Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, Francis Collins, and Other Christian Leaders: The Sheep Who Made Friends with the Wolves

Although reading classic works on political theology can be helpful in addressing problems of modern Christianity, these classics should also be read in conjunction with contemporary books that address contemporary problems. One of the contemporary issues vexing modern Christianity is that many of its institutional leaders have marred orthodox Christianity by ingratiating themselves with cultural and political elites who reject orthodox Christianity. Helping us understand and address this problem is John G. West’s book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity (2025), which is premised on the analogy of wolves among a flock of sheep.^[1] Instead of getting rid of the wolves, some sheep befriend and ingratiate themselves to these wolves until these favored sheep start getting annoyed at other sheep who want to get rid of the wolves!

1. John G. West, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity: Why America’s Christian Leaders Are Failing—and What We Can Do about It (Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2025).

As absurd as this sheep-wolves flock story is, this is precisely the image West presents in Stockholm Syndrome Christianity to describe the state of modern Christianity. The wolves are the “anti-Christian secular culture, and the sheep represent Christians who have embraced the assumptions of that culture.”^[2] The embrace is so complete that the sheep “are grateful and think the [wolves are] doing something good”^[3]; the sheep obstinately believe they are “being loving and kind”^[4] by assisting the wolves.

Stockholm Syndrome Christians

Over the course of twelve chapters encompassing abortion, gender and LGBTQ, race, science and Darwinian evolution, religious liberty, and the value of scripture, West lays out the case that many Christians—particularly Christian leaders—have become Stockholm Syndrome Christians. Named for a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, where the robbers took hostages that “began to bond with the criminals and view the police and government as their enemies,”^[5] West claims that the same syndrome is playing out among Christians: Christians “have been immersed for years in an elite culture that rejects orthodox Christianity, . . . [and thus they] easily start identifying more with those who hate Christianity than those who embrace it.”^[6] For West, Stockholm Syndrome Christians are both sincere and insidious: They are genuinely seeking the good of those around them, but they are unwittingly allowing “anti-Christian secular culture” (wolves) to bear down on and gain traction within Christianity.^[7]

West does not spare the details nor the examples. He names names and provides detailed accounts of many Christian leaders who have exhibited Stockholm Syndrome, including scientists, pastors, authors, and politicians. West demonstrates how Stockholm Syndrome Christian leaders seem to “run away from the Bible’s teaching rather than embrace and explain it,”^[8] are “seemingly embarrassed by the biblical view,”^[9] and will try “to make you feel guilty for raising legitimate questions about whether [their] teachings are consistent with the Bible . . . to avoid oversight and accountability.”^[10] Three leading figures West spends some time discussing are Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, and Francis Collins, and I will briefly overview one topic among several that West connects to each individual.

Tim Keller and the Theistic Evolution

West recounts how open-handed Keller was toward having certain scientists share about theistic evolution to Christian leaders, and how closed-handed Keller was to giving the same opportunity to scientists who were more supportive of intelligent design and less supportive of neo-Darwinian evolution. West, a former professor at Seattle Pacific University, works as the Vice President of Discovery Institute, a place arguably best known for being a hub of leading scientists and philosophers of science who support intelligent design (the view that an intelligent being designed and created the universe). The individuals of the Discovery Institute have received many distinguished endorsements, ranging from philosopher Thomas Nagel to Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh John C. Walton. Despite this, West recounts that “Keller was perhaps the person most responsible for giving [Francis] Collins a one-sided platform to promote theistic evolution among evangelical leaders.”^[11]

11. West, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, 71.

Andy Stanley and the Authority of the Bible

West contends that the “devaluation of Scripture . . . is foundational to all other elements of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity.”^[12] To illustrate, West uses the example of how megachurch pastor Andy Stanley treats the Old Testament. West cites examples from Stanley to show that Stanley sees the Old Testament as “basically irrelevant for Christians,”^[13] that “[i]t certainly isn’t needed to understand or apply the Christian faith,”^[14] that it is instrumental in “keeping people away from Christianity,”^[15] and that Christians would not be in error to “let the Old Testament go.”^[16] These indictments from West about how Stanley views half the Bible are damning, and West is careful to provide evidence that his assertions of Stanley are correct. Stanley is also dismissive toward the New Testament, specifically when he called New Testament chapters that deal with homosexuality “clobber passages”—a pejorative phrase used by homosexual activists to try to undermine God’s word.^[17]

Francis Collins and the Government

When secular culture rewards a Christian who engages in this practice with an elite position in society, other Christians are incentivized to also weaken their biblical orthodoxies and strengthen their secular identifications. One figure West uses to illustrate this jettisoning of biblical orthodoxy is Francis Collins, who was the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2009–2021. West exposes how Collins used the government via his NIH position to allow for all kinds of practices that are a far cry from orthodox Christianity, ranging from “the harvesting of baby parts from late term abortions for scientific research . . . [to] the embracing of the LGBTQIA+ movement.”^[18] West argues it was “precisely because of Collins’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.”^[19]

Negative Effects of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity

Perhaps the most damning effect of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is what it makes its proponents do. West points out that Stockholm Syndrome Christians make unnecessary mistakes when they accept the premises of secular elites that later turn out to be incorrect. Often, these premises are contrary to a historical biblical perspective, which means the premises should not have been so easily accepted, and instead should have been rejected—or, at minimum, approached with elevated skepticism. For example, West notes how BioLogos argued that “modern genetics disproved the idea of an original ancestral couple”^[20]—in other words, not everyone came from Adam and Eve. This argument was “spread far and wide by [BioLogos’s] friends and supporters, including . . . Christianity Today.”^[21] The problem? The “claim turned out to be wrong,” and even BioLogos “eventually quietly revised its original claim. But the damage had been done.”^[22]

Another negative byproduct of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is that its adherents try to “protect God from Himself.”^[23] West argues that Stockholm Syndrome Christians do this by being “muted or muddled in their declaration of biblical truth,”^[24] “hiding things from His Word that we worry could turn other people off.”^[25] These Stockholm Syndrome Christians will ignore altogether, minimize, or explain away large portions of Scripture that are not in vogue with modern society, ostensibly attempting to be viewed as loving. For example, West states that “as the biblical understanding of same-sex relationships became more controversial, [Tim] Keller seemed to avoid talking about the topic as much as possible. When he did discuss the issue . . . [he] could become halting, hesitant, and seemingly embarrassed by the biblical view.”^[26] In essence, these Christians have implied that they are better at loving others than God’s Word is; how they handle the approach to the gospel is apparently better than how Romans does; and they insist Christians need to have a good reputation, not one where elites say “all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matt. 5:11, NKJV). Relying on the work of René Girard, Rod Dreher argues that the “Antichrist opposes Christ by imitating him and seeking to be better than him.”^[27] Although never stated outright, Stockholm Syndrome Christians in effect declare that their interpretation and isolation of certain Scriptures is better than the inspiration and instruction of those Scriptures themselves.

Arguably, the worst part of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is that there is no limit to what it will take away from a historical biblical perspective. West claims “it’s the god that won’t stop taking,”^[28] and that the “[c]hurches composed of Stockholm Syndrome Christians will end up needing to trim more and more from biblical teaching the further away the culture moves from God.”^[29] In the end, “the god that won’t stop taking” is never satisfied and always changing, which is antithetical to the true God who is all-satisfying and immutable. Those who serve the lower-case god must continually degrade Scripture and the truth, for it is a feature of that worship and a central belief of that god. Conversely, those that serve God will—for the same reasons—do the complete opposite.

Solutions

In the last few chapters, West discusses what can be done about Stockholm Syndrome Christianity. He outlines how to recognize Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, the role everyone, from young people to pastors to grandparents, can play in combating it, and finally, how to not lose hope.

Solutions in Explaining the Bible

Starting in the introduction chapter and continuing to the end, West is explicit that “if you fail to provide a clear alternative to Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, you are part of the problem.”^[30] One way West provides alternatives is by arguing that “[i]nstead of disowning large swaths of the Bible, [Christians must] help people understand what the Bible actually teaches and help open their eyes to attacks on the Bible that are unsubstantiated.”^[31] Instead of being embarrassed by certain parts of the Bible, as many Stockholm Syndrome Christians are, Christians must explain these parts of the Bible and why the messaging of these parts is good for individuals and society.

West does just that throughout, showing—for example—how the worldview of the Bible gave rise to hospitals, leads to good scientific predictions, provides one with purpose and meaning, refutes demoralization, and was central to the ending of slavery.^[32] West also shows how God’s design for things, such as marriage, leads to all kinds of positive outcomes.^[33] Instead of being ashamed or embarrassed by what the Bible teaches, explaining and delineating the Bible has compounding positive effects, and to conceal these teachings in the name of being “loving” and “compassionate” toward others is exactly as described: It is being loving and compassionate in name only.

Solutions in Actions and Faithfulness

Two additional solutions for resisting Stockholm Syndrome Christianity include taking action and being faithful. West spends an entire chapter on each. Regarding taking action, West provides specific groups of people (e.g., parents, young people, Christian leaders) with a specific plan they should follow. For example, when discussing pastors and teachers, West tells them to make sure they are discussing “those specific points where culture at the moment is bearing down hard in rejection of biblical truth”^[34] instead of only talking about issues “everyone agrees with.”^[35] Regarding faithfulness, West argues that “[w]e should be far more concerned about the faithfulness of our behavior, the faithfulness of our teaching, and the faithfulness of our hearts, than we are about the size of our churches, the size of our pocketbooks, or the amount of praise the culture heaps on us.”^[36] Removing Stockholm Syndrome Christianity will not be easy, but as long as Christians are faithful, they can trust God with the outcomes.

Conclusion

Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is an accessible yet rich read that diagnoses a pathology coming from within modern Christianity. Especially troublesome is that many leading and previously venerable Christian figures show clear symptoms of the pathology. In a firm yet kind way, West’s book provides ample evidence that the diagnosis is correct, and that Christians must address this pathology before it gets worse and spreads further. Importantly, West provides a name for the pathology, a pathology that many Christians could attest to in a roundabout way but could not precisely pin down without a name. Armed with a name, an understanding of the causes and effects, and knowledge about what can be done, West’s book equips Christians to not let “anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8, NKJV). And by “anyone,” the writer of Colossians means anyone—even professing Christians and their favorite Christian leaders.