A conservative Anglican minister in England is warning liberalism in the West is “the greatest threat” to Christianity, even calling it “one of the tools that the devil is using.”
Calvin Robinson, a deacon in the Free Church of England, said during an interview with Fox News that the phrase “progressive Christianity” is an “oxymoron,” describing leftist Christians as “fake.”
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He went on to say liberalism is concerning, because it is “rooted in twists of the truth.”
“[L]iberalism is even more warped in terms of taking something that sounds compassionate, sounds empathetic, but isn’t actually fully true in order to get people to believe in it, such as, you know, trans queer theory, gender theory, critical race theory,” the deacon explained.
The genesis of radically progressive ideology, he argued, is “really communism, which we know is incompatible with the Christian faith, because it is the work of the enemy.”
“[S]o many popes, so many cardinals, so many good holy men throughout history have said this quite explicitly,” Robinson said. “And so, we shouldn’t let our guard down for communism. We certainly shouldn’t let it for neo-Marxism and, therefore, we should not let our guard down for liberalism.”
Robinson’s comments come as many clergy members in Europe are embracing progressive ideology.
In early March, Catholic bishops in Germany voted to allow formal ceremonies for the blessing of same-sex relationships, a direct contradiction to Catholic orthodoxy and the doctrine of the Vatican.
Even more recently, in July, the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, described the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer — “Our Father” — as “problematic,” according to The Guardian.
The biblical prayer, recorded in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4, “is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have labored rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life.”
Cottrell made the comments about Jesus’ teaching during the General Synod, a meeting comprising the ruling body of the Church of England. He did face some pushback for his suggestion.
Canon Dr. Chris Sugden, an ordained minister in the Church of England, retorted, “Is the archbishop of York saying Jesus was wrong, or that Jesus was not pastorally aware? It seems to be emblematic of the approach of some church leaders to take their cues from culture rather than Scripture.”
Robinson, for his part, sees the shift in theology and away from orthodoxy as a result of leftism creeping into the Western church.
“Progressive Christianity is an oxymoron,” he said. “You can either be a Christian or you can be progressive.”
The deacon continued, “The Christian faith is inherently conservative, because it provides a set of values that are seen by the modern world as conservative — ideas such as marriage is between one man and one woman, that God made us male and female, and He made those different. You know, we’re not equal in terms of being the same. We’re equal in terms of dignity and worth. But we are complementary and different for a purpose.”
“Progressive Christianity is about twisting the truth again,” he added. “It is all a lie. You can either have the truth or not the truth. The truth is objective, right? So you have truth or lie.”
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