In 2019, Reformation Charlotte broke the story that a Campus Crusade (CRU) leader—who identifies as “LGBTQ”— was teaching students that the Scriptures do not teach that homosexuality is sinful. Quoting a lesbian TGC author, Rachel Gilson, Grant Hartley tweeted the following:

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

In a recent Revoice podcast, Grant Hartley joined other Revoice queers to talk about “coming out” of the closet. Sounding as ignorant as he is homosexual, Hartley said that for him, coming out of the closet is like a “death and resurrection” experience.

I know I can speak…I tend to think of coming out as like a death and resurrection metaphor. That’s my whole thing. Henry [Abuto] knows I talk about this all the time. But that can end up putting pressure on people to come out quickly or to come out in a certain way. And I don’t want that pressure to weigh down on anyone.

…all my thinking of the closet is yes, a death and resurrection metaphor, but a unique insight into spiritualality is the very places of death can be the places where God does the most miraculous work. And if the closet is the place of death, that doesn’t mean it is a purely negative place because death for the Christian is never just death. Death always leads to life.

Of course, this is completely and totally absurd on its face as the only death and resurrection metaphor the Scriptures speak of is baptism—and that’s reserved for people who have turned to Christ in repentance and faith, not for people who have elevated their sin to a level of idolatry whose life revolves around it.

Since his coming out, Hartley has joined the Roman Catholic Church as an open homosexual yet still runs in circles with his Revoice and The Gospel Coalition friends, like Rachel Gilson. Last year, Hartley bragged about how he was looking to impress all the “cute celibate boys” at the Revoice Conference.

And then earlier this year, Hartley explained on Twitter how it was Tim Keller who helped him shape his pro-LGBTQ views.

To be clear, it is certainly fair to blame Tim Keller for this.  Keller’s views are toxic and spiritually poisonous and have only served to muddy the waters on cultural issues in the Church. Keller’s views have never been grounded in the authority of Scripture—it’s why he can deny the literal Creation account.

In a recent tweet, Hartley is now bragging about dancing at gay bars in San Fransisco.

And just as importantly, look who is giving Hartley his blessing—Matt Mikalatos. Matt Mikalatos made our False Teacher of the Day #17, and not without quite a bit of pushback. Mikalatos was a prominent CRU leader From our article on Mikalatos:

CRU — formerly Campus Crusade for Christ — has been exposed as a social justice political organization with the sole intention of turning young, Christian-minded students into progressive activists. Ranging from LGBTQ activism to Cultural Marxism and intersectionality, CRU has hosted a number of events with the intent of advancing both political and theological liberalism.

Matt Mikalatos is a CRU leader out of Portland Oregon who refers to himself as a “male feminist,” and teaches that homosexuals don’t need to repent of homosexuality when they come to Christ. Mikalatos has followed in the footsteps of one of his colleagues we reported about previously, Rachel Gilson, and has wholly affirmed “gay Christianity” In an article titled How Do I Talk to LGBTQ Friends about the Gospel? Mikalatos writes,

Practice Saying This: “You Can Be Gay and Follow Jesus”

But he didn’t stop there, he completely affirmed that godless notion that coming to Christ doesn’t require repentance of sin — he actually said, “We all have a laundry list of sins in our lives, and repentance requires acknowledging only one of them.” In complete and total affirmation of “gay Christianity,” Mikalatos writes,

There are a good number of LGBTQ people who are already followers of Jesus. There may even be a gay person in your church who is following Jesus, just like you are. Don’t assume that because someone is Queer they are not already connected spiritually  . . . maybe deeply connected! Also, many in the LGBTQ community have experienced trauma in religious circles and have gone on to create a thriving spiritual community outside of traditional religious institutions. 

While Mikalatos’s “gospel” doesn’t require repentance from homosexuality for salvation, interestingly, his gospel does require slave reparations to black people. In one tweet, Mikalatos affirms that “reparations are necessary for atonement.”

So what’s the moral of all this? Well, the short answer is Tim Keller is bad. But the long answer is that Tim Keller’s social justice movement he started, and has permeated through so much of Evangelicalism including The Gospel Coalition, as well as having its tentacles reach into once-solid ministries such as Campus Crusade (CRU), has completely transformed the mainstream Evangelical’s thinking on biblical morality, the gospel, and sound doctrine and exchanged it for this man-centered self-worship.