The LGBTQ movement in America has been striving for decades to promote the acceptance of homosexuality and other abnormal sexual behaviors. Sexual immorality, in all of its forms, has been present in every major society throughout history, as per historical and biblical accounts. However, as we see all throughout Scripture, it has also repeatedly been the cause of God’s wrath.

Despite numerous warnings from God about the consequences of sexual immorality, the trend towards normalizing such behaviors has been increasing rapidly in recent years, particularly within the Church.

The Revoice and Living Out movements, among others in mainstream Evangelical Christendom, are leading the charge to transform churches into homo-inclusive synagogues that tolerate and even celebrate every kind of abnormal sexual behavior. This movement’s subversive nature is alluring to uncritical believers, as it manipulates Christian love by portraying LGBTQ individuals as “victims” deserving of compassion.

This is particularly true of Preston Sprinkle, a man who has dedicated his career to promoting and normalizing aberrant sexuality within mainstream Evangelicism. It would be easy to write Sprinkle off as just a fringe voice in Evangelicalism who doesn’t really have much influence, but that simply isn’t true.

Preston Sprinkle, one of the original advisory board members of Revoice, the “gay Christian” movement within Evangelical churches, has been instrumental in shifting the church’s doctrinal stance on homosexuality and other aberrant sexualities. It is through Sprinkle’s extensive relationships with mainstream Evangelical leaders James Merritt, Matt Chandler, and even names like Beth Moore, that he has been able to popularize what was once denounced as forbidden fruit by Evangelicals.

Sprinkle is also supported by Karen Swallow Prior (who also endorsed revoice) and when Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary was contacted regarding her support Sprinkle, Texas pastor, Tom Buck, said that the school defended her.

Preston Sprinkle is also the founder of an organization called the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender, where he has dedicated his ministry to platforming homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, and other people who identify themselves by some form of deviant sexual behavior. The goal for Sprinkle is to transform the Church’s attitude toward the LGBTQ movement and cause the Church to see LGBTQ people as people who have been mistreated by churches and society rather than as people who are committing a grave offense against their Creator who are in need of repentance and salvation.

Recently, Sprinkle platformed a “transgender man” (a woman who dresses and acts like a man, and takes hormones to deepen her voice) to lecture Christians about how hard her life has been because she hasn’t felt safe using the bathroom of her choice. She also explained how she’s been victimized because people, especially Christians, have been unwilling to use her preferred (male) pronouns.

She then went on to explain how baffling it is that Christians would be worried that “transgender” people using the restroom designated for the opposite sex might harm and confuse children. As she plays the victim role in her complete rebellion against God, Sprinkle allows her to sit there and exploit the empathy of Christians who would now feel sorry for her because of how she’s painted herself.

The problem is that this isn’t just a fringe movement. The vast majority of mainstream Evangelical churches now teach and believe that homosexuality, so long as it isn’t “acted on,” is not sinful. Men who desire to penetrate or be penetrated by other men is not sinful, so long as it isn’t carried out. These same churches believe that men can dress and act like women and women can act and dress like men, and that God is not going to hold them accountable for this so long as they stop short of sexual acts. The theme of this movement is to abstain from homosexual sex and everything else, including your feelings and desires, is fair game. If you’re a man who feels like a woman, then act like a woman, just don’t have sex with other men, and you can still be a Christian.

The problem with this reasoning is that it is pharisaical to the core. The Pharisees believed that they could earn God’s favor by abstaining from certain outward behaviors, but there was no real heart change in them. Jesus said that they honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. That’s exactly what Preston Sprinkle is promoting, pharisaical sexuality. Sprinkle isn’t concerned with the heart change that leads one to repentance and faith and people who are truly born again don’t paint themselves as victims because of their sin.

But Sprinkle knows that he can’t turn the entire Evangelical Church into full acceptance of homosexuality yet as the Church is not ready to accept that. This is why they promote the idea of celibacy—outward abstinence from sex with no real heart change. Much of the Evangelical Church has been willing to accept this middle-of-the-road movement which is a major shift from its previous biblical position. And by shifting the Church’s posture, softening its stance on homosexuality, and ceding the notion that LGBTQ people are victims as they exploit Christian love and compassion, they are paving the way for the next big step, which is full tolerance of all forms of sexuality.

Don’t fall for it, push back.