Why would someone who claims to be a Christian embrace something the Bible clearly condemns? Here are three underlying reasons:

1. A willingness to twist the Word of God 

Progressive Christianity faces a dilemma in that it claims to uphold Scripture while approving of things the Bible calls sin. Some have claimed that the Bible writers had no understanding of the concept of sexual orientation, so their condemnation of homosexuality refers only to exploitation, sexual excess or abuse and not to committed, same-sex relationships. But as R. Albert Mohler has pointed out, that approach “leads to a haunting question: What else does the Bible not know about what it means to be human? If the Bible cannot be trusted to reveal the truth about us in every respect, how can we trust it to reveal our salvation?”  

2. A misunderstanding of the love of God

Progressive Christianity believes that love requires affirmation of a person’s sexual orientation, even if it is in blatant contradiction to God’s Word. The United Church of Christ, for example, decries the bullying or oppression of people in the LGBT community, and rightly so. But it conflates love and affirmation, stating that it “boldly affirms, celebrates and embraces the gifts for ministry of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons.”

God’s love does not negate His holiness or His just judgment: “For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14, NKJV).

3. A disregard for the holiness of God

Progressive Christians emphasize tolerance and acceptance, but they tend to reject the Bible’s teaching about sin and judgment. They ignore the fact that God is absolutely holy, that He requires people to be holy (see 1 Peter 1:15-16) and that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). In the end, they think, God will simply accept everyone, so there is no need to live by His commands or turn away from what He forbids.