Evangelical Civil War

Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham has turned the evangelical world on its head. July 30th marked the release of her controversial exposé Shepherds for Sale, which alleges that prominent evangelical leaders are being bought off by subversive left-wing organizations and billionaires. 

In the past two weeks, Christians from the upper rungs of evangelicalism have condemned the book, arguing that its core premise is inaccurate, defamatory, and fueled by Trump apologism. A number of its detractors have focused on the book's minutiae, critiquing individual claims and pointing out factual inaccuracies as evidence that the entire work is suspect. 

However, it doesn’t take much evidence to prove Megan’s basic thesis: toxic strains of secularism and progressivism have infected Protestantism and Evangelicalism. One only needs to observe the trajectories of the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church, both of which were splintered by religious leaders’ embrace of women’s ordination and gay marriage. 

Basham’s work examines the left-wing funders and foundations who, over the past decade, infiltrated conservative institutions to drive a wedge between evangelical leaders and the religious right—a group which, Basham rightly notes, remains one of the active conservative voting blocs in the American electorate. The influx of billions of dollars from figures like eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has correlated with the leftward drift of organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, The Gospel Coalition, Baptist Press, and Billy Graham’s legacy publication Christianity Today. 

🏢Tidings From The Comptroller’s Office Before  O’Connell’s Choose How You Move plan got on the ballot, his administration had a few hoops to jump through, one being the completion of a “feasibility study” to evaluate whether his $3.1 billion initiative could be successfully executed. Metro chose the accounting firm Kraft CPAs, and in May they concluded their independent audit of the mayor’s plan. 

After reviewing how the sales tax revenue and the bonds borrowed against it would fund construction over the next fifteen years, Nashvillians saw some new numbers—including a new $6.9 billion price tag.

 On Monday, we spoke with the Tennessee Comptroller’s Director of Communications John Dunn regarding the office’s role in the process. “By statute, we had to sign off on the CPA firm that actually did the feasibility study on the transit plan,” he said. “And then we had to sign off on the procedures that Kraft CPAs used to actually do the feasibility study.”

Dunn then clarified that the Comptroller’s office was not responsible for signing off on Kraft’s actual findings, and will only become involved again if O’Connell’s plan is approved by the voters: “Then we would work with Metro to basically ensure they were following generally accepted accounting principles for this new revenue from this asset sales tax increase.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

✂️ Cutting Council Continued… It’s still possible that Metro may have to redraw their district lines in 2026. Ten days ago, a three-judge panel ruled Tennessee’s law capping metro council at 20 members unconstitutional. The state appealed the ruling yesterday, reviving the suit for another go-round. 

The appeal is unsurprising, given that one of the panel’s three judges didn’t support the prevailing opinion. Included in last week’s ruling was Judge Joseph Howell’s dissent, where he concluded that the state was not in violation of targeting Metro Nashville.

In a press release this morning, Vice Mayor Angie Henderson did not sound shocked by the news, but rather a tad disheartened. “Yesterday's notice of appeal by the State’s Office of the Attorney General was not unexpected,” it read. “While it would help organizational efficiency and morale to have this matter resolved sooner rather than later, I respect the judicial system’s appeals process.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🦄 Hallucinating Swifties Taylor Swift has yet to endorse Kamala Harris for president, but that didn’t stop her fans from engaging in wild wishcasting after the star shared photos from her concerts in Warsaw. One shot in particular, which showed Swift waving at a crowd and a silhouette of a person walking off stage in the background, was thought to be a hidden message from America’s most beloved cat lady. According to Swifties, the shadowy figure resembed Kamala Harris, and was a “soft launch” for her support of the vice president in the upcoming election. Rolling Stone debunked the claim, but that hasn’t stopped Harris supporters from gleefully anticipating a MAGA meltdown if she does. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

DEVELOPMENT

• Giarratana reveals new name, renderings of 60-story tower (NBJ)
• Plans for east side beer taproom uncertain (Post)
• Scrap metal company with East Bank location buys on west side (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🪕 Jim Hurst @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info

🎸 Avery Powell / Eden Joel / Emma Ogier @ The East Room, 8p, $12.33, Info

🎷 LIVE JAZZ: Parker James, Paul DeFiglia & Anson Hohne @ Vinyl Tap, 7p, No Cover, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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