America has no shortage of enemies. China seeks to eclipse us geopolitically. Radical Islamists dream of our downfall. Cultural Marxists work tirelessly to dismantle our institutions. Secularists wage war on faith, history, and tradition. Our streets are fraught with crime, our politics with venom, our families with fracture.
But of all the adversaries that threaten the very soul of this nation, none is more profound, more insidious, or more spiritually corrosive than the rise of Progressive Christianity.
Why do I say this? Because Progressive Christianity wears an attractive attire of faith while quietly emptying it of its substance. It keeps the Bible’s vocabulary but drains it of meaning. It blesses what God condemns and condemns what God blesses. In doing so, it leaves our nation defenseless, not just politically or culturally, but morally and spiritually.
One need only glance at the trajectory of progressive theology to see its insidious shape. Scripture’s authority is the first casualty. Once the Bible is dismissed as myth and folklore — stripped of its divine inspiration, authority, and inerrancy — what follows is not mere drift but apostasy. Every doctrine, every moral boundary, every spiritual truth falls like dominoes. Sin is no longer rebellion against a holy God but merely a failure to “live authentically.” Sexual ethics are reimagined, with everything from LGBT behavior to adultery and fornication celebrated as legitimate expressions of love. Abortion becomes a “sacrament of autonomy.” Gender becomes fluid. Idolatry becomes spiritual pluralism. Judgment becomes symbolic. Hell — once the solemn warning of the Lord Jesus Himself — is reduced to a psychological metaphor, then dismissed altogether. This is not enlightened theological evolution. This is a damnable doctrinal demolition.
Here lies one of the great ironies of our time: Progressive Christians have long contended that conservative evangelicals should stay out of politics — that faith should have no role in public policy, that pastors should not speak to cultural issues, that the church must remain within its “private spiritual lane.” Yet in recent years, their own doctrinal reinterpretations have shaped the direction of this country far more profoundly, and far more negatively, than any sermon, rally, or voter guide ever produced by Christian conservatives.
When Progressive Christianity dismantles biblical authority, denies moral absolutes, blesses sexual anarchy, redefines family, sanctifies abortion, and erases the fear of God, these ideas do not remain within the walls of the church. They spill outward into legislation, education, entertainment, and cultural norms. Their theology has influenced our courts, our classrooms, and our culture, always drifting toward moral permissiveness and spiritual decay.
To ensure conservative believers remain silent, progressive clergy smear Christian conservatives with labels like “Christian nationalist,” a term so elastic it can be stretched to vilify anyone who believes Scripture should inform the national conscience. It is a weapon, not a description. It’s meant to intimidate and delegitimize anyone who refuses to surrender biblical truth. By demanding that conservatives retreat, progressives have cleared the public square for their worldview to dominate. The results have been spiritually devastating for America.
History illustrates just how dangerous this is. Germany — the land of Martin Luther, the cradle of the Reformation — did not collapse spiritually overnight. It started in the seminaries, where liberal theologians divested Scripture of its supernatural core. Miracles were dismissed. The resurrection was “demythologized.” Judgment was declared incompatible with an “enlightened society.” Moral commands were viewed as culturally conditioned. By the time Hitler rose to power, the German church was spiritually hollowed out. Its pulpits had already stopped preaching sin, judgment, and the fear of God. So, when real evil appeared, the Church lacked the moral clarity to stand against it.
Germany did not fall because Christianity failed the nation. It fell because a counterfeit had supplanted Christianity.
The parallels to America today are chilling. Progressive Christianity is training a generation to believe that God does not judge, that sin is whatever society says it is, that Jesus came not to redeem but to affirm, that the Bible must bow before cultural sensibilities, and that salvation is really unnecessary because everyone is already acceptable to God as they are.
Our nation cannot long endure such a spiritual vacuum. No external enemy can destroy a country faster than a church emptied of the truth. For once, the pulpits surrender, the people lose their compass. When the people lose their compass, every institution eventually collapses — the family, government, education, law, culture. Without the fear of God, the moral imagination of a nation darkens.
Progressive Christianity, then, is not simply another view of Christianity. It is actually a dismantling of the Christian faith from the inside. It is a spiritual Trojan horse. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It offers America all the trappings of Christianity but none of its power. It lulls the nation into a false peace while severing it from a Holy God who judges those who transgress His law, and a gracious God who mercifully saves sinners.
America may face adversaries abroad and agitators at home. Still, none is more dangerous than a fake Christianity that preaches grace without a Cross, a kingdom without righteousness, and a God without holiness. If America falls, it will not be because our enemies outside the gate were stronger. It will be because the enemies inside our sanctuaries and standing in the pulpits were subtler than we realized, preaching a Gospel without a rugged Cross and a Christ without a crown.
A faith stripped of truth cannot save a soul, much less save a civilization.
Rev. Mark H. Creech is Executive Director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc. He was a pastor for twenty years before taking this position, having served five different Southern Baptist churches in North Carolina and one Independent Baptist in upstate New York.
