Cru fosters unity through adoption of CRT-inspired terms and goal of promoting leaders from identity groups including BIPOC and women.
Christianity under threat from Race & Identity Marxism
“Socialism is precisely the religion that most overwhelm Christianity…In the new order, Socialism will triumph first by capturing the culture via infiltration of the schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”—Antonio Gramsci
Cru, formerly Campus Crusade for Christ, continues to promote Critical Race Theory (CRT) inspired concepts. Cru does this despite the exposure of CRT within the organization by an extensive report by orthodox Christians released last year. New documents provided to the Capstone Report highlight both the infiltration of Cru by CRT and how leadership promotes diversity goals including the identity politics inspired “Multiplying BIPOC and Female leaders.”
Cru presentation focuses on promoting minorities and women to leadership
Cru is preparing for its Staff Conference in July. In the past, some of those conferences promoted racial identity politics including Cru15, Cru17, and Cru19. In advance of this year’s staff conference, Cru has released its new Oneness in Diversity position statement. A PowerPoint presentation by Cru Oneness in Diversity provides illuminating detail about the extent that Cru leadership promotes identity politics. One slide highlights how far Cru is shaped by sources of identity outside Christ.
In Slide 12 shown here, Cru adopts the language of identity politics through the use of BIPOC. What is BIPOC? It is a term used by the Woke to mean Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Also in Slide 12, Cru details how it wants to move from a Culture of Fear to Freedom Culture, a Control Culture to an Empowerment Culture, to move from Unity through Uniformity to Unity in Diversity and Independence to Interdependence.
The entire PowerPoint presentation is included at the end of this article.
However, this one slide is enough to show that Cru has not changed its path despite that blockbuster report released last year and despite the resignation of many staff and longtime Cru ministry leaders.
Spreading Identity Politics in Cru
In new documents provided to the Capstone Report, the CRT concepts are surreptitiously included in hopes to spread throughout the organization.
One document provided to CR is a November 2020 revised version of Lifting Up Black Spaces. This report is prepared within Cru CITY—and it was hoped that the concepts promoted within Cru CITY would spread throughout the entire Cru global organization. According to one source, this was explicitly stated by one of the report authors. In one document provided to CR, the recommendations are limited to CITY but with the goal of Cru-wide change.
According to Lifting Up Black Spaces (CLUBS): For The Good Of The City, “We believe these proposals are best supported in the context of broader, more Cru-wide organizational change.” (You can see this document at the bottom of this article.)
In this 11-page report Lifting Up Black Spaces, a taskforce appointed by Greg Lillestrand, VP of Cru and City’s National Executive Director, proposed plans to “increase the effectiveness of Cru CITY’s competency in reaching, recruiting and resourcing the Black community.” The document lists its urgent needed because of COVID’s “spread uncontrollably and disproportionately killed Black people in major cities.” Among other factors increasing the “urgency” of the report were the national events including the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the shooting death of Breonna Taylor and the video of George Floyd’s death while police kneeled on his neck.
“Black America reeled from the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racialized violence,” according to the report’s preamble. “The previous status quo is no longer acceptable. It is a tragedy that it ever was to white America, but now everything is being re-imagined and re-evaluated.”
If the reader thinks this reads more like a handout from radical Democrats or the work of a community organizer instead of a missionary organization, you aren’t alone. It does.
And this is information the report anticipates. It points out that Cru conferences like Cru15, Cru17, and Cru19 promoted racial themes of “ethnic inclusion” (a codeword for elements promoting Critical Race Theory and popular in radical attempts by corporations and government to spread DEI—Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.)
“An undercurrent of opposition also emerged from staff (and ministry partners) who accused the ministry of forsaking the gospel message, being political, and overly influenced by radical social theories antithetical to Christianity,” the report said. “Meanwhile, as the nation became more divided polarizing political debates and political leaders became more explicitly xenophobic and racist, the conversation about race and justice became more fraught and intense.”
Who could this report possibly mean? Which politician is “explicitly xenophobic?”
Yes, this report is a political rather than theological work and it is an attempt to turn Cru into an explicitly political wing of one party promoting themes of racial identity politics. The preamble makes that clear too.
“Every major institution in our nation has had to examine itself. Cru is no exception,” the report said. “Will Cru, with a spirit of boldness, confront the beliefs, practices and narratives that prevent it from expressing a holistic ministry approach in its proclamation and demonstration? Will Cru see that the diversity it so desperately seeks is only possible when the injustices of the past and present are named and opposed in Jesus’ name?”
The report then provides reasons for the change including the pragmatic appeal to demographics. The report makes it clear that the US is becoming more diverse and less white; therefore, for Cru to survive it must appeal to the growing demographic with these CRT-inspired themes.
The report provides eight proposals with Proposal 8 including the promotion of diversity training as a mandatory for staff. In fact, the report singles out the Lenses Institute trainings—something called out for its wokeness by former Cru staff. In fact, a Lenses training video was posted on the Internet, and it is without a doubt fanatically leftist and Woke. Of course, Cru forced a takedown of the video.
The Lenses trainings featured prominently in a blockbuster report prepared by orthodox Christian Cru staff. In the report, it is alleged and documentation provided showing Lenses trainings elevated ethnic identity over the shared identity Christians have in Christ. You can see the entire Cru Seeking Clarity & Unity report here.
Also, you can see the entire November 2020 Lifting Up Black Spaces report at the bottom of this article.
Conclusion: Leftists are working hard to infiltrate the Church for Political Purposes
This is something Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations warned about repeatedly since abort 2017—the direct attack on churches by forces intent on overthrowing church doctrine and Western Civilization itself.
The quote at the top of this article is one that O’Fallon used in a slide at the recent Theology of Marxism event. It is certainly applicable to ministries like Cru and to denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention.
It is important for Christians to understand the attack on our Unity in Christ is a direct product of leftist infiltration of our institutions. As racial and gender identities replace our identity in Christ, then all sorts of evils become possible. It is the Christians duty to become a new creation and enjoy the shared brotherhood that transcends ethnicity.
Christianity is threatened by a new Race and Identity Marxism. Christians must stand against this.
Here are the Cru documents in their entirety provided to the Capstone Report.