Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) is an organization that touts itself as an interdenominational Christian ministry that is primarily found on university campuses around the world. Now a global parachurch mission outfit, CRU is a staple of youth and college group partnerships with over 25,000 missionaries in nearly 200 countries. In short, CRU is an influential voice among evangelical students.

For the last several years, evangelicalism has been promoting the unbiblical notion that you can be both gay and Christian. The movement, largely influenced by pro-gay parachurch organizations such as Living Out and Revoice, has gained inroads into churches at an alarming rate. The notion that one can identify as homosexual while continuing to dress and act like a homosexual is acceptable so long as one doesn’t actively engage in sexual activity is biblically preposterous. Yet, this is the crux of the movement.

Now, CRU is pushing this idea through its influential youth gatherings. One CRU leader recently tweeted that the Bible does not call us to be “straight.”

Hartley, a student leader at CRU and an intern for CRU in California (alternative link), identifies as LGBTQ and uses the hashtag “#LGBTQinChrist.”

Rachel Gilson, whom Hartley quoted in his above tweet, is a campus staff director for CRU in Boston. What Gilson said, that the Bible does not call us to be straight, is demonstrably false. Romans 1 clearly refers to homosexuality as “vile affections” and “dishonorable passions.” Regardless of the translation used, it is clear that the desire, in and of itself, whether or not it is acted upon, is considered vile to God. Why this is even a question in the Church now is baffling — no reasonable conservative theologian in the history of the Church would deny this.

Yet, the movement continues to grow, and CRU is perpetuating it by influencing young minds to accept what God sees as unacceptable.