This open letter to the Church in America by Reverend Thomas Littleton is so important that we decided to reprint it here, in its entirety, without any changes. The issues raised in this letter absolutely must be addressed.
Of course, as Bible-believing Christians, we know that the enemy will never prevail against the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. But this attack on God’s truth needs to be exposed, discussed, and dealt with. Please follow the links in the letter for more evidence.
Writing in The New American magazine in 2018, Alex Newman also documented this Marxist infiltration of the Southern Baptist Convention. The article was, “Liberals May Win Control of Largest U.S. Protestant Denomination.”
At the Liberty Sentinel, we touched on these dangerous teachings invading conservative denominations, too. Citing a new video produced by a faithful brother from Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in London, TLS exposed how “Dangerous False Teachings Invade Southern Baptist Convention.”
We also exposed Soros-funded “progressives” styling themselves Evangelical Christians promoting all sorts of anti-biblical teachings.
This recent open letter was first sent to us by our dear sister, Geri Ungurean of raptureready.com, an amazing woman of God who loves our Lord and His Church. Pastor Thomas’ website, which is also filled with insight and wisdom, is thirtypiecesofsilver.org.
Without further ado, here is the full letter:
BETRAYED : AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHURCH
THE CHURCH IN AMERICA IS BEYOND THE TIPPING POINT, AND WE HAVE LITTLE TIME TO RESPOND IF IT IS TO RECOVER. By Thomas Littleton 11/12/2019
GETTING PERSONAL
I am a Southern Baptist and a “street” evangelist for the last 42 years. This simply means that most of my time in ministry has been focused outward and not on the day-to-day happenings inside the church structures like the denominations and seminaries. However, 2009-2010 brought a disturbing awareness of compromises deep within those structures and among popular leaders as a drastic shift was taking place. This shift became a painful and personal reality to me.
The church in America is in DEEP trouble. Many no longer hear the true Gospel from our pulpits. Social change has replaced transformed lives. Equity and Justice echo from our pulpits like false prophets at Jezebels altars of BAAL. The house of God is scheduled to become nothing more than a hub of community development, dispensing social equity and social services. This is not a joke.
It does not matter if you are reformed Presbyterian or a traditional Southern Baptist or are a member of an independent community or Bible church. We have all been invaded and infiltrated on a level not seen before in American history. If you are simply a Biblical Christian by conviction and your conviction holds fast in the way you raise your family – engage the world around you and how you vote – then YOU ARE UNDER ASSAULT! I want to explain what I know of this infiltration and how it is happening and what, if anything, can be done about it. At least knowledge is power in protecting your faith and your family.
A PROMISE KEPT
I have promised many people a condensed overview of what is happening in and to the church. If I had 20 minutes to warn the entire Body of Christ, these are the things I would show them. Here it is for those who want to know.
First, I will answer a VERY COMMON question I am often asked.
“How did you get involved in researching and exposing all of this compromise by our leaders?”
This will make clear both my motive and the shared concern we have as we consider what is at stake as deceivers lead the church down the pathway of a false gospel / social justice / and endless processes of social change within society and the church.
Second, I want to expose the origins and funding and explain why THESE are not Gospel movements but are high-level manipulations of the church into participation in progressive global ideologies – and out of its redemptive role as salt and light in our culture.
FIRST QUESTION
PARADISE BETRAYED: A PERSONAL LOSS TO THE LGBTQ AGENDA INSPIRED THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHURCH.
(If you do not care to know the history of why I am personally involved in this stand – feel free to scroll down to the main section. Thank you.)
I do not pretend to know all the ins and outs of the activist culture that predominates the church at this point, but I do know that no other area of compromise makes the issue of infiltration more evident and the depths of it more glaring than the pro “LGBTQ Christianity” movement which is now “flourishing” in our conservative institutions and churches.
After ministering in evangelism in New York City over a decade at the height of the AIDS epidemic, as spread rabidly and unchecked through the “gay bath houses” around the city, our ministry group had an intense view of those realities on the streets with the prostitutes, “transvestites” and in the so-called “Welfare” or “AIDS Hotels” where the city of NY warehoused AIDS victims until they died. These pits of despair were like discovering Nazi death camps filled with mostly young men wasting away and clinging to life. The sounds – the smells – the horrible realities we saw were unthinkable. This “lifestyle” and the sexual activity that lends its name to it cannot be Christianized and should never be “normalized” and encouraged to our children as we see taking place.
HONESTY IS NOT HATE SPEECH
Being against the global LGBTQ agenda is not being hateful, homophobic or “against gay people” in the least. It is being honest and holding on to the one thing we as the church has to offer to all people bound by sin… freedom from sin by saving faith in Jesus. Many in our pulpits today are preaching a false narrative that the Gospel cannot change people – especially those who struggle with some range of LGBTQ feelings or “identity.” Any man who preaches this is faithless and deceived or has bowed his knee to the politics and likely the funding behind one of the deadliest agendas of our time. The popular SSA [Same Sex Attracted] but celibate narrative is fake and the product of social theory and change in the church. STOP using it and tell your pastor if he does that he is being deceived.
The LGBTQ agenda is a tool of the most extreme enemies of human rights. It is carefully crafted to redefine family, sexuality, reproduction, parental rights and even Gender. Transgenderism even redefines what it means to be human and robs EVERYONE of all individual human rights.
LGBTQ is also targeting and designed to redefine the Gospel and push tolerance and inclusion of a sin that utterly destroys lives and families. Church Leaders like Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer of the SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] and Tim Keller, Ligon Duncan, Randy Pope, Kevin DeYoung and the entire leadership of organizations like The Gospel Coalition have thrown in their lot to provide “social change” in the church. Victim and sexual minority narratives wrapped in scripture and a stable of SSA and so called “gay Christians” unchanged by the Gospel are hired to CHANGE the attitudes of the church toward LGBTQ and other political left ideologies.
These victim narratives are straight out of the Frankfurt School playbook. If this sounds impossible to believe, simply please take the time to read the main section of this letter and you will see how and why this is taking place
PARADISE GARDENS: A FIGHT FOR MY LIFE AND THE TESTIMONY OF A FRIEND
I was heading a project in Georgia which utilized the legacy of a Christian artist to access students and art community with the Gospel. I did art festivals, museum lectures, served as a chaplain to the arts community and undertook a massive historic preservation project of an artist prayer garden to proclaim a faithful Gospel witness. The popularity of that legacy gave us global access far and wide to a unique and challenging opportunity of witness. But funding was a nearly impossible uphill battle in the secular, spiritually dark and pro-gay world of art and liberal funding foundations. Over 10 years of effort and my own “retirement” funds were invested in an attempt to launch the project’s preservation success.
After over a decade of heartfelt passion and hard work was poured into the project, it advanced inch by painful inch. The National Park Service took note of our efforts (or so we thought). BUT, in fact, the Obama administration had flooded EVERY Federal Agency including NPS/Department of the Interior with pro LGBTQ activists and funding. Simply because several noted gay artists had visited the gardens in its history – our project had captured not only the interest of NPS but also the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the US Congressional Offices of then Representative Phil Gingrey, The Appalachian Regional Commission, and the local County Commissioner in Georgia.
Unknown to us – these organizations were following and rushing into the Obama-era funding for projects that advanced the LGBTQ agenda and even its history. The central goal was obtaining the funding, and the prayer garden of a country Baptist minister turned folk artist was destined to feature the work of gay artists like Keith Haring – who ironically died of AIDS in his early 30s as a result of his sexual addiction and the “days on end” he spent in the gay bath houses of NYC.
Thinking we had found allies and advocates in high places, we entered (under my leadership and encouragement) into a partnership with the above entities and their leaders. But only two weeks after funding was obtained – our project was highjacked, and total control was seized by a staffer of the Congressional offices. Our remaining entrance to the property was literally walled out of the historic site we had worked for over a decade to preserve. I am to this day barred from the site under threat of arrest. A bisexual Director was given charge of our project site.
YES, EVEN THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WAS IN THE LGBTQ MOVEMENT
After learning of the NPS and the LGBTQ agenda, we stood firm. I fought against the Congressional office – the local county, and even the Federal agencies involved as we gained proof of fraud with the federal grants involved. At one point, the struggle was one Christian Street Preacher against a US Congressman and nearly a dozen law firms – two of which were among Atlanta and the nation’s largest. Control was now in the hands of the Congressional offices of Phil Gingrey – a GOP “conservative” discovered to be using the FBI – the Capitol Hill Police – the local County Sheriff, and my own hometown police to try and dig up some kind of dirt on and/or intimidate me out of resistance.
THE CHURCH LEADERS WERE / ARE… MIA in the battle for Paradise!
I reached out to local pastors – especially the Baptist pastors, being a Baptist myself, as was the artist whose legacy we sought to preserve. I also reached out to leaders of three different state Baptist associations and to the national offices of the Southern Baptist Convention. NO HELP came. No one would even condemn what had taken place with the legacy of a Baptist minister who pastored SBC churches for over 40 years in the community.
A local meeting of pastors was set but canceled because of the corrupt influence of the First Baptist Church pastor who was friends with the County attorney who helped in the hijacking. Also, I reached out to the SBC’s ERLC and Russell Moore in early 2013 when he represented new young blood coming into the SBC who might “understand” our efforts and the struggle we were in. We received NO moral support or standing with our effort from ANY Christian, let alone any Baptist organization. NONE.
By 2014 we had totally lost our project. The Christian legacy of a deceased Southern Baptist minister and personal friend Howard Finster was turned into a platform for featuring the NPS LGBTQ history initiative. Paradise Gardens, a Baptist pastor’s prayer garden, became a platform to feature the history of gay artists who had visited the site, while the Christian history of Rev. Finster was erased.
THE STRUGGLE IS NEVERENDING
TODAY, the fence surrounding Paradise Garden and the classes offered to the elementary school classes who come there proudly feature gay artist Keith Haring’s art over Rev. Finster’s. Funding of over a million dollars flooded into the hijackers’ coffers for “Creative Placemaking,” a pro LGBTQ development ideology embraced by both Federal and local governments and private grant makers.
Once again, Paradise was Lost. But we continue to stand – I continue to pray God will redeem this wonderful door of ministry. Yet the most disturbing things we discovered were how ignorant the church is of the real agenda AND how faithless the pastors had become to stand against it. SOMETHING HAD CHANGED and SOMEONE INSIDE THE LEADERSHIP HAD GIVEN THE CHURCH orders to STAND DOWN on the LGBTQ agenda.
I began to dig to know who and what and when and why.
Meanwhile, we are making lemons into lemonade and exposing all we learned to the church. Men meant this for evil but God allowed it for greater KINGDOM good. THIS is how I got involved in exposing the deadly compromise in the church.
Lifesitenews.com: Is the National Park Service Queering History?
SECOND: WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
MAIN SECTION OF OPEN LETTER TO THE CHURCH
THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH
Influences in the current crisis among PCA [Presbyterian Church of America] and SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] Churches:
A QUICK HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES’ DECLINE AND PRAGMATISM AND OUTSIDE INFLUENCE
There is no simple outline that encompasses all of the influences that have made for the problems we face but this is a quick look at the high points.
From the mid 1980’s, groups like Leadership Network, soon followed by Willow Creek Association and then Purpose Driven have solidified the church growth movement which furthered pragmatic thinking among young pastors to grow large seeker-friendly churches. These same influences and actual organizations behind them also birthed the “emergent church and emerging movement.” Doctrine /Theology became secondary, if focused on at all. These issues are still with us.
There was a hunger among young people for a theological movement to fill the gaps in the pragmatic faith of the church growth generation. But keep in mind, these are also post-modern thinkers, so some of the fault lines of the coming theological movement were already visible. The present movement to bring a more theologically rooted, youth-driven movement to Christian universities, campus ministries and seminaries was dubbed “the Young Restless and Reformed” (YR&R) movement or “Neo Calvinism.” This movement began in earnest at a 2006 conference in Louisville, KY, called “Together For The Gospel.” YR&R has grown stronger as a perceived revival of historic reformed theology. It was not.
FOUNDING OF THE GOSPEL COALITION
In 2005 The Gospel Coalition was formed at Trinity (TEDS) by D.A. Carson and Tim Keller in part as a gathering place for “thought leaders” of the YRR movement. John Piper, John MacArthur, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, Albert Mohler, and Russell Moore (Mohler’s # one protege) were among its leadership and were joined by next-generation leaders like Mark Driscoll and Tullian Tchividjian who were, in fact, a mixture of Reformed, Charismatic and Emergent. Driscoll and Tchividjian’s appeal was massive and mainstream in YR&R circles, as Driscoll was aided by Leadership Network to launch ACTS 29 Church planting organization, and Tchividjian merged his own plant with D. James Kennedy’s church and became a celebrity pastor appearing on FOX News and other outlets frequently.
YOUNGER FACES OF TGC
These two younger leaders, Driscoll and Tchividjian, both enjoyed massive promotion as next-generation leaders of TGC but soon were exposed as morally corrupted and unstable as well as theologically unsound. Meanwhile, TGC leadership simply folded them out of the limelight and brought in others to lead the way. A fatal flaw of TGC is evident here. TGC and YR&R movement was pragmatic – a promotional machine, and the historic Reformed Theology they espoused was far less important than the growing conferences, media footprint and influence they were gaining in the seminaries and on Christian campuses.
TGC early rhetoric was that “Christians have been too political” and “have fought a culture war” and “hurt the Gospel” and the church “needs to be known for what we are for, not what we are against.” In the name of “Cultural Engagement” and more effective outreach via “civility” in a “post-church culture” and “Principled Pluralism,” the TGC brand of Christianity offered a more meaningful depth of historic Theology coupled with a more relevant image. At least this was the marketing strategy engaged by TGC.
TGC ACTUAL POLITICS HIDDEN IN HISTORIC THEOLOGY
Soon the actual politics of TGC began to show through. Leaders like Tim Keller whom Christianity Today had puffed into the national spotlight, and Russell Moore who ascended the ERLC (SBC) presidency in 2013 from his position as Provost at Albert Mohler’s SBTS, were found to be extremely pro Obama – even having meetings with him in the White House. Moore even invited candidate Hillary Clinton to speak at the 2015 SBC annual meetings but the invitation did not pan out. Keller and Moore both shocked conservative believers with their increasingly left-of-center ideals and associations. Yet their obligatory theological “statements” remained within the bounds of biblical orthodoxy while the political rhetoric is also presented in a twisted biblical narrative.
FAITH-BASED REVISIONS
The first term of Obama produced a revision of the Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships (FBP) which allowed churches and ministries to obtain government grants for providing social services. Obama revisions made LGBTQ activist and Muslim activist organizations key players in the mix with liberal Christians like Jim Wallis and Joel Hunter. This has been one of the KEY issues to corrupt the church. Instead of resisting the compromise and its many dangers to Religious Freedoms and the Churches autonomy, Russell Moore’s boss in the SBC Executive Committee, SBC CEO Frank Page, JOINED the Obama advisory council for the Faith Based Partnerships and sat down with homosexual activist groups and Muslims and liberals to “find common ground for the common good” i.e. “everybody gets the checks.”
INSPIRED TO COMPROMISE BY ACCESS TO TAX DOLLARS
This explains a great deal of the compromise we see. Add to it the opportunity for massive amounts [of] private corporations and foundations grants to supplement the FBP [Progressive Citizens’ Party] ideology, and you have an apostate church.
See Frank Page SBC Executive Committee CEO in Obama taxpayer money pit here:
Obamawhitehouse.archives.gov: Office of Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships
By the 2015 primaries and 2016 election, the full political face of TGC/ Keller/Moore and the TGC became evident as the TGC media machine went into full swing to shame Christians out of voting for Trump. Articles to this end poured out of TGC and its related publications and from sister organizations like 9MARKS and the next generation leaders of TGC.
TGC’s FAKE POLITICAL POSITION: NEITHER NEUTRAL NOR BI-PARTISAN; ALL LEFT ALL THE TIME!
By 2018 next generation TGC leaders/urban church plant pastors were fully in bed with Democratic Strategist and Obama’s “FBP coordinator” Michael Wear who now writes for TGC since 2017. Wear is now called “Obama’s Ambassador to America’s Believers” in his work with the & Campaign and the Obama Foundation. TGC marketed itself as politically neutral. It is not. Currently it is marketing itself as offering Third Way – middle of the road political engagement, but NO Christian conservative voices are involved. The effort is along classic progressive social issues and is decidedly anti-Trump.
& CAMPAIGN, PURE OBAMA FOUNDATION POLITICS COMBINED WITH TGC LEADERSHIP
The & Campaign is an example of the full manifestation of the politics of TGC as many young TGC church planters – even some leadership council members, are in & Campaigns leadership. It openly is wedding “Biblical Values with Social Justice,” & Campaign’s political platform.
(From & Campaign social media – Michael Wear among many key TGC leaders pictured)
Andcampaign.org 2020 Statement
(Note the carefully crafted language to appeal to young Christians.)
THE REAL TGC
TGC is, in fact, a theologically emergent – politically progressive movement marketed heavily as a historic Reformed theological movement by the evangelical machine like Christianity Today and its own conferences and media outlets. The internet has actually made its unique DECEPTION, proliferation and saturation possible.
In this March 6th, 2018, video of YR&R leader Collin Hansen on ABC, he speaks directly to the purpose of the founding of TGC in an unguarded moment. It is worth watching and also worth questioning WHY ABC would give airtime to such an interview.
Abcnews.go.com: Evangelical leader Collin Hansen believes we live in ‘a culture full of fear and loathing’
BULLET POINTS AND SPECIFIC “JUSTICE “COMPROMISES
From here let me just hit some bullet points on how things developed:
*Faith Based Partnerships revisions in 2009 under Obama Administration allowed a flood of funding into Christian ministries as long as they were willing to adopt a social justice and inclusion ideology. This was especially true on the issue of LGBTQ “rights.”
Obamawhitehouse.archives.gov: The Power of Partnerships
Brookings.edu: Continuity and Change: Faith-Based Partnerships Under Obama and Bush
This open door to both taxpayer funding and to private foundations supplementing the FBP model became a windfall for ministries in the midst of the mortgage backed securities financial “crisis.” It was the “perfect storm” to compromise the church.
BOB BUFORD/LEADERSHIP NETWORKS ROLE IN THE FAITH-BASED PARTNERSHIP BLUEPRINT GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE CLINTON WELFARE REFORMS.
Nonprofitmaine.org: Emerging Partnerships: New Ways for a New World
Read the blueprint for Faith-Based Partnerships here. Note Buford and Peter Drucker.
Drucker Institute’s key role in its development:
Nonprofitmaine.org: Emerging Partnerships: New Ways in a New World
AREAS OF FBP IMPACT ON THE CONSERVATIVE CHURCH
IMMIGRATION POLICY “REFORMS” BIRTHED INTERFAITH DIALOG AND MOSQUE DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS MOVEMENT AMONG TGC AFFILIATES
On Immigration/Islamic Social Justice:
Soon George Soros’ open borders funding was making its way into the National Immigration Forum and its Evangelical Immigration Roundtable of which Russell Moore and liberal leader Jim Wallis are a part. As FBP and open borders funding sources trickled down, World Vision and World Relief and our missions organizations were rallying volunteers and advocating “Refugee Resettlement” as a Gospel Issue.
SBC/TGC leaders Russell Moore and current President of the SBC J.D. Greear were at the forefront of this effort. Net outcome – a massive influx of Muslims into the US in 18 selected states. Alabama was NOT one of them, so we did not see the drastic impact here as did some others. Moore and others in TGC leadership and several well-known law firms raised eyebrows, as they openly advocated for the building of Mosques. In the long-range narrative, Religious Freedom is being redefined to no longer feature Christian freedoms but most political movements in actual opposition to Christian faith. Clever but very bad news for the church, and it is being led by our own compromised leadership like Moore and Greear.
LGBTQ MINORITY JUSTICE AND TGC
*On the LGBTQ Social Justice:
By 2010, TGC leader D.A. Carson commissioned the American Psychological Association leader/”Christian” Counselor Mark Yarhouse to do a “white paper” on “Sexual Orientation” which Carson adapted for use for TGC and TEDS campus where TGC is headquartered.
Sexualidentityinstitute.org Sexual and Gender Identity Institute (SGC): Dr. Mark Yarhouse
“Mark Yarhouse was part of a consensus panel from the American Psychological Association on sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts that convened to provide input to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in Washington, DC. Dr. Yarhouse is currently the Chair of the task force on LGBT issues for Division 36 (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) of the American Psychological Association. He was recently invited to write the featured white paper on sexual identity for the Christ on Campus Initiative edited by Don A. Carson for The Gospel Coalition.”
TIM KELLER GOES MUSHY IN PUBLIC
*In 2011, Columbia University Veritas Forum Interview, TGC’s Tim Keller could not plainly state that homosexuality is a sin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFCB9sduxQ
*By 2013, Russell Moore took the helm of the SBC’s Ethics organization and declared “The culture War is over – we lost – let us end hateful rhetoric and just love our gay and lesbian neighbors. By 2014, Moore and TGC leader Albert Mohler of SBTS held the ERLC Conference “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage.” Mohler opened the meeting apologizing for “being wrong about Sexual Orientation” and tossed support of Christians’ “ex Gay” ministries over the rails and off the evangelical ship.
TGC promotion of the 2014 ERLC conference that changed everything:
Thegospelcoalition.org: Free Livestream of the ERLC National Conference on “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage”
REVOICE CONFERENCE: A WINDOW INTO THE LGBT+ CULTURE AT OUR SEMINARIES
*By 2018, Covenant Seminary and Mohler’s SBTS alumni/Also TGC contributors produced Revoice Conference “promoting LGBT+ Flourishing in Historic Christian Tradition”… i.e. our Churches and denominations.
I broke the national story on Revoice in early May 2018.
Its origins in Sexual Orientation and at CTS/SBTS are explained, including TGC’s Yarhouse and Mohler’s roles here:
https://www.godsvoice.us/gvc-pro-videos
First Video:
1) “The Revoice Agenda: What it Is, Who’s Behind It and Where It’s Headed” – Rev. Thomas Littleton
RACIAL DIVISION/CRITICAL RACE THEORY – IN THE NAME OF RECONCILIATION AND “JUSTICE”
On Race and Social Justice:
*MLK/50 Conference was a product of TGC and ERLC and used the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s death to intensify the TGC focus on “Racial Reconciliation,” but things went much farther. The Speakers – all TGC regulars and leaders, condemned “White Privilege” in the evangelical community. Russell Moore accused White Evangelicals of “worshipping Jim Crow as Jesus, and one TGC leader called all whites to “apologize for their parents’ and grandparents’ involvement in killing of MLK.”
The speakers also whitewashed the MLK legacy to make his unorthodox theology appear sound and reliable. Only John Piper was hesitant in this dishonesty. The entire broader outcry of concern over MLK/50 extreme radical narratives resulted in the “Dallas Statement” condemning Social Justice’ false gospel. It was clear to many that CRT [Critical Race Theory] was invading the church and many conservative believers, that began as a response to TGC’s/ERLC’s MLK/50 event in Memphis.
Thegospelcoalition.org: MLK50 Conference Media Now Available
FOLLOWING THE MONEY TRAIL
Finally, The Funding – the heart of the problem
Other dark money is coming in but this is the clearest trail with the TGC, BUT THE influence of the Kern Family Foundation is at the forefront in the Seminaries where TGC leaders are being trained. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Soros – Lilly Endowment – John Templeton’s multiple foundations are also involved.
Note – Kern Family Foundation was confirmed in 2014 (by local media investigations in Wisconsin where it is located) to be operating in the Cayman Islands. Being “offshore” means there is no FULL record of where money may be going or where it may have come from, in addition to the Kern fortune which endowed it originally. Kern was reported to be the first non-profit foundation to go offshore, and now Templeton Foundation has followed. Corporations and wealthy individuals do offshore banking as a way to shelter profits from taxation. Non-Profit 501 (c) 3 organizations have no need for such sheltering of income because they are tax exempt.
KERN’S QUESTIONABLE FUNDING AGENDA
Kern Family Foundation (KFF) is a Wisconsin-based organization at first funded by the Kern Family to help Education – including Christian education. Some of their funding has gone to VERY liberal organizations like “Teach for America” which has a huge pro-LGBT initiative in public schools. So there are problems with Kern Funding upfront. Kerns’ present funding is focused on transforming education. These include a $36 million dollar grant from Kern to create a blueprint for “transforming medical education with the social justice” Faith and Work ideals. More on that in a moment.
By 2009, Evangelical seminaries were taking KFF Grants; and by 2013, the grants focused on a partnership between Kern and a Libertarian Catholic Think tank Acton Institute. Acton also runs “Acton University” which is, in actually, a training tool for professors and professionals in the Acton/Kern economic strategy.
ACTON AND KERN ARE MAJOR TGC INFLUENCERS
Keller and Russell Moore regularly speak at Acton events and fundraisers.
Acton.org: Video Rev. Timothy Keller: (New Way) Understanding identity
Acton.org: Video Acton University 2017 Russell Moore
TGC /ERLC ACTON INSTITUTE CO-ORDINATED MESSAGING
Long-time Acton Editor Joe Carter (who just recently left Acton after many years to work with TGC leader David Platt’s church) is both Editor for TGC and Communications leader for ERLC. So the messaging is tightly coordinated with TGC/ERLC and the Catholic Libertarian think tank Acton. Again, Acton provides the Curriculum for the Kern effort on campus.
TGC/ERLC/long time ACTON editor Joe Carter @joecarter
“Executive Pastor, McLean Bible Church – Arlington Campus | Editor, The Gospel Coalition | Communications Specialist, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission”
ACTONS CO-FOUNDER FATHER ROBERT SIRICO’S RADICAL GAY HISTORY
Acton’s co-founder is Father Robert Sirico who is a long-time controversial figure, having been a radical gay faith activist who helped plant many of the early churches for the gay denomination. Metropolitan Community Churches and Sirico performed some of the first gay weddings in the US as states began to legalize it before Obergefell. Conservative Catholics have researched the ongoing problems with Sirico and conclude he is hiding in the Priesthood and is not to be trusted. Yet TGC/ ERLC/ Kern are tied at the hip to him and to Acton.
Acton Institute’s Father Sirico’s radical history as a gay faith activist is told in the book, Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging.
Conservative Catholic Researchers remain very concerned about Father Sirico’s influence.
https://culturewarsmagazine.com/2007/Sirico.htm (source: Catholic researchers including pro-life movement leader Randy Engle)
THE EVANGELICAL DEEP STATE: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT BUT NO ONE EVER SAID THE OBVIOUS
I discovered these ties in late 2013/early 2014 but it took years to get an article published in the open about it. I called this cabal the Evangelical Deep State. The title has stuck.
SBCtoday.wpengine.com: Is This the Evangelical Deep State?
Part 2 with the Sirico Acton details:
SBCtoday.wpengine.com: Is This the Evangelical Deep State? Part Two
Joe Carter’s friends and fellow editor TGC/Revoice LGBTQ+ movement leader Matthew Lee Anderson even collaborated with this team at Mere Orthodoxy. They do a “PARODY” OF THE EVANGELICAL DEEP STATE ARTICLE to take attention away from its revelations. This is a vintage progressive tactic – detract by making the exposure seem absurd.
OIKONOMIA NETWORK – THE TGC SEMINARIES AND KERN/ACTON
Kern Family Foundation formed the Oikonomia Network – first called the Kern Pastors Network and launched in association of Leadership Network and offices housed at TEDS where TGC is in Deerfield, Illinois. TGC and Kern’s Oikonomia Network and Acton all work in unison and overlap leadership in editorial staff like Joe Carter and Oiknomia’s head Greg Forter.
Kerns’ Partner Schools/Seminaries listed on the Oikonomia Network website:
Oikonomianetwork.org: About Our Partners
Kern is about training pastors to indoctrinate their congregations with the “Faith and Work” ideology.
“The Oikonomia Network is a learning community of theological educators and evangelical seminaries dedicated to raising up church leaders who help people develop whole-life discipleship, fruitful work and economic wisdom for God’s people and God’s world. The network is currently impacting classes with attendance of over 7,300 students each semester. Check out our annual impact report and learn more about what our partner schools are doing to transform theological education.”
FAITH AND WORK OUT OF YALE NOT THE WORD OF GOD.
Faith and Work networking is out of Yale University – that should be a clue that it is neither biblical nor conservative.
Faithyale.edu: Yale Center for Faith and Culture
RTS [Reformed Theological Seminary] is not listed but it is infiltrated by the ideology via Keller from his work in Orlando with RTS and CRU [formerly Campus Crusade for Christ].
KELLER’S BRAND OF THE KERN/YALE IDEOLOGY
Tim Keller’s branding – Center for Faith and Work:
Faithandwork.com: Know, Experience, Explore
This “movement” is where the insane overuse of the term “Human Flourishing” by Tim Keller and the TGC echoes all come from – and from the leftist think tanks like Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. It is all is driven by the “Common Good” Narrative as is the Obama “FBP Partnerships for the Common Good.”
FOLLOWING THE KERN ACTON INFLUENCE
Kern Funding goes into the “Cultural Engagement Departments” on campus like SEBTS [Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary] where it is known as the “Intersect Project.”
Intersectproject.org: About the Intersect Project
And SBTS where it is called “The Commonweal Project”
Work to the glory of God, Mohler says in Commonweal Project lecture
ALBERT MOHLER/SBTS AND KERN FUNDING
“In the first of a series of Commonweal lecture luncheons this fall, Mohler provided an overview of economics and the importance of understanding it from a biblical worldview. The Commonweal Project on Faith, Work, and Human Flourishing, funded by the Kern family, is an academic initiative at the seminary to foster a theology of work and economics.”
“Most Americans, and this would include most American Christians, know abysmally little about economics — have very little idea of how matters of economics intersect with matters biblically and operate out of a Christian worldview.”
“Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. delivers a lecture for the Commonweal Project, Sept. 3. 2014.”
FAITH AND WORK = SOCIAL JUSTICE aka VINTAGE COMMUNITARIANISM
It is Social Justice-driven economics “for the common good.”
In other words, it is repackaged “Socialist Economics” in the name of “Faith and Work.”
or Keller’s “Theology of Work” or “Theology of Vocation.”
Keller’s Redeemer and other churches developed their own in-house programs to support this ideology. It may sound good to some and Biblical because of the packaging that our work is important to God and to be done as unto the Lord. BUT once the Social Justice false gospel and progressive politics come into play – it is all poison and vintage “Communitarianism.”
It is also totally politically driven as recent revelations like the TGC leadership in the & Campaign has made clear.
KERN’S OIKONOMIA LEADER GREG FORSTER LEFT OF CENTER POLITICAL JARGON
Here are a few samples of Forster’s writings for TGC on political engagement rhetoric for TGC:
March 2017, as “Obama’s Faith Ambassador” Michael Wear is joining TGC – Kern’s Greg Forster wrote a high praise review of Wear’s book about his Obama White House years titled Reclaiming Hope. It is a nauseating read given the realities against family, marriage, and religious freedom, and the deadly dangers of the Faith-Based Partnerships.
The Obama administration – with Wear’s help inflicted upon the Church in the US.
Thegospelcoalition.org: Reclaiming Hope
Forster seems clueless that the Obama administration gave us gay marriage – open borders flooding Islam into America, $530 million dollar per year budget for tax-funded promotion of abortion, and filled the federal government agencies with radical activists. Add to that, Wear was the go-to partner for suckering Church and ministry leaders into the Faith-Based Partnership programs. TGC/Oikonomia’s high praise of Wear is MOST TELLING.
OTHER CHRISTIAN /TGC LEADERS ENDORSEMENTS IN WEAR’S BOOK
Tim Keller- Russell Moore – Andy Stanley (part of the Willow Creek circles now) wrote stirring endorsements of Wear’s book.
NOW THE & CAMPAIGN HEATS UP THE 2020 ELECTION TGC TALKING POINTS
TGC has continued in step with Wear right up to the late 2018 launch of & Campaign with TGC young leaders involved. NOW THEY ARE HEADING FOR THE HOMESTRETCH in the 2020 election cycle.
Co-founder of & Campaign, Atlanta-based attorney and Democratic Strategist Justin Giboney, was a speaker at ERLC/TGC MLK/50 in April 2018.
It is all 2020 election-focused NOW, and is Anti-Trump, and will get much more obvious leading up to November next year.
MORE IN FORSTER’S POLITICS
More Oikonomia /Kern: Greg Forster on politics for TGC:
Thegospelcoalition.org: The Church’s Fate Is Not Electoral
In this piece, Forester opens up with his attacks on Trump and the controversial Roy Moore from Alabama who was running for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. Forster actually used wording against Roy Moore that is bearing false witness, calling accusations against Moore –”Evidence” and saying it is “overwhelming.”
There is lots more like this political narrative from Greg Forster and Joe Carter and others in TGC’s stable.
9MARKS /MARK DEVER/ LEEMAN SHAME PRO-LIFE VOTERS
One ERLC TGC leader who also works with the Church Planting arm of Mark Dever’s SBC church is Jonathan Leeman. Leeman’s political science degree is from the London School of Economics, founded by Fabian Socialists, which boasts the famed stained-glass window of a sheep in wolves clothing – symbol of the Fabian Society.
Leeman has written a popular TGC narrative for 2020 in which he vilified conservative voting habits as discriminatory and bigoted, and even works to unhinge Christians from being single-issue(pro-life) voters.
9marks.myshopify.com: How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age
TGC HAS REDISTRICTED THE CHURCH ONE CHURCH PLANT AT A TIME
Church planting by TGC affiliates has become the go-to strategy for transforming the church. Keller’s Redeemer City to City – ACTS 29 – Leeman /Dever’s 9MARKS – Independent organizations like Church of the Highlands and its Association of Related Churches (ARC) network – Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Association (WCA) – the Southern Baptist NAMB “Send Network,” the PCA other denominational focus on “Urban Church Planting” has been used by TGC to create a totally transformed church network.
As Keller says it: “We are planting this kind of churches.”
TIU.edu: Center for Transformational Churches
Organizations like TEDS “Center for Transformation Churches” work with TGC and Kern’s Oikonomia to produce the long-game outcome of Bob Buford’s Leadership Network to “create a New Paradigm Church.”
We have arrived. The new paradigm church theology “does not matter” in the words of Peter Drucker – Buford’s mentor.
The church is useful because “it creates community,” so it is an integral partner in the socialist vision of Faith-Based organizations working with government and corporations to “save society” and preserve “civility.”
The modern church-planting movement has accomplished the same end as political redistricting strategies of Democratic or Republican governors after the census. It has long-term impact on the future.
OUTSIDE FUNDING SUPPLEMENTS THE PLANTING STRATEGY
TGC partner Buford and some of his Billionaire friends BOASTED in 2011 that they had helped fund the planting of over 2,500 churches in the US and around 1,200 in Europe and Asia. They had funded over 300 at that time for Keller’s Redeemer Network. This same partnership helped plant over 500 churches for ACTS 29 (which Buford helped Driscoll found and is now led my TGC/ERLC pastor/leader Matt Chandler), and over 100 plants by ARC (Church of the Highlands planting arm) in a SINGLE YEAR-2011.
There is much much more, but this will give you a start at understanding what is happening and how -and the long-term political and financial goals.
Bob Buford also boasted to Globalist funding organizers in “the World We Want” that he could “deliver legions of WEALTHY CHRISTIANS primed to become big time philanthropists.”
The saddest reality here is that the Church has been sold out and, yes, BETRAYED. Those of us over 45 and anchored in Biblical convictions and social engagement for evangelism and disciple-making are simply not part of this vision, but our churches – denominations – and our WEALTH and estates are targeted by Their “GENEROSITY GOSPEL MOVEMENT.” Faith and Work is simply selling the ideology to our children going into their careers and productive work years.
WORSE STILL – The hearts and minds and FAITH of our children and grandchildren are falling victim to it right in our own churches and Christian educational institutions.
Only the Living God can turn this around
Is it impossible? NO. Can God birth a miracle out of this?
GOD IS ABLE BUT REPENTANCE IS A COMMAND
As He said to the disappointed and weary Abraham (Genesis 18:14), “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
YES, God can do anything – even bring His true BIBLICAL vision and calling back into our churches like He opened the Barren womb of Sarah. It is never “too Late” for God.
Learn what you are facing, REPENT, AND DO THE FIRST WORKS OVER AGAIN, AND RENEW YOUR FAITHFUL LOVE TO JESUS WHO BOUGHT YOU. Confront those who are misleading the flock – and take a stand. DO NOT fund the organizations promoting these false ideologies and heresies or the political agenda of those they serve.
Trust The Lord – Stand, and He will stand with you.
2nd Timothy 4:16 “At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.”
The Lord Is Faithful
Verses 17-18 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!” <end of Thomas Littleton’s open letter>
For any readers who would like to write to Thomas Littleton directly, here is his email address: [email protected]
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