10 examples of conservative evangelicals turning truth into dangerous lies

Conservative evangelicals claim to be the arbiters of truth in a post-truth world. But if we take a moment to consider how the last few months have gone, we’ll notice a pattern emerge. Story after story, conservatives are the ones who seem to be living in a post-truth world caused by the arrogant nature of their worldview.

“There is no way, according to the Christian worldview, for truth to exist independent of the one who is indeed the source of all truth,” argues Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “This is one of [the] most basic arguments for the existence of God, a very persuasive argument taken on its own, and it is also read backward in terms of the Christian worldview, why we understand that if we are entering a new secular age, it is going to be virtually by definition a post-truth age.”

Mohler — who is championing Donald Trump in the presidential election — says the crisis of truth in the White House “was preceded by a crisis of truth in the academy and furthermore, by a crisis of truth that was driven by and celebrated by those in the cultural and intellectual elites, including those who were very popular and influential in entertainment, as well as other dimensions of mass culture.”

In these words, Mohler pretends to be making an intellectual case for basic, objective universal truth while appealing to the conservative evangelical persecution complex that fears being dismissed or mocked by elites and celebrities. But what he’s objectively saying is that truth is determined by his worldview, and therefore any alternative perspective is untrue.

So a claim is true simply because it’s Mohler’s perspective, whether data affirms his claim or not. And he is not alone in this view; it is the dominant view of other evangelical leaders.

One of the writers countering this narrative in recent years is BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield, who has written two books and multiple articles about the meaning of biblical truth.

In his book Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves, he writes: “Most of us are not lacking in access to information. What we lack is a willingness to consider all the available information and think critically about it.” Then he suggests, “Critical thinking requires humility — something in even shorter supply than truth these days.”

“There is no humility in Mohler’s truth hierarchy.”

Wingfield’s pairing of truth and humility is a stark contrast to Mohler’s claim that his worldview alone is the objective, universal standard-bearer for all truth. There is no humility in Mohler’s truth hierarchy, no reason to listen to those who might have additional data or input. There is simply the demand that everyone else submit to Mohler or be feared as a threat to truth. Talk about being a cultural and intellectual elite.

Here are 10 examples of conservative evangelicals being “post-truth” over the past few months, explanations on why they’re wrong, and examinations of the harm their denial of truth is causing.

Persecuting LGBTQ kids

During the 2024 Pride month panic, conservatives such as Megan Basham, the American Family Association, the Catholic Herald and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma all claimed President Joe Biden and the liberals were persecuting LGBTQ kids by preventing nonaffirming conservative evangelical foster parents from taking care of them.

In reality, the law signed by Biden allowed for a custom, consent-based care plan for all kids that allowed LGBTQ kids to be placed in homes that signed off on being willing to offer a “safe and appropriate placement” for them.

The result of conservative evangelical opposition to this law is that LGBTQ kids who are running away from homes that are abusing them due to their sexual orientation or gender identity would be placed in homes that agree they should be stigmatized over their orientation or identity.

Blaming ‘the media’ for violent rhetoric leading to violent actions

With Trump being whisked away by the FBI after being shot, his supporters immediately turned around to face the media and began shouting, “This is your fault!” Officials such as JD Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene spread the lie that Trump being shot was the result of the media riling up people to become violent based on their negative rhetoric about Trump.

The same thing happened this week after a would-be assassin hid in bushes alongside Trump’s golf course and failed to shoot him. Trump and Vance and their allies immediately blamed Biden and the Democrats for inciting hatred of Trump.

In reality, the first shooter was a Republican and there was no evidence at all that his assassination attempt was caused by Biden or the Democrats. Same for the second shooter, whose stated political views were all over the map.

These baseless conspiracy theories distract from the reality that Trump and his supporters are the ones using violent rhetoric against the left. It creates the illusion that the people we should trust are the ones who are more likely to promote authoritarian violence than any other group in the nation.

Lying about Imane Khelif’s gender

As the 2024 Olympic Games kicked off, conservative evangelicals jumped from their panic over the opening ceremony to claims that Olympic boxing platformed men punching women in the face. Their claim was that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was a man pretending to be a woman. Then conservatives spread photos all over social media of Italian boxer Angela Carini crying after stopping her fight against Khelif. They claimed Carini was a victim of abuse.

In reality, Imane Khelif is not a man and is not transgender. In fact, if she were, she would face prosecution from her country, in which being transgender is illegal.

The result of the conservative panic was that Khelif was the one being abused and threatened, while transgender kids around the world also had to suffer in silence and shame over nothing.

Attempting to influence the election by cheating

During the self-proclaimed “Third Great Awakening” of The Courage Tour, conservatives are claiming the 2020 election was stolen, a lie Trump continued to promote during the Sept. 10 debate debacle against Kamala Harris.

In reality, Trump and his truthers continue to provide zero evidence the election was fraudulent. And they’re helping election denying conspiracy theorists sign up to be the official election workers counting the votes in 2024 as part of a “Trojan Horse” strategy that Democrats “don’t see … coming” in order to “help deliver the 2024 election to Donald Trump.”

The result of their dishonesty and deception is that they’re causing the very undermining of our institutions and rights they claim Democrats are attacking.

Promoting ‘in-house apologetics’ funded by billionaires

In Megan Basham’s second appearance on this list of lies, she released a book claiming Christians, including conservative ones, who don’t promote the MAGA and Christian nationalist cause are wolves funded by billionaires.

In reality, she writes from a platform that was funded by a billionaire and is part of a political movement that has been built by billionaires who have plans to punish other companies if Trump and Vance rise to power.

The result, as Kristin Du Mez has so effectively pointed out, is that the Christian faith is being corrupted and the United States is being fractured as truth is sacrificed on the altar of power sacralized by Basham’s fast and loose apologetics.

Accusing women and doctors of executing babies

During last week’s presidential debate, Trump claimed women and doctors who are Democrats want to execute babies. “You can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia,” he suggested. “He said ‘the baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we’ll execute the baby.’”

In reality, as ABC News debate moderator Linsey Davis said in response to him, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”

Trump’s comments likely were in reference to former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam saying during an interview in 2019 that in a case of a nonviable fetus with severe deformities, one proposed bill could ensure keeping the infant comfortable and resuscitating them “if that’s what the mother and family desired.” But as CNN reports, “the bill never became law.”

Despite the scary rhetoric, only 0.9% of abortions are reported to the CDC as happening after 21 weeks of gestation. CNN interviewed Diane Horvath, chief medical officer of Partners in Abortion Care, who said Northam’s words “appeared to be referring to — when a baby is born but not expected to live very long — as ‘hospice for babies.’”

The result of riling up the right with accusations of Democrats executing babies is that women across the nation are now having their lives endangered due to doctors being unsure of how to care for them in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the criminalization of anything the religious right might consider to be abortion.

Claiming Haitians are eating our cats and dogs

In what has become the most talked-about moment of the debate, Trump claimed Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating the dogs, cats and pets of Springfield residents. Since then, he’s doubled down on his claim, leading his supporters to continue piling on. Not only has his running mate, JD Vance, continued to spin the story in interviews, but Trump’s son Don Jr. said to conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, “You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average IQ — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world. That’s just basic. It’s not racist. It’s just fact.”

In reality, according to NBC News, the rumors began in August by a neo-Nazi group called Blood Tribe. Also, the woman in the video being spread by conservatives who is being accused of eating a cat is not from Springfield, but from Canton. And she’s an American. The Springfield city manager’s office said there is no evidence Trump’s story is true.

Additionally, most of the immigrants in Springfield are there legally, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary. And to Vance’s claim that Haitians in Springfield are eating geese, CNN’s Dana Bash said, “The Clark County sheriff and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reviewed 11 months of 911 calls. They only identified two instances of people alleging Haitians were taking geese out of parks. They found zero evidence to substantiate those claims.”

The results of these lies are that conservatives throughout the country think Haitian immigrants are less intelligent, and they are afraid of immigrants, which is putting immigrants everywhere in danger. In fact, elementary schools in Springfield have had to be evacuated due to bomb threats, which Trump refused to condemn over the weekend, saying the real problem is the immigrants.

Insisting Venezuelan crime rates are down because they’re coming here

At a rally in Wisconsin on April 2, Trump claimed, “Crime is down in Venezuela by 67% because they’re taking their gangs and their criminals and depositing them very nicely into the United States.” Then he added, “Wouldn’t we love to have a statistic where crime is down 67%? Ours is only going in one direction.” As he spoke, he pointed up. It’s also a claim he repeated during last week’s presidential debate.

The reality is that while the 67% number is made up, there has been a 25% decrease in violent deaths in Venezuela from 2021 to 2022. The reason isn’t due to migrants coming to the United States, but due to “hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages and human rights abuses” that have taken away opportunities for crime. Additionally, crime has become more organized, which has limited the violence of small gangs.

“Violent crimes in the U.S. have gone down under the Biden administration — the exact opposite of what Trump claims.”

According to Amnesty International, most of the people leaving are victims of crimes and have migrated to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile. And despite an Instagram post from March 29 claiming, “FBI Now Admitting That Venezuela Emptied Their Prisons And sent their Inmates to U.S.,” replete with capitalization errors, there is no evidence of this anywhere.

Also, violent crimes in the U.S. have gone down under the Biden administration — the exact opposite of what Trump claims.

The result of these lies is that conservatives continue to foment fear about immigrants, which is further fueling the bomb threats against schools and hospitals Trump doesn’t seem to care about.

Denying any involvement in Project 2025

As his campaign has been hurt by concerns about Project 2025, Trump has denied being connected with it, attempting to play the part of Pontius Pilate while washing his hands of what Christian nationalists have planned for our country.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” he claims. And many conservative evangelicals have spread the news, claiming those of us on the left who mention Project 2025 are lying conspiracy theorists ourselves.

The reality is that CNN found “at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025 … including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and longtime adviser Stephen Miller … (as well as) his impeachment attorney Jay Sekulow and two of the legal architects of his failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Cleta Mitchell and John Eastman.” Additionally, JD Vance wrote the foreword for a book by Kevin Roberts, leader of Project 2025, hailing its “fundamentally Christian view of culture and economics.”

The result of these lies is that the damage to Trump’s campaign has been lessened, while the plans of authoritarian Christians are continuing to move forward toward the destruction of our democracy, which its billionaire backers explicitly fantasize about.

Pretending the Ark Encounter is biblical

Perhaps nothing on the planet says, “We deny reality” like the presence of a gigantic ark in Kentucky run by pseudoscientist and conspiracy theorist Ken Ham.

For the Aug. 7 episode of NPR’s “Extremely American” podcast, Heath Druzin and James Dawson shared their experience at the Ark Encounter’s conference on Christian nationalism.

“I want the authority of the Lord Jesus to be confessed by the House and the Senate, and I want the president to sign it,” Idaho pastor Doug Wilson said. They claimed non-Christians should not be allowed to hold political office, women’s votes should be cast by their husbands, Christians should control the schools, and atheists should be “less free” by no longer being allowed to hold office or even be CEOs of businesses. These are not my accusations. Listen to the audio for yourself.

The reality is that according to Public Religion Research Institute, 29% of Americans agree with Christian nationalism, two-thirds of whom identify as white evangelical. And these aren’t the rantings of a few weird people on a gigantic fake boat in the middle of Kentucky. They’re espousing many of the very ideas JD Vance has promoted. And Trump himself told the National Religious Broadcasters that if he gets reelected, “You’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used it before.”

The result of this vision would be a society in which only conservative evangelical men would have any say on virtually anything. Nobody else would get to hold office, teach children or be CEOs. And women would be relegated to the kitchen and the bed, which Al Mohler certainly would be delighted to see.

They’re just loud and mean

In each of these 10 stories, conservative Christians have been bombastically arrogant and completely wrong. But when they’re shown to be wrong, they don’t apologize and change their minds. Instead, they either double down with even more convoluted conspiracies or divert the attention to the next story they’ve created to get attention.

“When they’re shown to be wrong, they don’t apologize and change their minds.”

In Troubling the Truth: And Other Tales from the News, Mark Wingfield reminds us: “The bullies are not the majority. They’re just loud and mean. And too many good people continue to sit idly by and let them wreak havoc.”

As I consider these 10 stories, that’s my takeaway. It can be discouraging to hear these bullies be loud and mean every day and to become aware of the very real harm they’re causing. But we are the majority. So in seven weeks, let’s remember what they’ve done to truth, and then let’s not sit by and let them wreak havoc.

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.

 

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