There’s much wonderful irony to savor in the confirmation this week of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to the position of NIH Director, formerly held by Dr. Francis Collins. As Politico accurately summarized, “The turnabout in Bhattacharya’s fortunes — he was derided by then-NIH Director Francis Collins as a ‘fringe epidemiologist’ whose views merited a ‘quick and devastating published takedown’ — mirrors that of President Donald Trump himself.” Collins and Bhattacharya are both evangelical Christians, but, in the context of science and culture, are sort of the yin and yang to each other.

John West, Managing Director of the Center for Science and Culture, covers Collins’s many missteps in his new book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity: Why America’s Christian Leaders Are Failing — and What We Can Do About It, which gets a really nice review in the April 1 issue of World Magazine. 

The review’s author, appropriately, is social psychologist John Mac Ghlionn. He summarizes the book’s thesis well:

What if America’s spiritual troubles aren’t simply the fault of combative secular forces on the outside? What if part of the collapse is due to Christians themselves — particularly those in academia, media, and ministry — who have chosen to align themselves with cultural elites rather than stand with their fellow believers? After all, it is far more comfortable to be patted on the back by influential voices than to be labeled intolerant or out of touch.

West identifies several root causes for this trend. Fear often looms largest: fear of being shunned, of losing professional opportunities, of sounding ignorant or bigoted. There is also the desire to be accepted. When the social rewards — praise, promotions, a sense of belonging — are dangled in front of any person, it’s tempting to adjust beliefs just enough to pass cultural muster. And then there’s the subtle power of self-justification. Once you begin making small compromises for the sake of seeming enlightened or compassionate, it’s easy to lose track of where cultural wins end and spiritual convictions begin.

How can our country get more Bhattacharyas and fewer Collinses? That is one way of phrasing the question that Dr. West sets out to answer.

Not unrelated, please see also my reminder to Dr. Bhattacharya, “Let’s Not Forget About That Covid Commission.”