Theological Progressivism and the War of Totalizing Worldviews
Shortly after it was announced in October 2021 that Dr. Francis Collins would be departing his role as head of the National Institutes of Health—a role he had filled for over a decade, spanning the terms of three different presidents—a friend of Dr. Collins posted on Twitter a message of support, saying, “I admire greatly the wisdom, expertise, and, most of all, the Christian humility and grace of Francis Collins. I cannot wait to see how God uses him next.”
The friend posting that supportive message was none other than a man who had himself left a high-profile role in the Southern Baptist Convention a few months earlier: Dr. Russell Moore.
Fast-forward to March 7th, 2025, and what was previously understood only by the discerning few has now become plainly clear to the many. These men, who continuously position themselves as paragons of Christian virtue and faithful public witness, are divided between a seemingly strong public commitment to Gospel principles and an undying private allegiance to liberal progressivism.
However, as Christ reminds us in Matthew 12:22-28, an individual divided against himself cannot stand. One’s true commitments will always work their way out, and those who give any space in their thinking to a liberal progressive ideology will—more often than not—become captive to that ideology to the great detriment of the church and of their own soul.
Looking for Answers in All the Wrong Places
When Dr. Collins took to the stage at the “Stand Up for Science” rally on March 7th, 2025, I was not expecting to hear a folk song about how cuts to scientific research would deprive “all the good people” of answers. After all, who knew Moloch could sing?
Certainly, it could have been expected that Collins would rail against the second Trump administration’s new approach to government funding—that was the entire purpose of the rally. However, the exact language Collins used to describe his own side of the debate betrays an underlying conflict of worldviews, which is ultimately hostile to the core truths of the Gospel.
As stated above, Collins describes those on his side of the funding divide as “the good people.” The same “good people” that Collins funneled millions of dollars to in order to harvest the organs of murdered children, fund “transgender” studies on teenagers that resulted in suicides, and worked with Anthony Fauci to slander and discredit Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (who Trump has now picked to lead NIH) during COVID.
Why? Well, if you believe the next few words of Collins’ chart-topping hit, it is necessary work in the search for “answers.”
Implicit in the song is the message that those who oppose that “search” and efforts to provide the requisite funding to empower it are not good people. Those who oppose government funding for any medical research whatsoever are smeared with the label of wanting humanity to suffer, wanting to delay solutions to life’s most existential evils—physical suffering and death. However, these goals and the methods utilized in research are directly at odds with orthodox Biblical faith.
To the extent that Collins and others rely on science and medical advancement to solve these problems, they are looking for answers in the wrong places. Medicine—no matter how advanced—can not provide the ultimate cure for suffering and death.
As such, a more helpful way to approach the practice of medicine is to understand all medicine as ultimately palliative rather than ultimately curative. Palliative care improves the quality of life for suffering individuals—and no doubt medical advancements do improve one’s quality of life—but it does not resolve the underlying issues. Another way to phrase this approach is to say that medicine can only ever treat some of the symptoms of human brokenness; it cannot finally cure that brokenness.
If Collins were truly interested in pointing people toward the path that would answer their deepest longings for everlasting life and vitality, he would be honest with them about the limitations of his own profession.
An Apple Tree in the Produce Aisle
However unfortunate, one should not be necessarily surprised by this lack of honesty. Time and again, those who begin by giving an inch to worldviews and ethical practices hostile to historic orthodox Christianity will eventually allow those progressive worldviews to take a whole mile.
Just consider a few of those who have publicly supported and admired Dr. Collins over the years: Russell Moore, Rick Warren, Ed Stetzer, David French, Mike Cosper, Daniel Darling, Justin Taylor, and Tim Keller.
Some of these are further to the evangelical and political left than others, but all have exhibited clear signs of the influence of progressivism in their thought while cloaking those progressive statements and actions in Christian terms.
Their development reminds me of a short sermon illustration that I first heard while under the preaching of Dr. Brian Payne—now the Senior Pastor at Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, AL. He remarked, “Just because I go into the grocery store, stick my arms out, and hold apples in my hands, that doesn’t make me an apple tree.”
In the same way, one ought not be permitted to appeal to orthodox Christian concepts to justify their saving knowledge of Christ while at the same time behaving in a manner contrary to the Gospel. Whether that is denying biblical inerrancy by undermining Scripture’s clear witness on issues of faith and practice or supporting and directing research on the bodies of dead children, just because you say something conservative about yourself does not make it true.
The men noted above are, in many ways, a case study in Matthew 12:22-28. Their actions betray the fact that they are divided against themselves. In one breath, they are committed to Christianity, while in another, they seem open to the ways of the world. Some claim Christ when it suits them and profit off of aborted children behind the scenes. Others profess conservatism when they desire, yet undermine the polity of the SBC in the name of “keep[ing] the main thing the main thing.”
These two realities cannot coexist. Christ wants nothing less than our whole selves, and any unreserved commitment to things contrary to His word proclaims a false understanding of the Gospel, which says, “Christ is not sufficient for this part of my life.” All worldviews are totalizing, and to riff off of the great John Owen, if we aren’t killing the traces of theological liberalism that constantly threaten to arise in our thinking due to sin and brokenness, that theological liberalism will be killing us.
To protect against such harm, Christ has given us not only His Word but His bride. In other words, He has given us each other to hold one another accountable. This is not only for the larger witness of Christ on a macro scale but also for the souls of our brothers and sisters.
As one hears in every airport around the country, “When you see something, say something.” We must call one another to repentance, and should someone fail to repent after the process of church discipline, we owe to Christ the duty of removing them from the church and considering them as unsaved.
To the extent that any of us have sought to publicly support those who engage in such behaviors, we must now call attention to their unrepentance in hopes that a greater number of voices would pierce their conscience.
A Convention Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
This problem is not unique to Dr. Collins or the other men mentioned above. As a closing thought, heed this warning: A Southern Baptist Convention divided against itself cannot stand. In the same way that a theologically progressive worldview totalizes within the individual, the progressive worldview has brought down many a denomination.
Recently, those in the SBC received word that the Credentials Committee had failed to remove from fellowship a number of churches who, to the average layman, are in clear rebellion against the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Efforts over the last few years to pass the Law Amendment would likely have prevented this outcome, but the final vote on the amendment failed to reach the necessary threshold in Indianapolis last year. What has inevitably happened is that we are now a convention divided against itself.
How we react in this moment will determine the course of our convention for the foreseeable future, and we must not allow theological liberalism another square inch of ground.
If we seek to avoid a fall like the one we have seen from Dr. Collins, Dr. Moore, and others, we must collectively profess repentance before God and ask His mercy upon us. We must work to proclaim the truth of His word for the ordering of His church. We must strongly fence our own fellowship according to these second-order issues, and we must show a watching world that it is possible to step back from the cliff of progressivism.
Should we be found faithful, it is not inevitable that we will go over the edge. May God make it so.
