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Under the banner of "Confessing Faculty," 1000 professors have already signed the pledge to recognize and defend the "vulnerable populations" among us.
"These populations," they say, "are marginalized groups who are feeling increasingly alienated not only in the current national context but in much of the white evangelical culture as well."
Professors from liberal Princeton Seminary and Yale Divinity School to more "conservative" Calvin College, Fuller Seminary and Wheaton College have signed on to "join our voices for those who are most vulnerable."
Whom do they consider to be "the most vulnerable populations?"
Under the organizational banner of "Confessing Faculty," this group has come together because, "The United States has experienced a contentious election and post-election season marked by fear, polarization, and violence. The corrupt political climate reveals longstanding national sins of racism, misogyny, nativism, and great economic disparity."
The statement reads, "Many people of color, women and other marginalized groups feel increasingly alienated not only the current national context but in much or the white evangelical culture as well."
I find the organizational name they have chosen to be revealing.
The site takes its name "Confessing Faculty" from the 1934 "Barmen Declaration" of the "Confessing Church" that opposed the nationalism of German Christians during the Nazi era.
I doubt this was an uninformed name choice by the professors.
Sameer Yadav, a professor of Religious Studies at Westmont College, and one of 3 to draft the statement, says, "The allusion is not intended to equate the deep disorders of American social and political life with Nazism, but to emphasize the importance of not allowing the culture or political aims of the state to co-opt the aims of the church."
It's further revealing that there was apparently no sense of urgency for this kind of coalition for Christian action under the Obama administration, even though the past 8 years are testament to the greatest assault on religious freedom in our country's recent history.
The past 8 years of silence on the part of these "Confessing Faculty" members is suspect to biblical Christians.
How could they stand by in silence during the unrestrained advance of tax payer funding for the world's largest abortion company---Planned Parenthood--- and a president who single-handedly, with his "pen and his phone" as he liked to say, re-made the definitions of marriage and the family, while normalizing sexual behavior that is condemned, not by white evangelicals, but by the Bible---God's Word?
Erin Smith, a professor of psychology at California Baptist University, shares the reason she signed the statement-- "It is out of my Christian convictions that I believe it is so important we talk about justice, prejudice, discrimination, suffering, privilege...always with an eye toward our individual and collective responsibility to act."
Smith says she especially liked the final phrase in the statement that reads: "We confess that we have too often failed in calling out injustice, in loving and knowing our neighbors, and properly stewarding God's creation."
Only God knows what is in the heart of the "Christian Left."
However, the recent history of this movement, working under the guise of Scriptural authority and on behalf of the "church," have distinguished themselves as banner carriers for extreme environmentalism, inclusion which affirms homosexuality and abortion under the guise of "love," and strongly advocating for open borders under the guise of compassion.
On their site linked above under the section "It's Not An Exclusive Club" says, "The exclusionary gospel of the Christian Right is foreign to us. We do not recognize it."
They say, "The exclusionary tactics and demonization that is so frequently practiced by the Christian Right is not the Jesus we follow."
This is true. Recognizing the destructive sinful nature of mankind is foreign to the Left, who for the most part believe in universalism---all will ultimately be saved. They often quote John the Baptist when he said of the coming of Jesus, "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God" affirming "all means all."
To believe that "seeing" involves making a decision as to whether one receives Christ is, again "exclusionary."
It is also foreign for them to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father---even though He himself said He is.
For evangelicals--white or black, to make that claim is viewed by the Left as "exclusionary."
As Oprah and Barack Obama have said publicly--"I believe Jesus is a way to God, but there are other ways for other people."
In their teaching materials and their web site, the Christian Left use the words of John the Baptist: "every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" as a judgment against evangelical Christians who, due to our "exclusionary" beliefs, "produce bad or 'strange' fruit." The "strange fruit" is further equated to "The same strange fruit that white supremacists hung from trees in the south. And the same strange fruit that the Nazis baked in the ovens of Auschwitz."
The so-called Christian Left says on their site linked above, "Culturally crusading right-wing Christians have substituted the Gospel of Jesus Christ for a Gospel of Morality. They've made it more about following rules than loving God..."
These kinds of beliefs designed to affirm sin rather than be forgiven and restored, bring people like Glennon Doyle Melton, a self-professed "Christian" author to write this for TIME Magazine:
"Glennon Doyle Melton: Mike Pence's Marriage Rule Holds Women Back."
She begins by trashing Vice President Pence for his personal policy of not having lunch alone with a woman other than his wife---that is sometimes called the "Billy Graham Rule"---mocking him for "fleeing his youthful lusts" to avoid "appearances of compromise or suspicion."
The article accuses Pence of seeing women as only a sex entity.
Then she writes, "I am a Christian, a feminist and a woman currently planning my wedding to another woman"---with the article continuing to trash, shame and mock Mike Pence for his personal beliefs.
The article articulates the so-called "Christian Left" theology---and illustrates how it plays out in real life.
Melton continuously speaks and holds conferences in churches across America. There is real interest in her message, because the church, in too many cases, has no message outside the narrative of the Christian Left.
It is written, "Without a vision people perish." That can also be said of a misplaced vision based on error.
It was Jesus who said, "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying I am the Christ...many false prophets will rise up and deceive many...lawlessness will abound" (Matt. 24).
Be informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.