Many folks would know that back in 1973 in Stockholm, Sweden a bank robber took four people hostage. After six days in captivity, they ended up supporting their captor. This psychological condition is now sadly found in much of the Christian church – at least in the West.
Plenty of good books have been written over recent years looking at the cultural captivity of the churches, evangelicalism’s decline, and the rise of religious lefties embracing radical woke policies, pushing identity politics, running with faulty social justice narratives, and so on.
One brand-new book that looks further at these matters is Stockholm Syndrome Christianity by John West (Discovery Institute Press, 2025). In it he reminds us that it is not just external threats that we must watch out for, but internal ones. The opening words of the book tell us what it is about:
Those of us who are Christians often regard atheists, agnostics, and secularists as the prime movers of America’s cultural collapse. Without question, they have helped spur our country’s descent into chaos, anger, loneliness, and despair. But we need to face an uncomfortable truth: Christians who aid, abet, and even encourage the rejection of historic Christian teachings are also playing a key role in our disintegration. (p. 13)
The book’s twelve chapters are divided into three main sections: Symptoms, Causes and Cures. In some ways the first section may have been the easiest to write – or at least do research for. Any discerning Christian with eyes wide open can see the many symptoms of a church that seems more intent on cozying up with the world than maintaining a distinct countercultural witness.
Many church leaders and pastors have found that running with the world’s agenda is simply easier and less costly. Instead of going against the secular stream, it is less taxing to simply flow with it. And the examples of this are legion. Chapter 3 on “Sexual Suicide” provides some obvious illustrations of this.
Whether embracing things like homosexual marriage or playing down the high and holy standards God has set for human sexuality, we see far too many Christians, pastors, churches and entire denominations succumbing to the values of the world on these issues.
West looks at the all-too-familiar stories of evangelicals going soft on sexual purity and churches embracing the latest worldly and immoral trends. The number of evangelical leaders who have embraced so much of the homosexual agenda is quite alarming indeed.
So too sexual activity in general. Just one stat: “According to a nationwide survey in 2019, half of all self-identified Christians now agree that ‘casual sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed relationship’ is sometimes or always acceptable. Even 36 percent of evangelical Christians say the same thing.” (p. 81)
After analysing some of the data on this, he says something quite important:
[I]t’s not primarily that sexual activity outside of marriage causes Christians to fall away from historic beliefs and active engagement with their churches. It’s that once they give up historic beliefs and active engagement, they are much more likely to act accordingly. In sum, the more intentional Christian communities are about discipling people through example, practice, and teaching, the more likely their members will live according to biblical standards in the area of sex as well as elsewhere. (p. 110)
Stockholm Syndrome Christianity: Why America’s Christian Leaders Are Failing — and What We Can Do About Itby West, John G (Author)
Chapter 4 looks at the issue of racism and how so many church leaders and pastors jumped on board the social justice bandwagon. They bought hook, line and sinker the claims that effectively all whites are racists and all non-whites are victims. Never mind the role that white Christians played in working to eliminate slavery and join in various civil rights movements.
Some denominations basically abandoned the biblical gospel and replaced it with Marxist liberation theology. West documents cases of this, but also examines genuine Christian culpability in past racism. And he notes how so many religious leaders embraced Darwinian evolution which was clearly no friend of certain ‘less-favoured’ races. He writes:
Darwinism’s key contribution to racism was offering a seemingly plausible scientific rationale for racial inferiority. According to Darwin and his supporters, we should expect races to have unequal capacities because natural selection acting on different populations will evolve different traits for those populations based on their survival needs.
Darwin’s view unquestionably helped solidify and spread scientific racism in America and around the world. As evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould observed, “Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859 [when Darwin published his book On the Origin of the Species], but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.” (pp. 118-119)
Chapter 5 looks at the thorny issue of when believers must disobey government in order to serve God. Increasingly the secular state is persecuting Christians and Christian institutions for simply living out their faith in public. But the worry is, too many Christian leaders have gone along with all of this.
He looks at a number of quite concerning examples of this. For example, the pro-homosexual “Respect for Marriage Act” would not have been passed by Congress were it not for all the evangelical groups actually supporting it! These include the national Association of Evangelicals and Christianity Today.
And the Covid wars certainly highlighted which side various churches were on. Says West:
[I]t was disturbing to see so many church leaders stand by silently in certain states when big box stores and casinos were allowed to operate more freely than houses of worship. Whatever you think of the long-term shutdown of in-person worship, if it was so critical for churches, it ought to have been equally critical for everyone else. The double standard should have at least provoked Christian leaders to raise some tough questions. Many of them didn’t, including many self-identified Christians in government. (p. 161)
The second main section of the book looks at various causes of this, including Christians giving more heed to things like the secular media, celebrities, and even sports stars than the Word of God. And then there is the problem of too many evangelical leaders wanting to be liked – by all the wrong people. Too many want the praises of the secular media and so on, and are willing to compromise and accommodate to get that praise.
We all want to be loved and accepted, but as West – and the Bible – remind us, getting the approval of the world usually means becoming an enemy of God. Our aim should be to please Him, and not get favourably quoted in the New York Times or the Guardian.
Some years ago I quoted from Mark Galli, the former editor of Christianity Today on this. I was pleased to see that West also ran with his wise words:
Elite evangelicalism … is too often “a form of cultural accommodation dressed as convictional religion.” These evangelicals want to appear respectable to the elite of American culture. . . I don’t know that evangelicals have been sufficiently self-reflective to admit their basic and personal insecurities. It’s just no fun being an outsider to mainstream culture. We all just want to be loved, and if not loved, at least liked and respected. Elite evangelicals are not just savvy evangelists but also a people striving for acceptance. (p. 221)
Francis Collins is a clear case in point about this sort of thing. West notes that when Collins first rose to fame in the scientific community, many were concerned about his Christianity. But they soon enough realised it would not be a threat at all. As West explains:
For more than twelve years, Collins served the secularists’ agenda at NIH [the National Institutes of Health] by providing cover for them to do what they wanted to do anyway. As documented earlier in this book, he championed embryonic stem cell research, the harvesting of baby parts from late term abortions for scientific research, the marginalization of Christian scientists who are sceptical of unguided Darwinian evolution, the embracing of the LGBTQIA+ movement, and most recently, the demonization in persecution of Christians who had conscience issues with the COVID vaccines. The sad reality is that it’s precisely because of Collin’s abandonment of biblical truth in these areas that he rose to the top of the NIH and then became acting science advisor in the Biden White House. Had Collins not become a Stockholm Syndrome Christian, he wouldn’t have been tolerated. (p. 222)
The final section of the book looks at what can be done. This includes recognising that we must beware of certain things, such as a Hollywood view of evil, syncretism, the misuse of language, the misuse of relationships, the misuse of guilt, and the muzzling of speech.
He offers practical steps that parents, teachers and pastors can take to ensure that we are protecting those we are called to serve and nurture. He reminds us that while there are too many laid back believers who do not seem to care about what is happening to the church and the world, there are other Christians who wrongly carry the weight of all this on their shoulders.
That too is wrong. We need to realise that God is sovereign, and he is still in charge. We can only seek to be faithful, and not successful. We must energetically work and pray, but we must leave the results to God. The closing words of the book are worth sharing here:
Make no mistake: God is at work in this world, and his outpost STS are far and wide. Just because the search algorithms of Google or the reporters of the New York Times or the anchors of CNN don’t want you to know what God is doing, doesn’t mean he isn’t doing it. Just because they don’t want you to know about the pockets of his Kingdom throughout our land doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
So take heart! Whatever happens to our culture, whatever happens to churches and institutions that abandoned the gospel, the kingdom of God is moving forward. It’s moving forward around the world. It’s moving forward right where you are. And you and I have the privilege of being part of that advancing kingdom. (p. 289)
When I asked why there are still so many Christians that seem captured by the culture and by the lies and rhetoric in the SMS my daughter made the observation that people are focussed on their patch, on their “ministry” and don’t have the brain space or the time to look into these things. For me that was an unsatisfactory answer. As I said to her, a missionary in Ecuador, “But you’re one of the busiest and hard working people I know, and even though you’re not involved in any way in it, yet you’re aware and mindful – you can see the sign of the times”.
For me, this leans back into the the question spiritual insight and discernment. Firstly it comes from a foundation of having knowledge and having an inquiring mind and it comes from who we are listening to – and shouldn’t that be firstly the Holy Spirit, and the foundations of what we know to be true from the Bible? If we’re in lockstep with worldly views and attitudes what does that say about where we are as followers?
Likewise, after asking questions of a Christian friend of mine who was very much a listener of MSM and who was on the progressive left side of politics and is a vegan, she has started finally recognising that all is not as she believed it was. And her most recent take on this has turned to “well, there’s no point in getting caught up with these things that are going on, and besides what can we personally do that will make any difference… we have to leave it up to God… ” which while there is some truth in it, I still find to be an equally unsatisfying response.
For it excuses lazy and sloppy thinking, it excuses lazy and sloppy doctrine, and it excuses people from being caught up with the world and its systems and being “useful idiots” for the enemy.
Many thanks Garth.
Good to know someone coined a name for this cowardly behavior. The downfall with the National Association of Evangelicals began when they moved their long time headquarters to accomadate their now disgraced former director Ted Haggart.
I’m beginning to wonder if we conservative Christians should begin to refer to ourselves by a different name than evangelicals.
Crossed Fingers: How the Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church by Gary North
Have you ever wondered why the major Presbyterian denominations in the U.S. are liberal and apostate? This book takes a systematic and well-documented look at why and how the enemies of the Gospel captured the majority of conservative Presbyterians in America. The author also explains how the remaining conservative or orthodox Presbyterians in the U.S. can keep from falling prey to liberal theology.
“I wrote this book for Christians who are tired of being milked, bilked, and forced to ride
silently in the back of humanism’s bus. If this is you, keep reading. Understand, however,
that you are part of a small remnant: a person who is willing to pick up a book about one
aspect of Presbyterian Church history. The final remnant will be even smaller: those who
finish reading this book. Few are called; even fewer are chosen. But cheer up; there are
words of comfort available: “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife
and a man of contention to the whole earth! . . . . The LORD said, Verily it shall be well
with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in
the time of affliction” (Jer. 15:10a-11).”
Likewise we see Christians divided now about Jews and Gaza, being swayed between various Christian doctrines and media posts.
This was raised in church on Sunday as a genuine enquiry.
In response we looked at Rom 11:26-28 and Hosea 1:1 to 2:1.
I later wrote a short article about it and it ends this way.
“Cutting to the chase I am going to suggest something that is Biblical but may be anathema to many Christians.
My suggestion is that we stop saying and thinking that the Jews and the Jewish nation Israel are “God’s people”.
God’s people all the way through scripture are the people of faith.
Now get the nuance – We should still regard them and call them “God’s Chosen People”.
They are the people of the glorious promise.
Making that distinction and working through the implications of that historically, politically, and Biblically has been a help to me.
Hope that helps.”
Great article, Bill. Thank You.
When I asked why there are still so many Christians that seem captured by the culture and by the lies and rhetoric in the SMS my daughter made the observation that people are focussed on their patch, on their “ministry” and don’t have the brain space or the time to look into these things. For me that was an unsatisfactory answer. As I said to her, a missionary in Ecuador, “But you’re one of the busiest and hard working people I know, and even though you’re not involved in any way in it, yet you’re aware and mindful – you can see the sign of the times”.
For me, this leans back into the the question spiritual insight and discernment. Firstly it comes from a foundation of having knowledge and having an inquiring mind and it comes from who we are listening to – and shouldn’t that be firstly the Holy Spirit, and the foundations of what we know to be true from the Bible? If we’re in lockstep with worldly views and attitudes what does that say about where we are as followers?
Likewise, after asking questions of a Christian friend of mine who was very much a listener of MSM and who was on the progressive left side of politics and is a vegan, she has started finally recognising that all is not as she believed it was. And her most recent take on this has turned to “well, there’s no point in getting caught up with these things that are going on, and besides what can we personally do that will make any difference… we have to leave it up to God… ” which while there is some truth in it, I still find to be an equally unsatisfying response.
For it excuses lazy and sloppy thinking, it excuses lazy and sloppy doctrine, and it excuses people from being caught up with the world and its systems and being “useful idiots” for the enemy.
Many thanks Garth.
Good to know someone coined a name for this cowardly behavior. The downfall with the National Association of Evangelicals began when they moved their long time headquarters to accomadate their now disgraced former director Ted Haggart.
I’m beginning to wonder if we conservative Christians should begin to refer to ourselves by a different name than evangelicals.
Crossed Fingers: How the Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church by Gary North
Have you ever wondered why the major Presbyterian denominations in the U.S. are liberal and apostate? This book takes a systematic and well-documented look at why and how the enemies of the Gospel captured the majority of conservative Presbyterians in America. The author also explains how the remaining conservative or orthodox Presbyterians in the U.S. can keep from falling prey to liberal theology.
“I wrote this book for Christians who are tired of being milked, bilked, and forced to ride
silently in the back of humanism’s bus. If this is you, keep reading. Understand, however,
that you are part of a small remnant: a person who is willing to pick up a book about one
aspect of Presbyterian Church history. The final remnant will be even smaller: those who
finish reading this book. Few are called; even fewer are chosen. But cheer up; there are
words of comfort available: “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife
and a man of contention to the whole earth! . . . . The LORD said, Verily it shall be well
with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in
the time of affliction” (Jer. 15:10a-11).”
Likewise we see Christians divided now about Jews and Gaza, being swayed between various Christian doctrines and media posts.
This was raised in church on Sunday as a genuine enquiry.
In response we looked at Rom 11:26-28 and Hosea 1:1 to 2:1.
I later wrote a short article about it and it ends this way.
“Cutting to the chase I am going to suggest something that is Biblical but may be anathema to many Christians.
My suggestion is that we stop saying and thinking that the Jews and the Jewish nation Israel are “God’s people”.
God’s people all the way through scripture are the people of faith.
Now get the nuance – We should still regard them and call them “God’s Chosen People”.
They are the people of the glorious promise.
Making that distinction and working through the implications of that historically, politically, and Biblically has been a help to me.
Hope that helps.”