The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the Southern Baptist Convention’s long-decayed organ of political engagement, has spent the last decade or more morphing itself into a fetid hotbed of the woke mind virus defending progressive ideology. This transformation can be traced back with precision to 2013, when Russell Moore slithered into office, unleashing an intellectual and spiritual plague that has infected everything it touches.

What was once meant to be a force for cultural engagement grounded in a biblical worldview has become a think tank for compromise, a proving ground for evangelical elites eager to curry favor with the world. And now, we have Paul D. Miller, a research fellow for the ERLC, carrying the torch for this rotten legacy.

Miller’s latest contribution to the woke fever swamp is his book, The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism, a title that should set off alarms before a single page is turned. This isn’t just an academic critique of a political philosophy—it’s a full-throated assault on any attempt by Christians to exert meaningful influence over the nation’s trajectory.

Miller’s crusade against Christian Nationalism takes him so far into leftist delusion that he ends up arguing in favor of Drag Queen Story Hour. Unbelievable—the man is so desperate to tear down Christian political influence that he finds himself making an apologetic for men in dresses having play dates with little children in public libraries.

A supposed conservative, writing under the auspices of a supposedly Christian institution, ends up regurgitating the most deranged talking points of the progressive left. Here’s what he writes:

For example, to return to Drag Queen Story Hour, if Ahmari and Vermeule are right, it would be impossible for a library administrator to effectively, impartially adjudicate the requirement to sustain “viewpoint neutrality” in deciding how to allocate library resources. But that seems absurd on its face. How hard is it to say both drag queens and fundamentalist Christians can both use the library and host events there? This isn’t especially hard, no matter how deep original sin goes, no matter the noetic effects of the fall. And if it is possible, it is also desirable: drag queens are people too, and no matter your views on their sexuality, they are tax-paying citizens and deserve equal treatment under law and thus equal access to public resources. Denying them access to public facilities on the basis of their beliefs or identities would be simply unfair and unjust, a clear misapplication of government’s duty to promote good and punish evil.

His book is endorsed by an unsurprising roster of theological saboteurs. We have Michael Wear, a former Obama staffer who has built a career on laundering progressive policies through Christianese rhetoric. Karen Swallow Prior, a self-described feminist who spent years training Southern Baptist pastors at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and sides with ministries like Revoie that promote same-sex intimate (yet “celibate”) marriage-like relationships.

Samuel Rodriguez, a woke (rare) NAR “apostle” who spends his time and energy preaching open borders propaganda for Leftist evangelical organizations like the Evangelical Immigration Table and the Soros-funded National Immigration Forum. And, of course, Russell Moore, the architect of the ERLC’s leftward drift and a man whose only consistent conviction is that he must always be on the opposite side of a Christian worldview.

Miller’s argument is as unhinged as it is predictable. He dismisses the idea that public libraries should maintain any moral standard, arguing instead that viewpoint neutrality demands that drag queens and fundamentalist Christians alike be allowed to host events. He frames any opposition to this as an attempt to deny citizens equal access to public spaces.

This is the exact same delusional reasoning put forth by David French, who infamously dubbed Drag Queen Story Hour a “blessing of liberty.” It is the logical endpoint of an ideology so desperate to avoid the appearance of Christian political engagement that it ends up championing the most grotesque elements of the secular revolution.

If drag queens must be accommodated, then why stop there? Strippers, sex workers, and even drug dealers are tax-paying citizens too. By Miller’s logic, why not let them indoctrinate children in public spaces? Why not remove all moral considerations from the public square and leave it as a free-for-all for whatever depravity our decaying culture can muster?

Of course, Miller doesn’t follow his argument to its inevitable conclusion—because to do so would expose its absurdity. But the trajectory is clear. If you argue that moral neutrality demands public accommodation for drag queens, you have already conceded the ground to any other depraved faction that comes knocking.

And this, ultimately, is what Miller and his ideological peers desire: a neutered Christianity, stripped of all cultural influence, reduced to a private set of beliefs that must never, under any circumstances, challenge the reigning secular order.

Miller, however, frames his position as some great defense of Christian ethics. He claims that by rejecting Christian Nationalism, he is preserving the true mission of the church. This is the same tired line we’ve heard from every evangelical elite who has spent the last decade working to ensure that Christianity remains politically impotent.

While I’m not arguing in necessary favor of Christian Nationalism as a political system, I certainly don’t believe we have to take the opposite extreme in order to argue that case. But the opposite extreme is what they want, because they are not Christians. They don’t want a Christianity that commands allegiance. They want a Christianity that begs for scraps—and they are the infiltrators sent to make that happen from the inside.

So what is the answer? It is certainly not to keep playing this game on their terms, pretending that we can somehow find common ground with those who despise us. Honestly, the simplest and most logical solution is to remove the government entirely from the business of raising children.

No more public libraries, no more public schools, no more taxpayer-funded indoctrination centers where drag queens and leftist ideologues get to mold the next generation. The government’s role should be what it was always meant to be—building roads, providing security, and staying out of the moral and intellectual formation of children.

The ERLC’s long march into progressive Hell has produced a generation of thinkers who masquerade as conservatives while defending the moral collapse of the West. Paul D. Miller is just the latest in a long line of these men, arguing so forcefully against Christian political influence that he has no choice but to side with the most perverse elements of the secular left.

His book is not a warning against Christian Nationalism—it is a desperate plea for the church to surrender, to retreat, to accept its place as a domesticated, harmless institution that dares not wield power.

Miller and his fellow travelers may clutch their pearls at the idea of a robust, engaged Christianity, but the church does not need their permission to act. The battle for the culture is not theoretical. It is not a polite debate over political theory. It is a war.

And if Miller and the ERLC want to spend their time justifying Drag Queen Story Hour, they are welcome to do so. But they should not expect actual Christians to follow them into the abyss.

And if Southern Baptists are still giving money to the ERLC, it’s time to stop.