WAGNER: Left-wing church leaders express sour grapes over conservative Christian conference

Early in May, the Alberta Christian Leadership Summit will be held in Red Deer. Premier Danielle Smith will be in attendance, as well as several cabinet ministers and MLAs. According to the summit website, it will provide “A direct dialogue between Christian leadership and Alberta’s government.”This has raised the ire of several church leaders in the province. According to the title of a Global News article, “Alberta faith leaders oppose premier’s upcoming speech at Christian summit.” They claim that the conference is too “exclusive,” among other things.In the video version of the Global story, the spokesperson for the angry faith leaders is Peter Graham, the Social Justice and Outreach Ministries Coordinator for Robertson-Wesley United Church in Edmonton. Peter goes by the pronouns they/them, and the church website notes, “They are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.”It’s not surprising that a United Church official — or several United Church officials — would openly oppose an event hosted by conservative Christians. This follows a pattern that has been common in Canada for several years..For example, when American worship leader Sean Feucht had an event scheduled in Saskatoon last year, a local United Church official issued a statement condemning him. The Rev. Piotr Strzelecki, Convenor of the Living Skies Regional Council of the United Church of Canada, wrote that Feucht “preaches superiority of one faith over all others, and one expression of Christianity over all others. He engages in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and promotes dominion theology. He sows discord and division. Mr. Feucht’s Christianity is not my Christianity, certainly not the Christianity of the Living Skies Regional Council and that of the United Church of Canada.”I think Feucht would agree that his Christianity is not the Christianity of the United Church of Canada. And that’s a good thing.In a hilarious ending, Strzelecki quotes Romans 8:38-39 and then adds, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God … nothing … and certainly not Mr. Feucht.”Much like what Feucht experienced, when Franklin Graham (son of evangelist Billy Graham) held an evangelistic crusade in Vancouver in 2017, several liberal church leaders issued a statement against him. This was reported by the Vancouver Sun in an article entitled, “Top Vancouver Christian leaders reject Franklin Graham’s crusade.”One of the people leading the opposition to the crusade was Vancouver City Councillor Tim Stevenson, an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada..According to the liberal church leaders, Franklin Graham “has made disparaging and uncharitable remarks about Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community, while portraying the election, administration, and policies of U.S. President Donald Trump as intrinsically aligned with the Christian church.” It continued, “Such blending of politics and religion is dangerous.”I guess Tim Stevenson — an elected councillor and at the same time a United Church minister — missed the irony of signing a document that condemns the “blending of politics and religion” as “dangerous.”The point here is that no one should be surprised that a group of left-wing church leaders is opposing the Alberta Christian Leadership Summit. It’s a good thing, in fact. There’s an old saying that “a man is known by his friends,” but it can also be true that “a man is known by his enemies.” The leftist church leaders opposing the summit represent a version of “Christianity” strongly at odds with the Bible and historic orthodox doctrine.Anyone who stands publicly for biblical Christianity will receive opposition. Sometimes, the opposition will be loudest from religious leaders. This is a result of the antithesis between the kind of biblical Christianity represented by Franklin Graham and the religious perspective of people like Peter Graham (they/them).These two versions of Christianity are incompatible, so the United Church and other liberal churches will continue to vigorously oppose the efforts of conservative Christians to engage in the public square.

WAGNER: Left-wing church leaders express sour grapes over conservative Christian conference

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