Cru Ends Gay Affirming Curriculum Amid Backlash

Back in May, Evangelical Dark Web, Protestia, and Jon Harris of Conversations The Matter exposed the gay-affirming curriculum of Cru [formerly Campust Crusade,] the most prominent campus evangelism organization. Cru was heavily influenced by Preston Sprinkle of the Center For Faith Sexuality and Gender, as well as other people in the Side B Theology movement. The curriculum is characterized by its effeminate language push, villainizing the church, affirming transgenderism, and promoting a gay seeker-friendly model. Side B Theology asserts that homosexual and transvestite identities and desires are not sin.

The exposure of this nonsense was not without retaliation. Preston Sprinkle unsuccessfully went after Protestia who published a leaked montage in its entirety. Cru fired whistleblowers Uriah and Marissa Mundell over their public objection to this theology.

But after nearly five months of the word being out about their gay-affirming curriculum, it seems that Cru has ended their “Compassionate and Faithful” training series. World Magazine writes: “One of the nation’s leading evangelical ministries is discontinuing its controversial staff training on sexuality and gender less than two years after launching it. Cru employees will no longer have access to the Compassionate and Faithful curriculum by the end of this year, according to a leaked recording of a Sept. 26 meeting for U.S.-based staff.

“Our plan going forward is to integrate our LGBT+ equipping into existing developmental venues,” Keith Johnson, Cru’s director of theological education and development, told staff during the meeting leaked on a podcast last week. “Going forward, we think it’s increasingly important for us to speak in our own theological voice.” That means Cru will rely less on “external communicators,” Johnson said.

It seems there is no real plan on establishing or maintaining biblical sexual ethics for Cru leaders. World then details the backlash that the curriculum received from prominent ex-gay Christians.

On Oct. 2, author and commentator Jon Harris released portions of the late September virtual meeting on his podcast, Conversations That Matter. A former Cru staffer who attended the meeting sent the recording to Harris. I spoke with the former staffer, who asked to remain anonymous due to ongoing interaction with current Cru staff.

During the meeting and in a follow-up email to WORLD, Johnson referred to the Compassionate and Faithful materials as a “learning experience,” not a curriculum. Since most staff had completed the training, Johnson told me it made sense to incorporate future training on sexuality and gender issues into Cru’s Institute of Biblical Studies for incoming staff and interns. The Compassionate and Faithful materials were designed to “provide clarity” and “align all our staff to a historic Biblical understanding of sexuality,” Johnson said.

Cru makes it clear that they are not repentant of pushing gay-affirming heresy.

During the Sept. 26 meeting, Johnson and Mark Gauthier, Cru’s vice president and U.S. national director, referenced recent public criticism. “We hold dearly … the calling to communicate the gospel to everybody,” Gauthier said. “That puts us in a situation over the years where we open up to criticism and critique … what we’ve gone through, it’s been significant over the last few years.”

But Gauthier and Johnson stopped short of admitting error or stating that public criticism influenced Cru’s decision to scrap its Compassionate and Faithful curriculum and pivot away from using outside presenters to instruct staff.

“What divides us from many of our critics at the end of the day, isn’t our view of sexuality and gender,” Johnson said. “It’s our vision for cultural engagement.” He added that when Cru is at its best, it has a “Jesus first” approach to cultural engagement.

Cru’s lack of repentance and restoration of the fired whistleblowers is a reason to distrust their motives in ending the curriculum. While Cru refused to specific that the revelations of being gay-affirming harmed donations, it’s clear that this was an effort to cover their tracks to their donor class.

https://evangelicaldarkweb.org/2024/10/10/cru-ends-gay-affirming-curriculum-amid-backlash/