Christianity is a major global religion of all believers that follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. There are multiple denominations with varying views on how best to follow Jesus, but all are generally agreed that Jesus died for our sins, conquered death through his resurrection, and is the “Son of God.” Christians all believe they follow the one true living God, so it seems odd that there would be any political aspect to Christianity. However, in these politically charged times, there is a self-described “Christian Left” that feels they must defend being “woke.”

Most Christians do not describe themselves as right or left, but the Christian Left injects such qualifiers. The term "Christian Left" seems like somewhat of an oxymoron because most political leftists do not believe in any religion or are seldom beyond agnostic. However, there are certainly many Democrats who are Christians, but do they align with the “Christian Left?”

So, who are the “Christian Left?” They are presumably Christians like others, but with a liberal view of theology. As mentioned, Christians have varying views, but most notably the Christian Left welcomes the LGBTQ+ lifestyles as acceptable. They declare being “woke” means they care about all people despite their differences, and thereby imply that conservative Christians do not care about all people because some people are different.

We can assume that the Christian Left does care about others, but it’s patently false that non-Left Christians do not care about others. What is the difference? The Christian Left would claim that they accept LGBTQ+ people into their churches and other Christians do not, but that’s an oversimplification. Conservative Christians also welcome LGBTQ+ people, but they do not welcome their sin. That’s the difference. The Christian Left tolerates, if not accepts, their sin.

Certainly, all have sinned, but when we come to Christ, He offers forgiveness and calls us to repent. There’s the rub for the Christian Left. They welcome LGBTQ+ people and their sin, but they do not ask for or expect any repentance. It is true that Jesus will meet you where you are, but He does not expect or intend for you to stay where you are.

The Word of God is quite clear about sin, including LGBTQ+ lifestyles (see Romans 1)—go and sin no more. So, why does the Christian Left overlook those sins? They would tell us that they love all people, so they accept them as they are, sin and all. Jesus accepts all people, but once they are forgiven, He expects them to repent. If you truly love someone, do you leave them to rot in sin? If someone is an alcoholic or drug addict, do you enable or encourage them to continue their substance abuse? That’s not love; that’s callous indifference or cynical indulgence.

The question then becomes: What is sin? And does it matter? Most will initially and rightly say that sin is any immoral act, but why does God consider it immoral? Some will argue that sin feels good, so why not? God does not declare sin immoral just to deny some gratification or self-indulgence, but rather because sin is intrinsically destructive. God is against sin because He knows it will ultimately hurt you and your family and perhaps consume and destroy you. Sin brings spiritual and eventually eternal death.

The Christian Left gives a nod to sin, but glosses over repentance. Do they suppose there are no consequences for sin? Do they figure God will forgive us anyway? This strategy exploits God’s love and abuses His grace and mercy. If the Christian Left is correct that sin doesn’t matter, then why was it necessary for Jesus to be crucified? If we only need God’s love to be forgiven, then why does scripture tell us there must be atonement and sacrifice for the remission of sin? Why did Jesus have to die for our sins?

Plainly put, God is love but God is also holy. Why does holy matter? Jesus offers us eternal salvation with no more pain or tears, so that means our destructive sins cannot go with us and poison heaven. Therefore, we need Jesus’ blood to wash away our sins, so we can be pure when we enter paradise. That’s why repentance is crucial, so that we don’t take sin with us. And quite frankly, such casual dismissal of the vital importance of the crucifixion and resurrection is blasphemous.

All humans are born with a sinful nature and free will, so while we are inclined to sin, we can choose whether to repent of sin or not. We all sin, but it’s how we handle our sins. God will not force salvation upon us. We must choose it by accepting Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and forgiveness, and our sincerity in doing so is demonstrated by our repentance.

That’s why the Christian Left’s careless approach to sin is misguided, because it will mislead many souls into believing they can keep their damaging sins and still obtain salvation. It gives people who are seeking God a false sense of security that they can continue in sin or even have their sins not only accepted but blessed. This is a cynical and even cruel deception.

A brewing divorce in the LGBTQ+ movement demonstrates the tenuous and even illogical tenets of the Christian Left. The original members of the movement—those who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB)—are starting to call for separation from the TQ+ additions because those are too weird and their insistence that children be exposed to the LGBTQ+ agenda dangerously flirts with pedophilia. It's a somewhat surprising conflict that amply illustrates that sin always takes you farther than you want to go.

Yet, the Christian Left is fighting back, claiming their “wokeness” means they love everyone. The problem is they love people in their sin when God calls us to love people out of their sin. The shifting sands the Christian Left is staking out are not durable as we see the proliferation of schisms in major denominations where Christians are abandoning the Christian Left.

The Christian Left is sadly and woefully wrong about accepting sin as just the way they were born, because Jesus provides us the opportunity to rise above our sins, not indulge them. To lead others away from the grace of God is inherently evil, but hopefully the Christian Left is simply misguided, and their intentions are not malevolent. Therefore, with Easter upon us, pray that the beautiful truth of Jesus’ sacrifice and gift of eternal salvation will be completely revealed to the Christian Left and they find their way to repentance.

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.