Theological liberalism, at face value, can be defined as the progression of a group’s theology that reinterprets certain doctrines of a given religion. In Christianity, our canonized source material, given to us by God, is the Bible, a book that has remained unchanged for nearly 2,000 years. While different Christians interpret parts of the Bible differently, all true believers agree on core doctrine, and that must remain unchanged for us to follow the God who presents himself in His Word.
However, the trend of theological liberalism upsets that consistency, seeking to change Scripture’s core doctrine to align with flawed, sinful human sensibilities and understanding. This poisons the well and pushes people and whole institutions into heresy. Various denominations, universities, and seminaries have all fallen into this trap. A significant portion of the American church has unfortunately joined this movement, and the Democrats have noticed.
Probably the most notable example lately is James Talarico. A self-proclaimed PCUSA Presbyterian with a seminary degree, Talarico has spent a good chunk of his Senate campaign spewing heresies left and further left. Any Christian who has honestly read the Bible knows that God is referred to as a He, not a they/them. They would also know that to God, every human life is valuable, as all are created in the image of God. This is Sunday School 101.
Despite having a graduate degree in theology, Talarico has failed, or worse, refused to grasp these basic concepts. He has said that God is nonbinary. He is also pro-choice and is a big fan of kids who mutilate themselves due to gender confusion. At a recent event, he attempted to convince a Catholic theology professor that abortion isn’t mentioned in the Bible, only to immediately get shut down with the most basic of Biblical evidence: “Thou Shalt Not Murder.”
Talarico is a high-profile example of someone who uses Christianity and his background as labels to attract support from people who wouldn’t support him otherwise. The label of Christian, Presbyterian, or theologian has been abused by Talarico as a stage to prop up his far-left policies so those policies, in turn, can deceive faithful Christians and compromise the greater church.
You can see this in other areas of our culture, notably in Greta Gerwig’s coming Narnia movie, “The Magician’s Nephew.” Judging by interviews and trailers, the movie is such a far deviation from the source material that many have questioned if it even is telling the same story. Signs indicate that Gerwig, a well-known feminist, has taken the name of an overtly Christian story and plastered it on a completely different movie, which likely has a not-so-Christian spin. This movie would be fine without the Narnia name, but as Christians, we expect things portrayed as Christian to actually reflect Christianity.
Lastly, and most unfortunately, you see the leftist Christian shift in academia. At Christian college Point Loma University in San Diego, the school’s dean of students told students that identifying as being “in Christ alone” is a sign of white privilege. Anyone with a position comparable to that should have at least a cursory knowledge of Christianity, but a statement such as that frankly proves that the dean does not. It’s not like he wasn’t dishonest about who he was; his dissertation is titled “Raging Waters of Whiteness: Addressing White Evangelical Racism in Higher Education.” Why would a university with supposed Christian convictions hire this man to be its dean of students? That’s an easy answer; they don’t have Christian convictions.
In Matthew 7:15, Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In this case, the false prophets are those who have used the Christian label, a label normally respected by millions in America, to profit for themselves. They use it to deceive others into believing their excessive leftist commentary, to the point that what they are saying is not even Christian anymore.
Jesus Christ explicitly warned us about this very danger, so we must vigilantly fight against it.
