Moles are everywhere!

David said to [Hushai], “If you return to the city … then you can help me by frustrating Ahithophel’s advice.” —2 Samuel 15:33–34

Last week, as reported by Evangelical Focus, a French national television channel released an unfriendly investigative documentary on evangelicals in France.

In barely 200 words, the broadcaster’s own description of the documentary, titled “Evangelicals: A Not-So-Angelic Success?”, contains an impressive collection of attention-getting phrases: “reliance on marketing methods,” “divine healings and demonic possession as part of daily life,” “supernatural powers,” “conversion therapies,” “techniques of controlling the faithful,” “testimony from a ‘deconverted’ family,” and “losing touch with reality.”

That sure sounds like a balanced assessment! As you might guess, French evangelicals have protested vociferously, expressing “deep concern about questionable journalistic methods.”

[destacate]French evangelicals have protested vociferously, expressing “deep concern about questionable journalistic methods.”[/destacate]Evangelical Focus described one of those methods: “With a hidden camera, a reporter pretends to be a lesbian interested in the gospel and asks for an appointment to speak privately with a pastor from the church. The only controversial statement the report manages to get from the hidden camera is the pastor’s encouragement to live a celibate life and celebrate the relationship with God and with other Christian friends.”

That paragraph offers an important lesson for Christian leaders everywhere: always be alert for moles!

A “mole” is a spy who infiltrates an organization to get information. In every area of society where important things happen—war, politics, foreign policy, sports, or dangerous churches—you can expect moles to be lurking.

Moles provided three of the funniest memories of my political career.

In 1994, while working for a US Senate candidate in a nationally prominent campaign, I spoke at a Christian political conference. I instructed my listeners to always be careful about what they said in public.

I pointed out that a mole might be present in my very audience. Six months later, I discovered that a mole had indeed been listening to my every word! An article in a publication opposed to my candidate contained quotations from my message.

The worst thing they could find in my words was that I had encouraged conservative Christians to build political alliances with like-minded groups.

Five years later, I was the mole. When a coalition of left-leaning political groups held a statewide strategy conference, a conservative policy organization asked me to attend. I prefer honest dialogue to deception, so once I got in the door, I revealed my identity and affiliation.

We got along well, although everyone seemed careful about what they said to me. And it was a bit awkward when the speaker on education policy displayed a collage of dangerous articles from the ”far right”—because I was the author of several of them!

Finally, our all-time favorite. Three months after I began working for a Republican congressman, the newspaper announced that a local political expert, who had been chief of staff for the previous Democratic congressman, would be giving a talk to a Democratic women’s group, analyzing my boss’s first 100 days in office.

We wanted to find out what he was saying, but none of the staff could attend, as we would be recognized immediately. So my wife and a friend attended.

They signed in with their real names, grabbed all the handouts, took notes, and reported everything to me upon returning home. Three days later, I received a letter from the event speaker.

It began, “I see that you are not able to control your wife’s political interests!” After I left my political job and it was safe for me to talk with him, we enjoyed many years of friendship.

[destacate]Our normal interpersonal behavior should exhibit transparency and collaboration, but there are exceptions. We need to be spiritually and ethically prepared for those situations, because they often involve difficult, high-pressure decisions with lives hanging in the balance[/destacate]The main lesson of all these stories is to always be careful about what you say, because you never know who is lurking to capture your words and use them against you.

But also, we should recognize that sometimes Christians may be called to function as spies or moles.

Christians can be moles in an ethical manner. Sometimes we need undercover helpers, like the spies and Rahab in Jericho (Joshua 2) or Hushai before Absalom (2 Samuel 15:32–17:16).

Our normal interpersonal behavior should exhibit transparency and collaboration, but there are exceptions. We need to be spiritually and ethically prepared for those exceptional situations, because they often involve difficult, high-pressure decisions with lives hanging in the balance.

The body of Christ has another type of legitimate “moles” today. There are many countries that Christian missionaries cannot enter, but where Christians are welcome if they fulfill another legitimate purpose, such as teaching English or overseeing construction projects.

Elsewhere, Christian converts from Islam are figuring out how to live out their Christian faith while still meeting their family’s expectations. Let us show grace and understanding to these dedicated Christians as they negotiate their sensitive situations.

(Evangelical Focus has also published a follow-up article with further reactions to the French documentary.)

Bruce Barron, author or coauthor of seven books on religion and politics and a former US congressional aide, was editor of the World Evangelical Alliance’s theology journal from 2018 to 2024. Subscribe to his blog at brucebarron.substack.com.