Dr Paul Allen

Inside American evangelicalism is a paradox: many of the most respected leaders use their influence to steer denominations and institutions in a direction that is significantly more liberal than the people those leaders ostensibly represent. There is no shortage of examples of this. Congregations who would reject critical race theory have CRT spoon-fed to them by their leaders. While those in the pew eschew the LGBTQ+ movement, some of the most influential evangelical pastors in the country are exposing their congregations to “affirming” curricula.  The ERLC provides a great illustration of this paradox. While the government closed churches and banned singing during COVID, the “religious liberty commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention commended court rulings siding with the government, which directly opposed the ERLC’s supposed mission and the will of many Southern Baptists. The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham wants us to know that it is not a coincidence that church leaders use t...

An outspoken Christian celebrity who's married to a retired Olympic athlete weighed in on the outrage caused by a depiction of "The Last Supper" at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris, France. She read aloud from Scripture as she reflected on what happened.  A video circulating on social media shows Candace Cameron Bure, well-known for her role on the sitcom “Full House,” sharing her thoughts about the opening ceremony’s depiction of The Last Supper as an event attended by drag queens. The scene at the Olympic ceremony portrayed Jesus Christ as a lesbian who was surrounded by models and men in drag depicting Jesus' disciples.  Bure began the video by noting that “my husband is a two-time Olympic medalist” and shared how “the Olympic Games have always brought me so much joy.” She lamented seeing “the opening ceremonies completely blasphemed and mock the Christian faith with their interpretation of 'The Last Supper,'” describing the portrayal as...

By   TYLER O'NEIL   Published on  January 4, 2024 Imagine the government told you what you  can and cannot pray for , inside your own head. Such an idea seems better suited to “thoughtcrime” dystopias — such as George Orwell’s  1984  or Aldous Huxley’s  Brave New World , where the government attempts to control your every thought — rather than to the modern, free English-speaking world. Yet a government in the Australian state of Victoria has trodden on the sacred space of one’s own inner prayers, all in the name of protecting people  who identify as LGBTQ . The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021, which went into effect in August 2022, forbids certain practices aimed at changing or suppressing an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The law also bans “carrying out a religious practice, including but not limited to, a prayer-based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism.” The Victorian Equal Opp...

Ken Williams is the author of   The Journey Out: How I Followed Jesus Away from Gay   and co-founder of Changed Movement, a small army of people who have left the LGBT subculture. Ken was exposed to gay porn as a child. He was also always the smallest boy, so he had an easier time hanging out with girls, who were nicer to him than the boys. This contributed to his gay identity. As he got older, Ken became suicidal. “The consternation and distress internally over having strong desires for something that I didn’t want was very troubling.” “I started seeing a Christian psychotherapist for five years weekly, and he kept me alive. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having therapy.” If his distress happened now in California where he lives and therapy is illegal, “I might have ended my life,” Ken said. “It’s devastating the laws that are in place in some places now.” Having been 17 when he got therapy, he said, “Nobody needs help more than a minor.” To hear Ken’s answers to...

A friend—a faithful Christian and a professor who specializes in political history—recently shared that after listening to Joe Rogan discuss gay marriage with Matt Walsh, he walked away discouraged. While Walsh articulated the biblical view of marriage as well as can be expected given the circumstances, Rogan “won” because his arguments, as silly as they were, resonate deeply with the cultural moment. When our collective moral framework is built around two principles—personal freedom and not causing harm—it’s nearly impossible to convince people that the definition of marriage shouldn’t be expanded to include same-sex couples. To oppose including those couples is now indistinguishable from bigotry. This partly explains why, in December, the Respect for Marriage Act passed both houses of the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support. Thirty-nine Republicans in the House and 12 in the Senate joined every Democrat to codify it into federal law. Support for gay marriage is so widespread that i...

“Some words, like strategic castles, are worth defending, and evangelical is among them,” Michael Gerson wrote. “While the term is notoriously difficult to define, it certainly encompasses a ‘born-again’ religious experience, a commitment to the authority of the Bible, and an emphasis on the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.” Gerson wrote those words in an article for The Atlantic in 2018. He ends his essay by saying,  “This sets an urgent task for evangelicals: to rescue their faith from its worst leaders.” Gerson, who previously served as a top aide and speechwriter for George W. Bush and is the author of Heroic Conservatism and coauthor of City of Man (a book edited by Collin Hansen and Tim Keller), has been an evangelical voice in the public square. It’s unfortunate, then, that he now uses arguments about sexuality that contradict Scripture and the church’s historic witness. As he notes, being an evangelical means being committed to the Bible’s authority—a position he seems to ...

We Are Now Headed into New Territory, But Christians Before Us Have Been There First, whom do I mean by “we?” I mean American Christians, especially American Christians who are determined not to compromise with a secular culture that is inimical to true, authentic Christianity. Second, whom do I mean by “Christians before us?” I mean Christians in the Roman Empire before Constantine and later Christians who walked the “narrow way” and suffered for refusing to compromise with the dominant culture that was inimical to true, authentic Christianity. We American Christians face a crisis and a decision. The crisis has been upon us for decades, but a final decision is looming in our immediate future. Will we allow the government to dictate whom we must hire to be in our institutions? It may be a do or die decision—“do” go along with the government(s), or “die” by declining to obey government dictates and lose our tax-exempt status and all federal and (sometimes) state funds—including guarante...

The Story: A proposed city ordinance in Indiana highlights why bans on “conversion therapy” can be a threat to the gospel. The Background: The city council of West Lafayette, Indiana is considering an ordinance that would make it illegal for “unlicensed” counselors to counsel minors on human sexuality in a way that conflicts with LGBT+ orthodoxy. For example, if a teenager goes to a Christian counseling center about unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, it would be breaking the law to give them answers based on biblical sexual ethics. The penalty for violating the ban on so-called “conversion therapy” is a fine of $1,000 per day.* The proposed ordinance defines “conversion therapy” as any practices or treatments that seek to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.” The law makes an exception, though...

Joshua Harris, the author of the Christian self-help bestseller I Kissed Dating Goodbye, recently announced that he is both divorcing his wife and no longer considers himself a Christian, in the process apologizing to “the LGBTQ+ community” for having previously espoused a traditional Christian sexual ethic.  The book’s publishers bill I Kissed Dating Goodbye as presenting a “call to sincere love, real purity, and purposeful singleness” while providing “solid, biblical alternatives to society's norm.” In the book, Harris advocated a more courtship-like model of forming relationships, including greater involvement of both partner’s parents and getting to know potential spouses in group settings. Harris has come under fire over the years for several aspects of the book, and in a statement on his website says he no longer stands by everything he wrote. “I now think dating can be a healthy part of a person developing relationally and learning the qualities that matter most ...

The  editorial  in  The Age  last month could scarcely contain its enthusiasm that the Andrews government in Victoria had recently decided to end Special Religious Instruction (SRI) in school hours and replace it with lectures on domestic violence and respectful relationships. The editor writes: "At last, classrooms in the government school system in this state will be used for what they were intended: academic teaching and not religious instruction. Some 143 years after Victoria's Education Act made clear that education must be free, secular and compulsory, the Andrews government has committed to abolishing special religious instruction classes during school hours. That is as it should be. The Age has consistently argued over decades that, beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, there should be room for lessons about various belief systems and for discussion about ethics and social awareness. But the school hours funded by the taxpayer should not be used...