Cru Discontinues LGBTQ Training Program for Staff
Battered by months of criticisms for controversial staff guidance on how to handle LGBTQ+ students, a major evangelical campus ministry is distancing itself from a controversial curriculum.
Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) will be removing its “Compassionate and Faithful” curriculum by the end of the year, according to reporting by WORLD.
In a leaked recording of a Sept. 26 staff meeting, Keith Johnson, Cru’s director of theological education and development, acknowledged the controversy but stopped short of disavowing the training content or saying the public pressure forced the shift.
Johnson positioned the move as a way for Cru to become less dependent on “external communicators.”
“Our plan going forward is to integrate our LGBT+ equipping into existing developmental venues,” Johnson said in the recording leaked by an anonymous former staff member and played on the Oct. 2 episode of Jon Harris’ podcast, “Conversations That Matter.” “Going forward, we think it’s increasingly important for us to speak in our own theological voice.”
Later, Johnson told WORLD that weaving sexuality training into Cru’s Institute of Biblical Studies for new staff and interns is the logical next step now that most current staff have already completed the training.
Development of the Compassionate and Faithful curriculum began in 2021 in response to the skyrocketing number of college students identifying as LGBTQ+. At one time, it reportedly included at least 13 videos by controversial author and podcaster Preston Sprinkle.
While Sprinkle affirms biblical marriage, he also advocates addressing LGBTQ+ individuals by their preferred pronouns and supports the “gay Christian” label for believers who struggle with same-sex attraction.
Students at a Cru conference in 2011. (Photo courtesy Cru Upper Midwest Region)
Those concessions drew rebukes from a range of Christian voices, from ex-lesbian women’s studies professor Rosaria Butterfield to two former Cru employees, Uriah and Marissa Mundell. The Mundells lost their jobs after publicly criticizing the training program and its push for “pronoun hospitality.” Butterfield called out Cru by name as a moral compromiser during her convocation address to about 10,000 Liberty University students in November 2023.
Cru seemed to exacerbate the situation by refusing to publicly respond. For instance, Cru’s Director of Communications Patrick Martin told WORLD, “There are a number of issues surrounding sexuality and gender that we feel are best addressed in the context of relationships.”
However, just weeks after Butterfield’s address, Cru added a new page on its website to explain its approach to LGBTQ+ issues. The page affirms that God created two distinct sexes and that marriage is between one man and one woman. It also includes statements that seem to contradict the teachings of Sprinkle:
“We embrace the goodness of the sexual difference God created by living distinctly as male and female, which includes using pronouns that align with our biological sex. … We believe that same-sex attraction is contrary to God’s design for human sexuality. It represents a disordering of sexual desire in our fallen condition, which is neither morally neutral nor good.”
Over the following months, Cru also made changes to its training and other materials. One document that previously called transgender pronouns “an issue of conscience … a profound way to demonstrate that you recognize them and desire to show respect,” now warned that using biologically incorrect pronouns “may unintentionally communicate a position that Cru does not hold (and Scripture does not teach).”
In the leaked audio, Johnson reiterated Cru’s commitment to the Gospel and biblical sexuality, but still did not explain the training changes and mixed messages that followed the public condemnation from Butterfield, or what the new lessons might look like.
“What divides us from many of our critics at the end of the day isn’t our view of sexuality and gender,” Johnson said. “It’s our vision for cultural engagement.”
On his podcast, Harris worried about unanswered questions. “For Cru staff who are entering … what’s that going to look like? Is it going to be the same kind of teaching … it’s just more hidden?”
Another prominent evangelical campus ministry, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, has been making similar strides to show a friendlier face to LGBTQ+ students and staff.
In 2016, InterVarsity put out a press release correcting TIME magazine for incorrectly asserting that InterVarsity threatened employees with termination for supporting gay marriage.
“No InterVarsity employee will be fired for their views on gay marriage,” the press release stated. “InterVarsity welcomes all students and faculty — including LGBTQI individuals — in our fellowships. We also continue to employ individuals who have an LGBTQI identity and who affirm our theological beliefs around human sexuality.”
This January, Rick Mattson, a national apologetics specialist and evangelism coach with InterVarsity, spoke on the “College Faith Podcast” about how he uses transgender pronouns and believes Christians should attend gay weddings.
These campus ministry controversies point to a debate among same-sex-attracted evangelicals on the question of how to minister to those who identify as LGBTQ. One faction, sometimes called “Side B,” professes a traditional Christian sexual ethic but affirms alternative sexual identities.
The other faction, represented by figures like Butterfield and Christopher Yuan, holds that labels like “gay Christian” promote bad theology and incorrectly elevate sinful inclinations, rather than Christ and sanctification, as the believer’s core identity.
Cru has 3 stars and a “C” transparency grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a donor confidence score of 73.
This piece is republished from MinistryWatch.
Tony Mator is a Pittsburgh journalist, copywriter, blogger and musician who has done work for World magazine, The Imaginative Conservative and the Hendersonville Times-News, among others. Follow his work and observations at twitter.com/wise_watcher.