“It’s a very subtle — but so dangerous — thing that’s happening in the church right now,” Lucas Miles, senior pastor of Nfluence Church and president of the Nfluence Network For Churches, told Randy Robison on LIFE Today Live. They spoke about his book, The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church and how leftism is creeping into many churches and influencing believers in Jesus.

What is the Christian left? While saying he wants to attack ideas and not people, Miles also said it helps to name names to paint a picture. He mentioned Pete Buttigieg, currently the secretary of transportation and formerly a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, where Miles’s office is located.

“Christian leftists like Pete are going out of their way to try to shape theology today,” Miles said. Buttigieg was “breaking down and doing exegesis on passages on the campaign trail” to support his positions.

What are the hallmarks of Christian leftism? Miles listed some telling signs, including a non-biblical view of gender and sexuality and being pro-abortion, pro-transgenderism, pro-Palestine, anti-Israel, pro-“social justice” and pro-critical race theory.

What’s the problem with Christian leftism? Miles said, “it’s drawn people away from the Bible as an … infallible source of truth for us as believers and … pushed this constituency more to look towards things like the state,” pop culture, and what’s in vogue. “It’s really diluted the message of the Gospel.”

Miles said the left wants a Church that’s subservient to the state and wants to “use the youth of the generation to silence religion, to silence faith.”

Should Christians be worried? “As believers we don’t need to be worried, but we need to be aware,” Miles said. “We need to decide if we’re … willing to stand up for the Gospel, no matter what we face, whether that be prosperity or persecution.”

LIFE Today Live and The Stream are produced by Life Outreach International.

Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer and proofreader for The Stream. You can follow Aliya on Twitter @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.