It’s not just “liberals” who draw Tucker Carlson’s scorn these days. Even some stalwarts of evangelical conservativism are too “woke” to please the acerbic Fox News personality.
On Thursday, March 2, Carlson called out Russell Moore, Tim Keller, Beth Moore and David French as “breastfeeding Christians” who won’t stand up for religious liberty as defined by Carlson.
Carlson, whose documented lies about the 2020 presidential election are at the center of not one but two major court cases that could put Fox News out of business, carries tremendous weight with conservative evangelicals and conservative Republican voters. And this isn’t the first time Moore, Moore, Keller and French have felt the ire of that very rock from which they were hewn.
Far-right critics inside the Southern Baptist Convention ran Russell Moore out of his previous job as head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. That same crowd drove Beth Moore from her longtime home as a Southern Baptist Bible teacher and author. French and Keller likewise have been accused of being too conciliatory toward the enemies of conservatism and not loyal to former President Donald Trump.
Carlson’s latest grievance against these four is that they haven’t spoken out against Attorney General Merrick Garland and the U.S. Justice Department for arresting and prosecuting activists who allegedly blocked access to abortion clinics while failing to arrest those who attack anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.
Carlson tapped into a hot-button issue for conservative evangelicals.
In this, Carlson tapped into a hot-button issue for conservative evangelicals who — despite winning a major victory when the U.S. Supreme Court last summer overturned Roe v. Wade — believe they are being persecuted and attacked for their beliefs while pro-abortion activists get a free pass.
The two most high-profile symbols of that alleged persecution are Mark Houck and Paul Vaughn, both arrested on federal charges for blocking access to abortion clinics. They are cause celebre in the world of anti-abortion activists.
Russell Moore
Carlson lumped Moore, Moore, Keller and French in with the “weakest president in history” and the “weakest attorney general in history” because they have not spoken against the Biden administration’s “police state.”
The Fox News host declared: “Garland has presided over the most aggressive attack on civil liberties, in particular an attack on the practice of traditional Christianity, that any living American has seen.”
Carlson played a video clip of FBI agents banging on the door of Vaughn’s home and said this was Garland sending FBI agents to “terrorize Vaughn and his 11 children at their home.”
“You have to wonder when you see a tape like that, where are so-called Christian leaders,” Carlson asked. “Where’s Russell Moore and all the other breastfeeding Christians as that happens, as the U.S. government cracks down on Christianity, on prayer? Silent. Paul Vaughn and his co-conspirators now face more than a decade in prison.”
Later, Carlson expanded his hit list beyond Russell Moore: “You have to wonder that again. Where’s David French and Beth Moore and Tim Keller and all these people who are defending Christianity as actual Christians are being arrested for being Christians? Hmm. Not a word.”
He contrasted the beliefs of faithful Christians with the actions of children who are “narcissists” and think they can change their gender. “Young people raised to believe that God is in charge are much harder for the government to control as they grow up,” Carlson declared.
He then added: “All governments hate religious people. … It happened in the French Revolution, (it) happened in the Bolshevik Revolution, and it’s happening now.”
Russell Moore responded to Carlson with a tweet simply quoting 1 Peter 2:1-3 — “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
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