America’s Most Influential Baptists?

A front-page Washington Post story on President Trump’s “blasphemous” imagery portraying him as a healing Jesus quoted prominent Christian social influencers and no leading clergy or denominational officials. The first and most prominently quoted was online firebrand Megan Basham, a Southern Baptist who wrote Shepherds for Sale: A Study of Modern Evangelical Conflict and Influence.

As an online influencer, Basham is among the most influential Baptists in America .

The Washington Post quoted her :

“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham_, a prominent conservative Protestant Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”_

A separate Washington Post story about Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo also quoted Basham:

Megan Basham, a conservative evangelical commentator, posted that she agreed with Trump’s criticisms of Leo as “Weak on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” But she assailed his meme as “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy” and urged Trump to “ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”

The first story quoted two other social influencers but no clergy or church officials. The second post quoted, among others, Christian Nationalist theologian Doug Wilson and a not-well-known Southern Baptist pastor who is running to become his convention’s president. The current Southern Baptist president, although head of America’s largest Protestant denomination, was not quoted. He does not appear frequently in media. And, frankly, I do not even know his name without looking it up.

Assuming Basham is still a Southern Baptist, she is arguably the most prominent voice of her denomination in America and for Baptists overall. She has over 200,000 followers on X, a best-selling book, and writes for The Daily Wire. Nearly every day she pontificates on religious and political issues. Her audience includes evangelicals and conservatives of all stripes. She has a wider following than any officer in her denomination. She has many critics.

Basham’s competition for top Southern Baptist influencer is Allie Beth Stuckey, who has nearly 600,000 followers on X and also has written a best-selling book, Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion. Stuckey typically has not been as polemical or political, but she is catching up to Basham. On April 3 she was quoted in The Washington Post reacting to Pope Leo’s criticism of the Iran War:

“To say that God is against war per se is flat out false,” declared the conservative American pundit Allie Beth Stuckey on X.

Basham and Stuckey represent the new face of Christianity in America. They do not have church offices and are not seminary trained. Their denomination prohibits female pastors, but Basham and Stuckey are arguably more influential than any pastor. They are savvy polemicists who fire their arrows ferociously, especially Basham. Her critics say she is unfair and inaccurate in her allegations of gospel betrayal by other Christians whom she deems covertly or overtly progressive. Of course, the controversy only builds her influence and expands her reach. She can say what more judicious clergy, church officers, and institutional heads cannot.

Amid widespread distrust of institutions and conventional expertise, we are in the age of social influencers, and Christianity is not exempted. Evangelicalism has never been very institutional and, unsurprisingly, is especially susceptible to social influencers, who set the tempo for much of its public conversation.

In contrast, several decades ago, the leading Christian, including evangelical, voices in America would have been pastors, evangelists, and theologians. Billy Graham dominated post WWII American religious conversation. There were intellectual public thinkers like Reinhold Niebuhr (Protectant but not evangelical) and later, Francis Schaeffer. Television evangelism would include Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, James Kennedy and more scandalously, Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. More recently there is Joel Osteen. Pat Robertson excelled as broadcaster and talk show host. Bishop Fulton Sheen and later Mother Angelica were Catholic television personalities. Norman Vincent Peale (Protestant but not evangelical) wrote bestselling books. Later, Rick Warren pastored a megachurch and also wrote bestsellers.

That era is over. Today’s leading Christian personalities podcast, YouTube, Tweet/X, TikTok, Instagram and exert their presence through every form of social media. The audience is less national. There may never be another Billy Graham about whom everybody knows. Today’s influencers may have millions following them but are typically unknown outside their niche.

Everybody, Christian or not, is increasingly siloed. We self-collate, listen to and watch those who entertain us and typically tell us what we want to hear. Of course, the most popular influencers are usually provocative, outrageous, extremist, often hateful. The cerebral, thoughtful, reflective and courteous are less captivating.

Basham, like all successful influencers, has her schtick. Her Shepherds for Sale targets evangelicals who supposedly have betrayed conservative Christianity in favor of leftist dollars or secular approval. Her tweets continue this theme and offer a robust MAGA Christian perspective, hammering non-MAGA Christians as weak sisters or worse. Every day is a new cosmic drama. In this regard, she is very talented.

This pathway to daily attention mostly excludes more staid church officials, pastors and theologians, who have institutions to administer or responsibilities that preclude daily controversy. Their work remains quietly important but away from widespread public attention. They may write serious books, but those books likely will not be widely read unless addressed by the social influencers. Accordingly, Christian public opinion and public conversations, as in the non-religious world, are ruled by the online influencers.

Whatever you think of their messaging, Basham and Stuckey are social influencers par excellence and represent the public face of American evangelicalism. And they are arguably the most influential Baptists in America.

More from IRD :

Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion

Outside Money Liberalized United Methodism?

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