In a pointed essay for The Times of Israel, evangelical minister and religious scholar Tim Orr argues that the Heritage Foundation’s current crisis is less a matter of public relations than of a profound moral failure.
He writes that the institution — once a beacon of “principled conservatism” — has lost its moral current under President Kevin Roberts’ leadership, particularly after Roberts defended Tucker Carlson in the wake of Carlson’s promotion of antisemitic views.
Orr argues that “words alone cannot sustain a civilization; they must convert into power.”
He contends that the Heritage Foundation was built to guard “the moral and philosophical boundaries of the conservative movement,” but that by refusing to draw a clear line when antisemitism entered the conversation, the institution has blurred those boundaries and dimmed its own light.
In Orr’s view, Roberts’ response to Carlson’s interview with far-right influencer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes was not merely a lapse, but a misreading of a moment of “civilizational consequence.”
He writes that Roberts not only failed to condemn Carlson’s platforming of Fuentes, but went further in his public remarks, describing Carlson’s critics as a “venomous coalition” and part of a “globalist class,” language that many Jews and Christians interpret as dog whistles of antisemitic conspiracy.
Orr emphasizes that the real breakdown lies in the loss of what he calls “voltage” — the sacred fear or awe that must undergird institutional behavior.
He contends that when institutions speak of faith, prudence, and inclusion but power them only with “the low current of civility,” they lose their capacity to name evil, to act courageously, and to preserve their own conscience.
The essay draws a parallel: Roberts’ hesitancy and deferral became an “open circuit” — full of belief but empty of output.
Orr further notes that staff at the Heritage Foundation reportedly left a meeting in confusion, wondering whether their own workplace could still “name evil by its name.”
He uses that anecdote to indicate that the crisis is not simply reputational, but also internal: When an office cannot say what evil is, it no longer functions as a moral institution.
Orr is joined by more than a dozen Christian and Jewish leaders who have resigned from the Heritage Foundation because they view Roberts’ initial statements — defending Carlson, refusing to “cancel” him, dismissing his critics as part of a “venomous coalition” — as signaling tolerance for antisemitism.
The fact that the Heritage Foundation under Roberts did not immediately and unequivocally separate itself from Carlson’s platforming of Fuentes — then compounded that error by failing to condemn Carlson’s antisemitism — underscores the depth of the institution’s moral crisis.
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