Radical Pro-LGBTQ+ Activist is Running SBC Megachurch’s Family Ministry

“We are not in either the left or right lane, but in the moderate middle

Staff Writer

We recently uncovered the fact that Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church has gay-affirming pastors and ministries, recommends pro-LGBTQ+ counseling for children, and that they’re poised to put on a conference where nearly all the speakers are pro-homosexuality, including one man who is “married” to a “husband” and runs a pro-LGBTQ+ organization.

One of the speakers at this event is Chris Clark. He is a pastor at the 25,000-member, 14-campus Saddleback Church, where he leads Premarital Mentors and Church Counseling Training. Years ago, his daughter came out as transgendered, and in response, he co-founded an ‘Embracing the Journey’ chapter at Saddleback, along with Shauna and Doug Habel. 

Embracing the Journey is an openly “affirming” pro-LBGTQ+ ministry that routinely partners with aggressive pro-LBGTQ activist organizations like The Reformation Project, which seek to advance full LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. In 2020 they entered into a partnership with Saddleback Church to be their go-to resource for parents with kids who are struggling with their sexuality, and Saddleback even cut a video endorsing the group. 

The Habels are longtime members of Saddleback Church, attending for over a decade. According to their ETJ bio, in 2016, Shauna attended The Reformation Project conference (a prominent pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy group). There “she saw gay Christians studying the Bible and worshipping God. She saw their vibrant faith, despite the pain they faced” and came to believe that homosexuality was not sinful. 

Shauna, in particular, became radicalized over the years, attending Fuller Seminary to receive a MA in Justice and Advocacy and coming to lead panels on behalf of ETJ for Reformation Project. She’s a leader in Saddleback and has grown the ministry. Saddleback Church now hosts four ongoing support groups and one small group for Embracing the Journey.

Shauna claims that “we are not in either the left or right lane, but in the moderate middle of unconditional love for our children,” but it’s evident that this is not the case, particularly when she reveals she works with conservative parents to help them become “affirming.”

Shauna requests a shoutout from Freed Hearts, the affirming ministry of Susan Cottrell. OutSmart magazine called Cottrell ‘The Mother of All MamaBears’ and the famed gay magazine The Advocate dubbed her “our favorite affirming matriarch.” She is a prominent voice for the LGBTQ+ community and has the statistically unlikely odds of having two children who are gay. 

When she’s not requesting shoutouts from gay-affirming organizations, she’s giving them, offering a flyer to Beloved Arise, “the first national organization dedicated primarily to empowering youth to proudly embrace both their faith and queer identity.” Beloved Arise in turn recommends Embracing the Journey, Along with Freed Hearts and PFLAG.

These are the people and personalities leading the care group for desperate parents who come to Saddleback seeking counsel and resources for their struggling children. Pro-LGBTQ+ Embracing the Journey, an affirming pastor, and a radical ministry leader who believes it is her mission to help people cast aside God’s good designs for biblical sexuality so that she might instead affirm them in their sin.