Skillet frontman John Cooper recently shared how Marxism and ideologies related to it have crept into the church.
"I'm seeing a lot of Marxism and its offshoots," Cooper told The Christian Post in an interview at the GMA Dove Awards, citing Critical Race Theory and "ideologies break us into groups — white Christians, black Christians, women Christians, men Christians."
"That's a form of Marxism, and it's not good," he said.
Cooper said this ideological division is a symptom of a larger cultural shift toward secularism, where morality is defined without reference to the Bible or God.
"There's this idea that we can create a good and just world without the Bible, without God. That's basically what secular humanism is," Cooper explained, noting that many churches, even if they are well-intentioned, are embracing secular ideas as an attempt to show empathy or relevance.
"These secular humanist ideas always lead to really bad outcomes," he said.
For instance, he pointed out that there has been a growing normalization between homelessness and drug use in cities.
"There's this notion that we're caring for the homeless by creating places where they can shoot up drugs safely. It's not good for them — it's terrible," he said, adding that it is reflective of a broader "culture of death," where states in the US and Canada have moved toward legalizing euthanasia, even for teenagers suffering from depression.
Cooper, who is preparing to release Skillet's first independent album, Revolution, in November, underscored several subtle ways in which churches might capitulate to dangerous ideologies. For instance, one of the early warning signs is the use of language that is reflective of secular social justice movements.
"Even if churches don't mean it the way the world does, they adopt the language of solidarity," Cooper said, adding that terms like "racial justice," which, while seemingly harmless, can be filled with ideological implications that contradict biblical teaching.
"They'll be like, guys, we're going to have a seminar on racial justice. They'll use the terminology. It could be that they even say a lot of things that I would be like, 'I agree with that,' but sometimes the terminology seeps in, and words are power."
"The progressive Left has been very successful at redefining language to create new realities," Cooper noted, citing Saul Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals, which highlights how language can be weaponized to shift cultural values. For example, the term "reproductive justice" can be used to reframe the debate on abortion.
"Christians hear these phrases and think, 'Well, that sounds good,' and they take it in. You'll see signs when they start using those words. But we need to ask, 'What do you really mean by that?'"
Meanwhile, another sign would be when churches critique conservative positions on issues like immigration or wealth redistribution despite claiming they are not political.
"They say they're not political, but you'll only hear them bashing conservatives," Cooper said.
"They'll say, 'We're not political at all, but blah, blah, blah, but we have to care for justice, and so we need wealth redistribution. They do socialism through the back door by saying they're not political at all, but they will bash conservatives over immigration policy or something like that."
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.