I’m convinced that the most fertile mission field right now is right-wing unbelievers. Specifically, right-wing men. Even more specifically, right-wing men under 40.

Let me explain.

Right-wing and left-wing unbelievers are not the same. It’s a naive pipe dream for churches to try to play the middle, offending neither the Left nor the Right in theory (which almost always means happily offending the Right while coddling the Left in practice) in a misguided effort to reach both with the gospel. It won’t work.

We don’t live in a monoculture. We’re going to offend somebody. It’s only a matter of who and why.

Right-wing unbelievers generally believe in God and have some respect for the Bible or the natural law. Yes, they live lives that fall short of Christian teaching and God’s righteous standards, but in broad strokes, they are living according to God’s creation order, and not against it. They have some knowledge of God’s truth and know they don’t live up to that standard. In other words, they are sinning against the light of knowledge.

Left-wing unbelief is different. It’s explicitly secular. Usually atheistic. If they do believe in God, it’s a pagan perversion that only bears a faint resemblance to the God of Scripture. Having rejected the light of truth, they’ve gone on to rebel against nature itself. They remind me of what Paul describes in Romans 1.

As people rebel against nature, Romans 1 describes their downward spiral into a moral abyss. When you think of a garden-variety leftist, you likely think of someone who is openly hostile to God, Christianity, history, tradition, laws, norms, and the civil order. They wear moral anarchy as a badge of pride. Therefore, God has given them over to all manner of sin (Rom 1:24). These people are some of the most arrogant people you’ll ever meet. They hold Master’s degrees and PhDs, yet they think that if you drug up a little boy with cross-sex hormones, they can turn him into a girl. They struggle to construct a rationally coherent argument for any of their beliefs, operating almost exclusively on pathos over logos: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22).

They are emotional thinkers who have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom 1:25). Thus, they also exchange natural sexual relations for those that are “contrary to nature” (Rom 1:26). Leftists are full-throated advocates of the LGBTQ revolution, almost without exception.

The Left has also mainstreamed political violence. Watch videos of Antifa or “No Kings” protests and you’ll see all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (Rom 1:29-31).

Right-wing unbelief reminds me more of Romans 2. Even though they aren’t Christians, they possess enough light of truth to acknowledge God, hold the Bible in high regard, show some respect for the rule of law, and strive to uphold natural law and the civil order. Garden variety right-wing unbelievers are responsible adults with families and kids. Since we do not live in a monoculture, it is naive for a church to act as though it can play the middle to reach people on both sides.

The Left is clearly morally worse than the Right, and churches that refuse to acknowledge this fact come across as disingenuous at best or dishonest at worst. Churches that refuse to confront the evils of the Left will be offensive to the non-Christian Right. If a right-wing non-Christian shows up at a squishy church and hears about “evil on both sides,” they’re going to think that church has lost its mind. Their fear of the Left’s growing wickedness may have prompted them to come to church in the first place. I’m not saying churches should pander to right-wing unbelievers, I’m just saying don’t act like both sides are the same.

Most normal right-wing unbelievers won’t take offense at having their sins called out. They expect it and respect it. That’s what preachers and churches do, and they are aware of it. But a right-wing unbeliever will be deeply offended at any preacher who panders to the Left. He’ll walk away thinking, “That preacher has no spine.” Most right-wing unbelievers aren’t looking for preachers to pander to them. They are looking for preachers they can trust to tell them the truth.

A right-wing unbeliever may have a wife and kids. If not, a right-wing young man will desire these things, though he will probably believe the social deck has been stacked so high against him that he may never be able to have them.

The right-wing non-Christian husband and father will naturally want to protect and provide for his family, and he’s looking for help in an increasingly dangerous world. If he shows up at church and the preacher talks about Christ conquering evil powers, he’ll sit up and take notice. And if the preacher says, “You need to get your own house in order first. Get rid of porn. Take care of your body. Be more disciplined. Take care of your family. Repent of your sin, and Jesus will forgive your failures. Then trust his power to overcome them and grow,” there’s a good chance he’ll turn to his wife and say, “This is our church.”

In other words, right-wing unbelievers know what time it is, and they’re hungry for a message that gives them hope and purpose. They understand that the Left is trying to destroy their way of life. They need to hear that Christ has overcome the evil one, and in His power, they can too.

The bottom line is this: One way or another, you’re going to offend somebody. There is no such thing as a non-offensive position. You can’t play the middle between Left and Right; you must pick a side. You must choose.

To be clear, since I was wrongfully accused of coming “perilously close to telling Christians that a certain class of non-Christian is unworthy of being evangelized,” that’s not at all what I am saying. I’m providing observational and analytical commentary on where, as a pastor of over 15 years and someone who pays close attention to various cultural currents, I see the most significant opportunities for fruitful evangelism and gospel ministry. And what I am ultimately suggesting here is not some new form of seeker-sensitive approach to ministry, but rather a “putting off” of a watered-down, “Third Way” approach that was never biblical to begin with.

Preach the Bible and apply a white-hot gospel to the reality of the world we live in today, and the reality of our current political climate, and I believe the rewards you will reap are the salvation of souls on the Right in particular. If that same message reaches a leftist, praise God! But don’t be surprised when it doesn’t. There are different kinds of soil in the human heart (Matthew 13:1-23). Sow the seed indiscriminately. But don’t be surprised when it grows in the heart of non-Christian right-wingers, particularly right-wing men. And be careful not to place unnecessary stumbling blocks to reaching this fertile ground because you’ve been fooled into adopting a failed “neither Right nor Left” paradigm.

Left-wing unbelievers will be offended by churches that confront sins and call people to repentance. Right-wing unbelievers will be offended by churches that don’t confront sins and don’t call people to repentance.

For this reason, I’m convinced that the most fertile mission field right now is right-wing unbelievers.

Jesus himself recognized that some unbelievers are “not far from the kingdom” (Mark 12:34). Right-wing unbelievers are closer to the kingdom because their values are more conducive to and compatible with Christian belief.

So right-wing unbelievers may not (yet) know Christ, but they still want to live in a Christian society. From there, it’s not a far leap to explicit Christian faith.