Anglican minister slams progressive Christians as ‘fake,’ calls notion an oxymoron

Free Church of England minister and prominent British conservative commentator Deacon Calvin Robinson is slamming progressive Christianity and warning that liberalism is the “greatest” current threat to the western Church.

In an interview with FOX News Digital, Deacon Robinson argued that the term “progressive Christian” is an “oxymoron,” and stated that the liberal, “neo-Marxist” thought that has infected the minds of some leaders and congregants in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches is “one of the devil’s tools” being used to destroy Christianity from within.

Robinson, a staunch proponent of Christian orthodoxy who uses his media platform to warn about relativism and liberalism supplanting clear Christian teaching, claimed that Christians who prioritize liberal ideas of inclusivity are “twisting” the truth of Christianity.

Free Church of England minister Deacon Calvin Robinson said in an interview that “liberalism” is one of the greatest threats to Christianity. (Mark Kerrison/Contributor)

Robinson gave his statements amidst complicated times for Christians and Catholics in the West.

In recent months, a contingent of Roman Catholic bishops in Germany have insisted on blessing same-sex unions; Anglican bishops have given serious thought to updating the “Our Father” with gender-neutral pronouns; and Pope Francis has knocked American Catholic conservatives at war with liberal ideologies, claiming they have a “reactionary attitude” and ascribing a character of “backwardness” to them.

American Christians at large have also found themselves confronting an encroaching culture of “anti-racism,” climate change activism, and an assertive LGBTQ agenda.

Robinson was firm and clear about what this prevailing culture of liberalism presents for Christians in the west. He declared, “Liberalism is the greatest threat to [Christianity] – current –because it’s one of the tools that the devil is using.”

The minister described liberalism as so dangerous because it’s “rooted in twists of the truth.” After stating that Islam is “famously a Catholic heresy,” he said, “but liberalism is even more warped in terms of taking something that sounds compassionate, sounds empathetic, but isn’t actually fully true in order to get people to believe in it, such as, you know, trans queer theory, gender theory, critical race theory.”

Further, Deacon Robinson explained each of these radical liberal ideas “come from one place,” saying, “And it’s really, I mean, we call it ‘neo–Marxism,’ but it’s really communism, which we know is incompatible with the Christian faith because it is the work of the enemy.”

During the Anglican Church’s “General Synod,” Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell opined that the “Our Father” prayer might be “problematic.” (damienkeating via Getty Images)

He recalled that “so many popes, so many cardinals, so many good holy men throughout history have said this quite explicitly. And so, we shouldn’t let our guard down for communism. We certainly shouldn’t let it for neo-Marxism, and therefore we should not let our guard down for liberalism.”

When asked about Christians who believe they can support liberal ideologies or consider themselves progressive Christian, Robinson was emphatic.

“Progressive Christianity is an oxymoron. You can either be a Christian or you can be progressive.”

He explained, “The Christian faith is inherently conservative because it provides a set of values that are seen by the modern world as conservative – ideas such as marriage is between one man and one woman, that God made us male and female, and he made those different. You know, we’re not equal in terms of being the same. We’re equal in terms of dignity and worth. But we are complementary and different for a purpose.”

Doubling down on his condemnation of progressive Christianity, Robinson said, “Progressive Christianity is about twisting the truth again. It is all a lie. You can either have the truth or not the truth. The truth is objective, right? So you have truth or lie.”

The deacon then provided an analogy, claiming that progressive Christianity is as Christian as a trans man is biologically male: “And progressive Christianity – I see it much like trans – like a trans man. The word trans in that sentence means fake, right? A trans woman is a fake woman. A trans man is a fake man.” 

“A progressive Christian is a fake Christian. It’s the same thing. They put that little caveat before it to let you know, that they’re not really doing what the thing comes after it is,” he said.

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.