The political season is in full swing, and the both presidential campaigns are pulling out all the stops to win their elections. One of the more disturbing elements in the current campaign is how Christianity is being used in a deceptive way for political purposes. It is completely understandable that the candidates would do what they can to woo Christians to vote for them. But in doing that, they at least need to be honest. One campaign in particular is not.

My reason for diving into this arena is NOT to promote one political candidate over another, or even to be political at all. Rather, my purpose is to push back against the perversion of the Christian faith. The wrong that is happening is not merely the actions of a particular candidate to woo Christian voters, but relates to actually putting forth a false version of Christianity.

The Harris-Walz campaign recently hired the Rev. Jennifer Butler to be its head of faith outreach. Butler is a liberal political activist who believes that white supremacists have “hijacked” the Christian faith, and she has called for those who agree with her to “resist” the hijacking. She is the founder of a nonprofit group called Faith in Public Life. This group claims to advance the “moral imperative for a just, inclusive, and equitable country.

The stated goal of her group is to root out white nationalism within the Christian faith. She claims to be working to “reclaim Christianity for justice and for compassion.” She has accused Republicans of using religious liberty as a “weapon” to pass discriminatory bills against people who identify as LGBTQ.

In order to claim that Christianity has been hijacked, there has to be an original Christian position that defines the standard, and some group that has deviated from the standard and convinced a lot of people to leave the original faith. So what is the original faith Rev. Butler thinks has been hijacked?

Butler’s version of the Christian faith starts in an entirely different place from biblical Christianity, and puts forth an entirely different message. Rather than starting with God and His message, her account starts with man and a particular view of values and morality that emerged from naturalistic philosophy – more specifically, Marxist beliefs. The entire basis of her message is that there are people who are oppressed and people who are oppressors. In her religion, the purpose of Christianity is to support the oppressed by politically defeating the oppressors.

From there, Butler goes on to give her own definition of the oppressed and oppressors. None of her beliefs come from the Bible. When she uses the Bible at all, it is simply to provide proof texts to support her already decided, non-biblical philosophy. In her version of Christianity, the oppressors are white people, and the oppressed are people of color. And rather than the purpose of Christianity being to point people to a relationship with God, it is to overcome the oppressors by political means. In particular, the kinds of goals she is promoting is to make abortion legal, promote the homosexual agenda, and provide government paid healthcare for all citizens. There is not a hint of any kind of spiritual goal in her version of the Christian faith.

The truth is, it is her version of Christianity that has deviated from the true faith. The core beliefs of the Christian faith start with the God of the Bible who created mankind for the purpose of relationship with Himself. When the Fall occurred that caused a rift in the relationship, God provided a way for it to be restored. The entire purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and His message of redemption.

From the very beginning days of the Christian church, Christians have had to fight against many different false teachings. In fact, much of the New Testament was written to help new believers resist the false teachings prevalent in that time. One of those false faiths was the common polytheism that dominated society in the Roman Empire. But others were various false teachings that tried to co-opt Christianity itself. There were those who continued to follow the teachings of John the Baptist after he was killed, who had not yet heard of the resurrection of Christ. Then there were the Judaizers who insisted that salvation was achieved by legalistically following Jewish traditions. Along with that were the Gnostics who tried to pull people away touting secret knowledge that provided salvation. Then, throughout the centuries, there were various groups of Unitarians, doomsday cults, political cults, sex cults, and on and on.

In modern times nothing has changed. New cults are still being formed. We have Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Unification Church, Scientology, Christian Science, Oneness Pentecostals, the Family International, and now the liberal theology of groups that believe like Butler.

That kind of liberal theology has actually been around for a while. As naturalistic Atheism began to emerge during the period of the European Enlightenment, various Christian theologians bought into many of its concepts. From that emerged Higher Criticism where theologians began using secular reasoning as the basis for their biblical interpretation, rather than accepting the underlying biblical worldview itself. From there, other theological strains that built upon that liberal approach emerged such as Existential theology, Liberation Theology, Postmodern Theology, and Progressive Theology. While each of the different ones have their own unique emphases, they all dismiss the biblical worldview that is taught in the Bible itself, and simply use the Bible to proof-text the underlying naturalistic philosophy they are really promoting.

Since their underlying philosophy is based on a naturalistic worldview, they don’t acknowledge the objective reality of the God of the Bible. Rather, they base their morality on the relativistic values of the beliefs they wish to promote. This can change over time as different societal fads come and go. And always, the focus is on “social justice” rather than on spiritual salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

Make no mistake, the liberal theology being promoted these days by the political left is a false theology that has become organized enough to legitimately be labeled another Christian cult. To many people, though, it is a hidden cult. Over the years, people who believe this philosophy have taken over many theological schools. Their students, in turn, have gone out to pastor churches where they taught these beliefs to their congregants. From there, they have expanded, and even taken over many “Christian” denominations. In fact, most of the major Protestant denominations have actually split as the false teachings finally became prominent enough to push out those who continued to believe in biblical Christianity. We have seen it with the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and most recently the Methodists. All of the liberal versions of these formerly Christian denominations have now become Christian cults.

So who has really hijacked Christianity? It is not those who continue to believe what is taught in the Bible. It is those who have bought into non-biblical beliefs and worked to take over true Christian churches. While Rev. Butler may claim that “white supremacists” have hijacked Christianity, it is exactly the opposite. She and her ilk are the hijackers.

There is only one real counter to false beliefs, and that is true beliefs. It is getting late. Christians need to get serious, and proactive, about learning how to detect and counter these false religions.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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