When fruit becomes the destination, leaders start managing appearances instead of shepherding souls. The room stays calm, drift goes unchallenged, and clarity becomes the cost of keeping things together.

When diversity becomes righteousness and unity becomes faithfulness, truth becomes the thing nobody wants to examine.

This piece names a category error I’ve caught in myself more than once. I’ve treated outcomes like virtues, assuming the root was healthy because the fruit looked fine. That habit is easy to fall into when the room feels good, and the alignment feels clean.

I hear it everywhere, from podiums and from pulpits. Different settings, same instinct. We talk about what we can see and skip the slower work of asking what’s underneath it.

On the left, it’s often said, “Diversity is our strength.” On the right, it sounds like, “Let’s stay united around the mission.” Sometimes it’s framed as, “We can’t afford division right now.” The language feels responsible and stabilizing, which is part of why it works. It sounds like maturity.

I’ve nodded along in rooms where that language felt right. The room felt healthy. The alignment felt good. Everyone seemed on the same page, and in the moment that felt like enough. I didn’t stop to ask what was actually holding that alignment together.

That’s where the trouble starts, because we don’t drift into error by hating truth. We drift by assuming it. Scripture calls us to examine fruit by tracing it back to what produces it (Matthew 7:16–20).

Read More