At a time when the church needs conviction, Fuller Theological Seminary has chosen compromise.
For over a year, Fuller Theological Seminary deliberated its views on sexuality. The school, one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the U.S., has long affirmed the historical Christian, biblical position on sex and marriage: that marriage is a covenantal union between one man and one woman, that sex is reserved for that one-flesh union, and that sex outside marriage is sin.
Rejecting God’s design for sex and marriage ultimately is a rejection of God.
But as school leaders deliberated updating their policy, the Associated Press revealed one proposal that would have opened the door to affirming LGBTQ ideology.
“There are thoughtful Christians and churches that have different interpretations [of allowable sexual activity],” the proposal read. “Therefore, we expect all members of this global, evangelical, and ecumenical seminary student and learner community to live with integrity consistent to the Christian communities to which they belong.”
A year after that proposal went public, Fuller Theological Seminary announced that school leaders had decided to reaffirm its traditional, orthodox position.
Good news, right? Well, not so fast.
In a statement, school president David Goatley said the board of trustees had discovered a solution that avoids “ideological polarities.” He called it the “Fuller way.”
Goatley said:
After several years of consultation, feedback, and dialogue, the Board of Trustees reconfirmed the institution’s commitment to its historic theological understanding of marriage and human sexuality — a union between a man and a woman and sexual intimacy within the context of that union. At the same time, we acknowledge that faithful Christians — through prayerful study, spiritual discernment, and lived experience — have come to affirm other covenantal forms of relationship.
Other covenantal forms of relationship.
In other words, Fuller leaders chose to reaffirm the school’s traditional position while extending institutional legitimacy to those who reject the historic Christian position on sexuality and marriage.
Compromise in disguise
Fuller’s new position is not grounded in theological or ecumenical generosity. Rather, it’s institutional doublespeak.
Fuller wants to affirm biblical truth under its letterhead while virtue-signaling “inclusion” to those who deny the truth. It is a subtle yet dangerous compromise. The new policy views the historic Christian position on sex and marriage as a matter of opinion or community preference — not obedience to God’s commands.
The message Fuller sends is clear and alarming.
If Christians can disagree on something as theologically significant as God’s design and purpose for marriage, sex, and the human body, then these issues are peripheral, disputable, and secondary to Christianity.
But the Bible does not treat sexual ethics as a negotiable matter. Any assertion otherwise is a lie, one that liberals use as a cudgel to suppress biblical truth.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible affirms that God created humanity with two sexes — man and woman — that marriage is a one-flesh covenant between one man and one woman, and that any sexual activity outside that covenant is sin. To depart from God’s vision for human flourishing with regard to sex and marriage is not just a matter of hermeneutical differences — it’s rebellion against God.
This isn’t just about theology, morality, and ethics, but about anthropology and teleology, too.
For what purpose did God create humans? And how can humanity experience the flourishing that God intends for us?
Rejecting God’s design for sex and marriage ultimately is a rejection of God. Just ask the apostle Paul, who identifies disordered sexuality as evidence of humanity’s rejection of God (Romans 1).
The stakes are high
In our cultural moment, the liberal LGBTQ lobby is catechizing an entire generation with its liturgy of “inclusion.” This agenda, cloaked in compassion, demands affirmation of anti-God ideologies.
That’s why Fuller’s “third way” — to be neither outright condemning nor outright affirming — ultimately fails the smell test. It’s soft equivocation that implies the “acceptance” the LGBTQ lobby demands and ends with full-scale capitulation.
Jesus was full of grace and truth — not half measures. Jesus, in fact, famously proclaimed, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23).
To be with Jesus, therefore, requires total commitment. Complete allegiance. Undying fidelity.
Fuller, on the other hand, is leading Christians down a different path. The school’s position — “we believe this is true, but it’s perfectly acceptable if you believe something else” — doesn’t catechize “faithful Christians.” Rather, it forms relativists empowered to elevate themselves to the position of God. Relativists define good and evil in their own eyes and seize for themselves what they deem to be good. They certainly do not lay down their lives and take up a cross.
The historical Christian, biblical teaching on sex and marriage is not arbitrary, and, according to the apostle Paul, it stands at the heart of the gospel. We cannot, therefore, capitulate to a culture that seeks to erase not only our teachings but, ultimately, God.
No middle ground
If Christians compromise, liberals and progressives win. Not only on matters of sexuality and marriage, but liberals will not stop until they have eroded every historical Christian teaching.
Preventing their godless victory requires a commitment not to compromise on biblical truth. Christians reverse the liberal takeover when we combat liberal lies with our truth — and make no apologies for it.
Either marriage is a God-ordained covenant between one man and one woman, or it is not. Either same-sex relationships — any sexual activity outside the marriage union, for that matter — are a departure from God’s design, or they are not. Either scripture and the church’s historical teaching are our authority, or they are not.
Now is the time to display the courage and boldness of Christ. To speak truth with clarity is not unkind. It is essential. Anything less is a disservice to the church and the world.
There is no virtue in ambiguity. Liberals are evangelizing our culture with “Pride.” Christians must respond with biblical truth — not the “Fuller way.”
Fuller theological seminary, Lgbtq agenda, Lgbtq ideology, Christianity, Jesus christ, Jesus, God, Bible, Marriage, Christians, Faith
