Zach W. Lambert

📚 I wrote a book! 📚 I’ve spent the last 15+ years walking alongside people with spiritual trauma. In almost every case, the primary weapon used against them was the Bible. Instead of leading to healing and wholeness, which has always been God’s intention for humanity, Scripture has been used to shame and scold, judge and condemn, marginalize and oppress. Far too many folks have experienced the Bible as a toxic text that causes more harm than good. This book is an attempt to take what I’ve learned from brilliant authors, activists, scholars and theologians, as well as from the incredible people I get to minister alongside every day, and synthesize it into a helpful resource for reading the Bible in better ways. To do that, we’ll dismantle four common lenses for reading Scripture that lead to harm—Literalism, Apocalypse, Moralism, and Hierarchy. And then we’ll explore four new lenses—Jesus, Context, Flourishing, and Fruitfulness—that promote healing and wholeness for all people. We’ll take these better lenses and apply them to frequently weaponized biblical passages, concepts, and statements, like “I do not permit a woman to teach,” the creation story in Genesis, the notorious “clobber verses” used  against LGBTQ+ people, the book of Revelation, eternal conscious torment in hell, and much more. I started this journey because I came to believe that if our way of interpreting the Bible hurts people, then it must be reconsidered. The way of Jesus always leads to healing, not harm. Better ways to read the Bible exist, ways that lead to restoration, wholeness, and flourishing for all people. If you feel similarly and are ready to take a fresh look at the Scriptures, welcome to the journey. Let’s discover better ways of reading the Bible together. Also, PLEASE PREORDER TODAY! The book comes out August 12th, but preorders are so important, especially for a first-time author like me. Thank y’all so much 💙

The White American Evangelical leaders I grew up around told me over and over again that character matters. And I believed them. The same movement that once claimed to care deeply about morality, integrity, and family values now openly argues that cruelty, corruption, and abuse of power are acceptable—as long as they advance their right-wing political agenda and keep them in power. A version of Christianity willing to abandon those values in exchange for political power may still use the name of Christ, but it no longer resembles the person or teachings of Jesus in any meaningful way. In fact, it’s about as anti-Christ as you can get.

This is White American Evangelicalism in a nutshell: a complete abandonment of ethics, virtue, and Christlikeness in a relentless pursuit of power.

.@jamestalarico in Houston, TX: "In a time when there's so much debate about what it means to be a man, my dad showed me every Saturday morning. He would mow our lawn, and then, without telling anyone, without anyone asking him, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn. She was elderly, she was a widow. He never talked about it, he just did it, because that's what a man does. He serves those around him, he takes responsibility, and he does what's right even when no one is watching. Nowadays our culture tells young men men that greatness is tearing other people down, trolling and owning and dominating, but my dad showed me what real greatness looks like."

Can we be done with the pretense that Republican primary voters vote for MAGA candidates in spite of their apostasy and corruption? The transgression is a feature, not a bug. It tells voters they don't care about law or morality. Only power.

Four years ago today, a gunman entered Robb Elementary in Uvalde and opened fire—killing 19 fourth-graders and 2 teachers. Here’s how our Governor and Attorney General reacted: “It could have been worse.” Greg Abbott “We can't stop bad people from doing bad things.” Ken Paxton VOTE THEM OUT.

So let me get this straight… We don’t have money for SNAP. We don’t have money for healthcare. We don’t have money for public schools. We don’t have money for veteran services. We don’t have money for affordable housing. We don’t have money for mental health services. We don’t have money for roads and infrastructure. But we have $1.8b for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th?

“We do not draw people to Christ by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” - Madeleine L’Engle It’s worth noting that the “light” many Christians are displaying right now is anything but lovely, which is why so many folks are fleeing the church in droves.

This is actual antisemitism and it’s horrific. I’m not in TX-35, but I hope Galindo loses. Hate like this has no place in our state.

James Talarico: “The only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they’re on a mission from God. Our faith in Jesus should lead us away from theocracy, tyranny, Christian nationalism and toward a multi-racial, multi-cultural democracy”

Jesus does not teach us to explain suffering away. He teaches us to show up, move closer, and help. So when religious or political leaders tell us to “just trust God” while people are being harmed, silenced, and marginalized, we should firmly reject it as antithetical to the Gospel. That is not the way of Jesus. That is spiritual bypassing. When faith is used to make people look away from suffering, it is no longer forming to be Christlike—it’s just protecting power.

Jesus never used heaven as an excuse to ignore suffering on earth. When people were hurting, Jesus moved toward them. He saw the people others overlooked.
He listened to the people others tried to silence.
He touched the people others kept at a distance.
He helped the people others had written off. That is what compassion looked like in the life of Jesus.

Any version of Christianity that teaches people to ignore suffering here on earth because “heaven is our home” is not the Christianity of Jesus Christ. Over a dozen times in the Gospels, Jesus is described as being “moved by compassion” toward someone who is struggling and over fifty times he stops to help someone in need.

It was great joining @JamesTalarico and @GinaHinojosaTX today in Texas. They're working hard to make a difference in the lives of all Texans, and will be able to do even more as your next Senator and Governor. Let’s get it done, Texas!

@Quickdianah What are you talking about?

@ZachWLambert Really, you exalt the opinions of man above scripture? Seriously, why are you even in ministry if you don’t trust Scripture?

I spent part of today in front of the Texas State Capitol alongside fellow clergy and activists advocating to abolish the death penalty. Did you know Texas is about to execute a human being for the 600th time since it became legal again in 1982? Texas has executed more than 1/3rd of all people nationwide in that time—more than the next five states on the list combined. We know from research that about 1 out of every 8 people executed in the United States is later proven innocent which means that Texas has executed about 75 innocent folks. But even guilty people shouldn’t be executed. As Dr. King said, “Violence only begets more violence. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.” It is time we break this descending spiral of violence in our state and our country. It’s time to abolish the death penalty.

@HonestYPTweets How is this not idolatry?

The golden statue of Trump at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort is 100% a stupid idea, and evangelicals shouldn’t be connected to it. However, a stretch to call it idolatry and compare it to the golden calf in Exodus or Nebuchadnezzar's statue in Daniel 2.

@lmftca2025 This is such a ridiculous red herring. Where is this happening? Obama hasn’t been in office in a decade.

@ZachWLambert Agreed. If progressives could stop treating Obama's words like they're scripture, that would be great as well

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them.” — Exodus 20:4–5