioritized its own people first before its mercy was extended to others. Instead, it inverts this approach.

She says this while reposting a video from Glenn Beck, who screams: “How is the US GOVERNMENT running out of money for Hurricane Helene victims?! They were able to find $63.1 BILLION and counting for Ukraine. FEMA spent over a BILLION on illegal immigrants. But the Americans in Appalachia? $750 bucks. THIS IS AN INSULT.”

Both Basham and Beck are amplifying Donald Trump’s lie that the Biden administration has somehow squandered so much money caring for immigrants that it can’t help Americans suffering from a flood.

The whole thing is a big fat lie.

“The very story Basham is selling earned Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post fact checkers.”

The very story Basham is selling earned Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post fact checkers.

Basham and Beck are quoting a lie spread by Trump that not only is a lie but criticizes what Trump himself did as president. This is typical Trumpian projection.

Here’s what Trump said Oct. 3: “The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money (for hurricane relief). … They spent it all on illegal migrants. … They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them.”

From the fact checkers: “Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.”

And this: “Even though Trump was once president, he still appears to have little clue about the appropriations process. What’s even richer is that when he was president, he did exactly what he claims Biden did — take money from FEMA’s disaster fund to fund migrant programs at the southern border.”

The true story is that last Wednesday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters: “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”

What the White House is asking for is a continuing resolution from Congress to ensure there are funds for future disasters in this fiscal year as natural disasters increase in frequency.

“These claims are completely false.”

As for spending money on migrants, that’s money Congress appropriated for that purpose.

He’s apparently referencing FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which gives grants to local governments and nonprofits to take care of undocumented immigrants. Congress — not the White House — increased that budget from $360 million in fiscal year 2023 to $650 million in fiscal year 2024. This provides shelter, such as hotel/motel services, food and transportation, including plane tickets up to $700 a person.

This is not disaster relief money moved.

“These claims are completely false,” DHS said in a statement. “As Secretary Mayorkas said, FEMA has the necessary resources to meet the immediate needs associated with Hurricane Helene and other disasters. The Shelter and Services Program is a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams.”

What’s also behind Basham’s lie is the conservative evangelical Republican Trumpian assumption that immigrants are stealing from Americans — stealing jobs, stealing pets, stealing government aid. Again, all lies. But these simplistic stories resonate with a base that’s always on the lookout for a new way to be offended.

And Basham is all too eager to twist Scripture to justify their fears.

In quoting the Bible story about even the dogs getting scraps from the table, she later added: “Of course I am not calling illegal immigrants dogs in directly quoting this verse. I’m simply discussing a principle reflected in it. But it’s telling that progressives find the actual language of the Bible so scandalous.”

“Basham wouldn’t recognize the actual language of the Bible if John MacArthur read it to her verbatim.”

Basham wouldn’t recognize the actual language of the Bible if John MacArthur read it to her verbatim. She and he are notorious for twisting the biblical text to say what their biases demand it say — even to the point of denying the reality of the Golden Rule.

The Bible is absolutely clear — without equivocation or qualification — on caring for immigrants driven from their homes. And yet Basham and Co. twist the very word of Scripture just as they twist modern-day facts.

Why would Trump assume Biden raided the FEMA disaster fund to handle undocumented migrants? Because, it turns out, that’s what he did.

From the Post: “In 2019, the Trump administration, in the middle of hurricane season, told Congress that it was taking $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who had been forced to wait in Mexico. … The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was plucked and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August that year — just before the prime storm period of September and October.”

You might remember that time. It’s when the Trump administration separated kids from their parents at the border and shipped those kids all over America and then couldn’t find them.

Once again, evangelicals and Trump supporters have been lied to and duped.