TPUSA Pastors Summit Features 4 Pastors and (Checks Notes) 1 Avowed Atheist
Turning Point USA, an American nonprofit organization founded by Charlie Kirk that advocates for conservative values on high school, college, and university campuses, is hosting its second annual Pastors Summit. Like the year before, atheist James A. Lindsay is headlining it.
The Summit, whose goal is “equipping and empowering both pastors and their churches to stand for Biblical truth” is designed to ensure pastors “receive first-class training, and participate in a series of networking events with Faith and political leaders from across the nation” so that following the summit, they’ll return to their congregations “energized and equipped to boldly stand for liberty and The Kingdom.”
Lindsay is perhaps best known for being “part of the trio of left-wing academics that published several intentionally absurd papers in leading scholarly journals in what has become known as ‘The Grievance Studies Affair’ including a paper that claimed to address rape culture by monitoring dog-humping incidents at parks in Portland, Oregon. He’s also been a fierce critic of woke culture and the adoption of critical race theory in the church and the SBC. He’s been promoted by Tom Ascol Founders Ministries, Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations, and even Albert Mohler of SBTS.
Despite being frequently lauded by conservatives, he is an avowed atheist, writing in his books Dot Dot Dot and Everybody is Wrong about God:”
My claim here is that “God” is an abstract notion, not a real one, and whatever real-world utility that idea has, it certainly is not an active agent that causes or does things in the universe. The “God” that we often hear about is a conflation of the abstract with the numinous, the numinous with the real, and then a personification of the ideal on top of that.”
According to the conference promo:
“This three-day event is for pastors – featuring incredible faith leaders, speakers, and subject matter experts from across the country.
The past several years have highlighted the need for pastors and their congregations to stand for truth and no longer let culture in America dictate the terms in which the Church can exist. We hold fast to the idea that liberty is God’s idea, not mans.
We doubt Lindsay would agree with that last part.
Other notable speakers include Kirk, who recently suggested that Jews are saved and don’t need to be evangelized, apologist Frank Turek, musician Danny Gokey, Executive Director of Operations for G3 Ministries and Co-host of the Just Thinking podcast, Virgil Walker, and Sovereign Nations Michael O’Fallon.
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“…featuring incredible faith leaders, speakers, and subject matter experts from across the country.”
“incredible faith leaders?”
“subject matter experts?”
Uhhhh…NO!
I have zero problems with James Lindsey being there, speaking. He is brilliant. Be at peace, he’s not there to teach Christian insights but the ideals of liberty as the founders understood it. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
They’re not wrong. Liberty is, indeed, of the Lord and is clearly espoused in old testament and new. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. If people are upset at Lindsey’s speaking here one surmises there’s a lack of trust that these Pastors can rightly divide the word of truth.
You say he is “brilliant.” The Bible says he is a fool. Which should we believe?
“Other notable speakers include Kirk, who recently suggested that Jews are saved and don’t need to be evangelized…”
So for all practical purposes, a dispensationalist.