Ok, our longtime reader and commentator, BPABBOTT, saw this on my Facebook page and insisted that I post it here. Gregory Boyd is the senior pastor Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and regularly writes on the issue of religion and politics at the following blog. In the following interview, Boyd, author of the book, The Myth of Separation, discusses why he believes conservative Christians have gone too far in weaving religion and politics together:Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
2 comments:
Thanks for reference Brad ... but is appears the mere mention of my name is sufficient to kill the comments ;-)
I liked Boyd's videos and thought I'd offer some additional info to encourage others to give them a look.
Gregory A. "Greg" Boyd is an evangelical pastor, Christian theologian, and author. He is Senior Pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States[1] and is President of Christus Victor Ministries.
Boyd is author of The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church.
There is a review of his book here, which I'll shamelessly plagiarize below ;-)
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When he originally preached on this subject at his church in April and May of 2004, about 1,000 people left his church (you can download podcasts of the series here). This is certainly an issue we evangelicals had better be discussing if it is causing this much division in our fellowship.
“Two Contrasting KingdomsThe kingdom Jesus came to establish is ‘not from this world’ (John 18:36), for it operates differently than the governments of the world do. While all the versions of the kingdom of the world acquire and exercise power over others, the kingdom of God, incarnated and modeled in the person of Jesus Christ, advances only by exercising power under others. It expands by manifesting the power of self-sacrificial, Calvary-like love.” (p. 14)
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Boyd's underlying theme is that politics has no place in a Christ-like life. He argues this position in the defense of religion, not in the defense of politics (or its institutions) from religion.
In any event, what Boyd aptly demonstrates (beyond his moral position) is that individuals devoted to secular ideals and those devoted to Christian ideals can each passionately embrace the principle of Separation of Church and State.
What's patent is that gentlemen of the left like Charlie Rose and Mr. Abbott enlist folks like Greg Boyd purely in the service of breaking up the GOP/evangelical voting bloc. I'd like to see them send Rev. Boyd into the black churches and tell them to stop voting 80-90-% Democrat.
As if.
As Rev. Boyd's "open theology" is well out of the mainsteam of evangelical Christianity [indeed, its unsympathy toward divine providence is out of the mainstream of the Founders themselves!], Boyd speaks neither to nor for evangelical Christians, or even the mainline Christian sects.
He is, as Mr. Abbott likes to say, a Trojan Horse.
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