Insidious Winsomeness
The Stream, an online news source, published on April 3, 2024, an article by Tom Gilson titled “Is Cru Losing Its First Love for Christ?” Gilson and his wife were for 34 years staff members and leaders in the Evangelical parachurch ministry formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ, but which officially changed its name in 2011 simply to Cru, ostensibly to avoid offending Muslims who, holding grudges at least as long as the Orthodox do, don’t like Christians using the word “Crusade” around them.
“Cru,” says Gilson,
has always focused on eliminating needless barriers to nonbelievers’ hearing the Gospel. “This was in our DNA,” as we often said among ourselves. . . . So when the world began to say it was an “offense” to “misgender” people, making it hard to have conversations about Christ, that appeared as one of those needless barriers to avoid. So now, for the sake of mission, Cru’s staff are being trained to go the “winsome” route by using “pronoun hospitality” [that is, identify those who claim to be a sex which they are not with the pronouns they claim appropriate to whatever they think they are].
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on culture from the online archives
30.6—Nov/Dec 2017
Christ, Individualism & the Meaning of Cultural Diversity by Anthony Esolen
32.6—November/December 2019
Historical Truth, Beguiling Stories & Three Kinds of Hearers by Anthony Esolen
more from the online archives
20.8—October 2007
The Deep & Abiding Biblical Roots of Western Liberal Education by David Lyle Jeffrey
31.6—November/December 2018
on Childhood Encounters with a Christmas Icon by Rebecca Sicree
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
