I just finished one of the most sobering conversations I've had in recent memory. As I sat with Dr. John West, sirens wailed outside his Seattle office - protesters at the federal building just blocks away, burning American flags and creating chaos. The irony wasn't lost on me: here we were discussing how Christian leaders have failed to be salt and light, while the city literally burned around us.
Dr. West's new book, "Stockholm Syndrome Christianity," names something I've witnessed but couldn't quite articulate: how Christian leaders end up identifying more with their cultural captors than their own faith. Like hostages who begin sympathizing with those who hold them prisoner, too many evangelical elites have traded biblical truth for cultural acceptance.
The Francis Collins Revelation
What struck me most was learning about Francis Collins. Here was America's most powerful scientist for over a decade - an evangelical Christian celebrated by Time Magazine, platformed by respected pastors, running the NIH with billions in taxpayer funds. You'd think having "one of ours" in such a position would advance kingdom values, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
Collins spent millions of our tax dollars creating a nationwide tissue bank to harvest body parts from aborted babies - some as late as 42 weeks. When Judicial Watch tried to investigate, Collins' NIH fought to hide the information. They had to sue to expose how this "devout Christian" funded research that grafted baby scalps onto mice.
But that's not all. Collins proudly called himself an "ally and advocate" of LGBTQIA+ causes, funneling millions toward gender transition surgeries for minors. The secular press later admitted they needn't have worried about his faith - he gave them everything they wanted.
This isn't about questioning someone's salvation. It's about recognizing that personal piety without public faithfulness is worthless. As the Twitter response to our conversation showed, many Christians are waking up to this painful reality.
The Seattle Pacific Story
Dr. West's personal journey made this even more concrete. He watched Seattle Pacific University - founded by devout Methodists to transmit biblical truth - slowly abandon its mission. When he arrived, the board still defended orthodoxy. By the time he left, over 70% of faculty voted against biblical marriage.
The progression was predictable: First, they questioned if the Bible was "completely" accurate. Then they denied tenure to the most biblically faithful professor for being "too conservative." Finally, they embraced what they once stood against. Now they host LGBTQ festivals on campus with board approval.
What haunts me is his observation that the real failure wasn't the progressive faculty - it was the supposedly conservative board that lacked courage when it mattered. They had the power to maintain biblical standards but chose the path of least resistance.
The Heterosexual Problem
Here's what really got me: Dr. West started his chapter on sexuality not with LGBTQ issues, but with heterosexual sin. He's right - we lost this battle when churches stopped teaching biblical sexuality to straight Christians.
The example of Hannah from The Bachelorette still bothers me. Here's a young woman from Alabama - the Bible Belt! - who publicly boasted about having sex four times in a one-night stand, then weaponized grace when challenged: "Jesus still loves me!"
Where did she learn that Christianity means personal salvation without personal transformation? What kind of discipleship produces believers who celebrate what should mortify them?
Creating Dangerous Vacuums
Perhaps most insightful was Dr. West's warning about creating vacuums. When churches only critique "woke" racial theories without teaching biblical equality and human dignity, they leave people vulnerable to opposite errors. Some young men, seeing the bankruptcy of critical race theory but finding no solid biblical teaching on race, gravitate toward genuinely racist ideologies that claim Christian covering.
The same happens with poverty. Churches that abandon biblical sexuality while claiming to care about the poor don't realize that broken families are the number one predictor of intergenerational poverty. What happens in the bedroom doesn't stay there - it impacts generations.
What Now?
I left our conversation both sobered and oddly hopeful. Sobered because the rot goes deeper than I imagined. But hopeful because Dr. West doesn't just diagnose - he prescribes. His book contains 21 specific actions for different roles: parents, board members, teachers, pastors, even grandparents.
His simplest advice might be the most powerful: "Do no harm." Stop funding institutions that have abandoned their mission. Stop attending churches that won't teach biblical truth. Stop writing checks to your alma mater if it's betraying its founding vision. You're not obligated to subsidize unfaithfulness out of misplaced loyalty.
The clips from this conversation are already resonating across social media because people recognize the pattern. They see it in their churches, their children's schools, their denominations. We're not alone in this concern.
As I write this, I can still hear those sirens in the distance. The city needs Christians who will stand for truth, not Stockholm Syndrome believers who parrot the world's talking points with religious language. The question is: which will we be?
Watch the Full Episode:
Key Moments
[00:00:00] Francis Collins funded harvesting aborted baby parts with tax dollars
[00:13:13] What Stockholm Syndrome Christianity really means
[00:18:18] Seattle Pacific University's tragic transformation
[00:35:45] The full Francis Collins scandal exposed
[00:42:39] Why heterosexual sin opened the floodgates
[00:52:15] How avoiding race discussions creates worse problems
[01:00:13] The strategic silence that changes culture
[01:06:38] 21 practical things you can do right now
Key Insights
Christian institutions fail when boards lack courage to uphold their stated mission
Personal evangelical faith means nothing without public biblical faithfulness
The slippery slope is real when you take your cues from culture instead of Scripture
Heterosexual compromise preceded and enabled LGBTQ capitulation in churches
Creating theological vacuums invites extremist ideologies to fill the void
"Do no harm" - stop funding institutions that have abandoned biblical truth
Notable Quotes
"The most powerful scientist in America spent millions to create a nationwide tissue bank to harvest body parts of aborted babies from 8 weeks to 42 weeks."
"How do you have an evangelical Christian university where over 70% of faculty vote against biblical marriage? You don't."
"If you're taking your cues from culture, you're guaranteeing a slippery slope because you're not standing on anything principled."
"The biggest predictor of intergenerational poverty is broken families. What happens in the bedroom doesn't stay there."
"Your number one responsibility on a Christian board is staying faithful to the mission, not raising money."
"Stockholm Syndrome Christians identify more with their cultural captors than their historic faith."
"We had a Catholic attorney general persecuting a Christian florist for her faith."
