Published August 6, 2026
Progressive Christianity, always a day late and at least a dollar short in its attempts to baptize the values of the wider secular culture, has constantly hoped that it can gain the respect of the world around it and maintain some vague form of Christian idiom for doing so. This summer the Presbyterian Church (USA) has continued that tradition. Yes, there are no doubt faithful ministers in the PCUSA. But the people with their hands on the levers of power do not seem to belong to that category. A presbytery in the denomination submitted a motion that ordained clergy should only be involved in sexual relationships that are monogamous. These relationships can be between persons “of any gender” but are to be faithful.
Well, it is always 2015 somewhere, though not apparently among the “More Light Presbyterians” for whom only complete capitulation to the anarchic sexual and relational tastes of the day is sufficient. The latter group’s statement is replete with the predictable language of justice, love, and inclusion, none of which are given any substantial content beyond that of affirming those who choose to live out their queer lives. The PCUSA’s General Assembly has referred the original motion to a study committee where it will either become lost in the arcane machinery of Presbyterian bureaucracy or emerge as even more theologically impotent than it is at present.
It is worth remembering that debates about marriage and sexuality are not simply concerned with what it means to be human. Certainly, the reconstruction of marriage to suit gay, and now queer, politics, has implications for how we understand such things as man, woman, family, children, love, and commitment. As same-sex couples now drive much of the surrogacy industry, it becomes clear that “gay marriage” did not simply extend the franchise of a traditional institution with no wider social impact. It has intensified the commodification of women and of children. And as we move to a situation where polyamory is increasingly accepted, we can expect the status of children to become more and more tenuous. The pursuit of individual sexual satisfaction requires as much.
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Carl R. Trueman is a fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program. His work focuses on helping civic leaders and policymakers better understand the deep philosophical and cultural roots of our current social malaise. In addition to his scholarship on the intellectual foundations of expressive individualism and the sexual revolution, Trueman is also interested in the origins, rise, and use of critical theory by progressives and the current crisis in anthropology. He serves as a professor at Grove City College.
