A recent viral clip featuring radical left-wing podcaster Jennifer Welch has sparked backlash after she labeled “white evangelical Christianity” a “cancer” and accused evangelicals of being the “worst people” in America.
“This is a cancer. White evangelical Christianity is a cancer,” Welch said. “These are the worst of our country. These are the worst people in our country because they use their religion in two ways. As a weapon and as a shield.”
Welch accused evangelicals of justifying hatred toward LGBTQ individuals and immigrants, while also claiming they portray themselves as victims of persecution. “White Christians are so oppressed in this country and they want it both ways,” she said. She later added that “over 80% went and voted triple Trumped.”
The remarks were addressed on CBN News by hosts Raj Nair and Billy Hallowell, who rejected Welch’s claims as inaccurate and harmful.
“I’ve been an evangelical for a very long time,” Hallowell said. “Anybody who’s out there saying you’re this or that and you deserve to die is violating what Scripture tells us to do.”
Hallowell pointed to the teachings of Jesus as contradicting Welch’s depiction of evangelical beliefs. “Anybody who knows anything about Jesus knows that he says to love your enemies,” he said. “Even people you really don’t like who are horrible to you and mean to you and terrible to you, you’re supposed to feed them, clothe them, love them, pray for them.”
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Hallowell described Welch’s claims as a “straw man,” saying, “These are things that are being said that are not accurate. They’re not true.”
He also cited charitable data and community impact. “I would say that without evangelical Christians, charity would basically be cut in half, if not more so, in this country,” Hallowell said.
Nair criticized the rhetoric as dehumanizing and racially divisive. “That was an extraordinarily ignorant thing that she said,” Nair said. “That was a vile, destructive thing that she said.”
Nair also rejected the repeated emphasis on race. “Can we just stop with the skin color stuff?” he said. “Like, can’t we get past skin color?”
He warned that the language used against evangelicals mirrors the intolerance being alleged. “Calling anyone a cancer is the actual way you do dehumanize people,” Nair said.
Despite the strong rebuke, both commentators urged a restrained response. “Pray for her,” Hallowell said. “Nobody needs to go attacking her.”
Hallowell continued by criticizing what he described as a double standard. “You set up the straw man, you attack the evangelicals, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, and then they want to be victims,’” he said. “It’s really the ultimate form of gaslighting.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a background in journalism from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine.
