What if American culture isn’t collapsing because of crusading secularists? What if it’s failing because leading Christians identify more with secular elites than with their fellow believers? Those are the provocative questions posed by Dr. John West’s new book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, which exposes how influential Christian leaders are siding with their anti-Christian cultural captors on everything from biblical authority and science to sex, race, and religious liberty. On this ID the Future, I begin a two-part conversation with Dr. West unpacking examples of how Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is harming the scientific enterprise and what can be done to repair the damage.

In Part 1, West explains that “Stockholm syndrome” refers to the tendency of a victim to bond with or sympathize with his or her captor. West uses this phenomenon to describe the damage some influential Christians do when they decide to reject historical biblical teaching in favor of scientific materialism. One symptom of Stockholm Syndrome Christianity in science is a diminished role for God in Creation. As Exhibit A for this symptom, West chooses Francis Collins, arguably the most celebrated evangelical Christian scientist in America. Collins, who rose to fame through his work on the Human Genome Project and his bestselling book The Language of God, is admired by Christian leaders and laypeople alike as an exemplary model of a faithful Christian in science. But West contends that Collins’s model for integrating faith and science is deeply flawed. From failing to challenge the secular establishment in the areas of abortion and sexuality as head of the National Institutes of Health to a years-long quest to marginalize and attack Christian scientists and scholars skeptical of Darwinian evolution, West explains how Collins has fallen prey to Stockholm Syndrome Christianity. West also describes modern theistic evolution, the flawed theological perspective that has inspired many of Collins’s scientific positions.

Download the podcast or listen to it here. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!

Dig Deeper

• Order the book and find practical tools to help you resist captivity and stand for truth at StockholmSyndromeChristianity.com. 
• Can you believe in God and evolution at the same time? Dr. West provides the answer here: