Cru ends controversial sex and gender training

One of the country’s leading evangelical ministries is ending its controversial staff training on sexuality and gender less than two years after it was introduced. Cru employees will no longer have access to the Compassionate and Faithful curriculum until the end of this year, according to a leaked recording of a meeting for U.S.-based employees on September 26.

“Our plan moving forward is to integrate our LGBT+ amenities into existing development sites,” Keith Johnson, Cru’s director of theological education and development, told staff during the meeting, which was leaked in a podcast last week. “Going forward, it will become increasingly important for us to speak with our own theological voice.” That means Cru will rely less on “outside communicators,” Johnson said.

Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ, has faced criticism of its curriculum from current and former employees as well as prominent evangelical authors, speakers and commentators such as Rosaria Butterfield, Christopher Yuan and Allie Beth Stuckey. They claimed it deviated from biblical teachings about sexuality, gender and God’s plan for men and women by allowing Christians to use preferred pronouns for transgender people and adopt LGBTQ identity labels, among other things. Despite the uproar, Cru refused to publicly address complaints or stop using training modules and facilitators that critics had objected to.

On October 2, author and commentator Jon Harris posted portions of the late September virtual meeting on his podcast. Conversations that matter. A former Cru employee who attended the meeting sent the recording to Harris. I spoke with the former employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to ongoing interactions with current Cru employees.

During the meeting and in a follow-up email to WORLD, Johnson referred to the Compassionate and Faithful materials as a “learning experience” rather than a curriculum. Since most of the staff had completed the training, Johnson told me that it made sense to incorporate future training on sexuality and gender issues for new staff and interns at Cru’s Institute of Biblical Studies. The Compassionate and Faithful materials were intended to “provide clarity” and “orient all of our staff to a historical biblical understanding of sexuality,” Johnson said.

But for some employees, the ministry’s mandatory introduction of the curriculum had the opposite effect. Longtime collaborators Uriah and Marissa Mundell spoke to me earlier this year about theological objections they had made to Johnson and other Cru leaders. After executives dismissed those concerns—Uriah’s boss told him to keep quiet or get a new job—the Mundells went public.

Less than two months later, Cru fired the Mundells for “visiting public spaces to express their disagreement with the ministry.”

During the Sept. 26 meeting, Johnson and Mark Gauthier, Cru vice president and U.S. national director, referenced recent public criticism. “We are deeply passionate about the calling to proclaim the Gospel to everyone,” Gauthier said. “That puts us in a situation over the years where we open ourselves up to criticism and criticism… what we’ve been through has been significant over the last few years.”

But Gauthier and Johnson stopped short of admitting a mistake or saying that public criticism influenced Cru’s decision to eliminate the Compassionate and Faithful curriculum and move away from using outside facilitators to instruct staff.

“Ultimately, what sets us apart from many of our critics is not our view of sexuality and gender,” Johnson said. “That is our vision for cultural engagement.” He added that Cru, when at its best, takes a “Jesus first” approach to cultural engagement.

Critics, including the Mundells, objected to the curriculum’s heavy reliance on author and podcaster Preston Sprinkle, a proponent of controversial beliefs surrounding sexuality and gender. Sprinkle supports the “pronoun hospitality” and the adoption of LGBT identity labels by Christians, and teaches that same-sex attraction is not a sin unless acted upon.

Johnson did not address my questions about what the new integrated training will entail and whether it will include materials from Sprinkle or his nonprofit organization, the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender. Johnson told staff that Cru is “deeply grateful” for those outside the organization who have helped with the “Compassionate and Faithful” curriculum. Johnson also did not address whether the controversy had an impact on donations to the ministry.

Harris told his listeners that the Sept. 26 meeting left him with more questions than answers about Cru’s stance. “For Cru employees coming in… what will that look like? Will it be the same type of class…just more hidden?”