Apparently, we now live in a world where less than half of “regular churchgoers” can coherently define the word family. Family Research Council’s (FRC) latest 2025 survey reveals that 68 % will say, “Marriage is between one man and one woman”—yet only 46 % think “family” means husband + wife + children (plus kin).

That means nearly one in four churchgoers espouse a biblical view of marriage without bothering to connect it to biblical family structure. It’s like people believe in gravity but deny it pulls things downward.

But that glaring inconsistency is only the beginning. The survey, itself alarming, serves as evidence that the church has become a casualty in its own culture war.

So let’s tell the rest of the story—the part no official press release will ever admit: the pro-life movement, long the moral backbone of evangelicalism, has been systematically hijacked—first by social justice elites, next by institutional evangelicals, and finally by bottomless pragmatism that treats doctrine like a buffet.

The ERLC, for example, once platformed Charles Camosy, a Catholic animal-rights apologist who equated factory farming with human life, promoting a “consistent life ethic” that slides seamlessly into support for redistributive economics and ostensible “justice” theology.

When criticism exploded, the ERLC scrubbed the video and called it an “accident” — as if the seed of the rot was accidental. No, this was deliberate: implant your guest, then quietly say you never intended it. Welcome to evangelical gatekeeping.

Recall also the Revoice scandal and the slippery attempt by its leaders to redefine pro-life to include honoring trans people as a necessary “consistency.” Yes, you read that right: if you deny someone’s transgender claim, you are now inconsistent with life. The logic is astonishing in its perversity. If you don’t bow to sexual ideology, you’re not truly pro-life.

Evangelical institutions (ERLC, denominational bodies, “respectable” voices) have increasingly insisted that you’re not fully pro-life unless you back social justice projects, wealth redistribution, reparations, “womb-to-tomb” welfare states, and race-based equity claims. That’s not pro-life, that’s political fusionism with a Christian veneer.

Secondly,the pro-life movement has been guilt-shamed into accepting the “social-justice umbrella” as theological truth. You want actual pro-life convictions? Then you must applaud every objection to police brutality, support every welfare expansion, and fund every open-borders scheme. Or else: “You’re not loving.”

Thirdly, the same leaders who won’t preach Christ to the culture suddenly care deeply to repackage Christian ethics into sociology and politics. And when they do, they pick the least biblical, most ideologically loaded version available. They swap “Thou shalt not kill” for “Thou shalt expand the social safety net,” then wonder why the church is dying.

And then, they suspect they’ll lose cultural legitimacy unless they mimic secular progressive language. So they co-opt “justice,” “equity,” “access,” “inclusion,” etc., and retrofit them as Christian mandates. But which Scripture mandates critical race theory or income redistribution? Where is “maximizing population viability” in the pages of Paul?

And finally, the hijacking has consequences. The FRC data doesn’t surprise me—it confirms that evangelicals are unmoored. When pastors are silent, sheep wander. When denominational elites endorse Camosy while ignoring the biblical gospel, the pew becomes a swamp of confusion.

This is all stuff that I’ve covered before, so feel free to search the archives.

Now, you might object. “But surely there are some Evangelical voices resisting this takeover?” Fine. I’ll even concede that there are pastors, theologians, and laymen who see this for what it is and fight against it. But we are marginalized, ridiculed, silenced, and dismissed as “divisive complainers.”

Let’s tie this back to the survey’s revelation about abortion confusion:

73 % of churchgoers hold contradictory positions across six abortion sub-issues. Ten percent wouldn’t admit to having enough knowledge to form a position.

What does that scream to you?

It screams that the pulpit has abdicated. It screams that pro-life leadership no longer teaches logic and Scripture. It screams that we’ve lowered the bar so low that people can wander into a pew and walk out utterly muddled on life issues.

These leaders who trumpet social justice will hijack the pro-life brand as though they are rescuing it, when in truth they are strangling it. The strategy is to take something that evangelicalism has historically done well (defend the unborn) and use it as a Trojan Horse to import every progressive agenda. “Join us in life, but only if you also join us in race agendas, tax agendas, immigration agendas, policing agendas, ‘caste’ agendas, etc.”

Is this deception? Of course it is. You can’t “rescue” life while simultaneously undermining the biblical anthropology that anchors it. You can’t defend the unborn while endorsing ideologies that dissolve the image of God. You can’t be literally pro-baby and figuratively pro-State as the ultimate provider.

And what of those pastors who preach that we must be “holistic,” “seamless garment,” “justice-infused”? They’ve swallowed the bait. They speak with the lilt of cultural approval, forever chasing the next secular imprimatur while fading from any prophetic posture.

Let me end this with rhetorical insistence because this cannot be optional or polite. If your defense of life includes a qualification that those you consider “oppressed” must enjoy X, Y, and Z before your pro-life stance is valid, then your pro-life stance is not biblical.

If you say, “I’m pro-life, but you must also accept my proposals for universal basic income, reparations, open borders, defund police, etc.,” you have surrendered pro-life theology to earthly idols and tactics.

We don’t need better branding of “justice” or more coalition gluttony. We need pastors who will preach the Bible, reprove error, silence hypocrisy, and lead the flock with clarity. We need a church that refuses to let politicians, denominations, social theorists, or PR firms define the contours of life.

After all, if we lose the meaning of “family,” the clarity of “life,” and the doctrine of the image of God, what is left of Christianity to defend? Nothing. And it’s not enough to lament it.