http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBSX2VQ8QE.htmlEvangelical Pastor Keeps Politics Out Of His Pulpit
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By LAURIE GOODSTEIN The New York Times
Published: Jul 30, 2006
MAPLEWOOD, MINN. - Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing - and the church's - to conservative political candidates and causes.
The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their antiabortion work? Would the church distribute "voters' guides" that all but endorsed Republican candidates? With the country at war, couldn't the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?
After refusing each time, Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the 2004 presidential election, he preached six sermons called "The Cross and the Sword" in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a "Christian nation" and stop glorifying American military campaigns.
"When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses," Boyd preached. "When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross."
Emotions Run High
Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks homosexuality is not God's ideal. The response from his congregation at Woodland Hills Church in suburban St. Paul - packed mostly with politically and theologically conservative, middle-class evangelicals - was passionate. Some members walked out of a sermon and never returned. Eventually, Woodland Hills, which Boyd founded in 1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
But there were also congregants who thanked Boyd, telling him they were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to share.
"Most of my friends are believers," said Shannon Staiger, a psychotherapist and church member, "and they think if you're a believer, you'll vote for Bush. And it's scary to go against that."
Sermons like Boyd's are hardly typical in today's evangelical churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal debates going on in some evangelical colleges, magazines and churches. A common concern is that the Christian message is being compromised by the tendency to tie evangelical Christianity to the Republican Party and American nationalism, especially through the war in Iraq.
At least six books on this theme have been published recently, some by Christian publishing houses. Randall Balmer, a religion professor at Barnard College in New York City and an evangelical, has written "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America - an Evangelical's Lament."
Boyd has a new book out, "The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church."
'Discontent Brewing'
"There is a lot of discontent brewing," said Brian D. McLaren, founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and a leader in the evangelical movement known as the "emerging church," which is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical establishment.
"More and more people are saying this has gone too far - the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right," McLaren said.
"You cannot say the word 'Jesus' in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it," McLaren said. "You can't say the word 'Christian,' and you certainly can't say the word 'evangelical,' without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.
"Because people think, 'Oh, no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about activist judges.'"
Boyd said he had cleared his sermons with the church's board, but his words left some in his congregation stunned. Some said he was disrespecting President Bush and the military, that he was soft on abortion or telling them not to vote.
"When we joined years ago, Greg was a conservative speaker," said William Berggren, a lawyer who joined the church with his wife six years ago. "But we totally disagreed with him on this. You can't be a Christian and ignore actions that you feel are wrong. A case in point is the abortion issue. If the church were awake when abortion was passed in the '70s, it wouldn't have happened. But the church was asleep."
Boyd, 49, who preaches in blue jeans and rumpled plaid shirts, said he never intended his sermons to be taken as merely a critique of the Republican Party or the religious right. He refuses to share his party affiliation, or whether he has one, for that reason. He said there were Christians on both the left and the right who had turned politics and patriotism into "idolatry."
Focus On Jesus
In his six sermons, Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek "power over" others - by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have "power under" others - "winning people's hearts" by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Boyd said.
"America wasn't founded as a theocracy," he said. "America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.
"I am sorry to tell you," he continued, "that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ."
Boyd lambasted the "hypocrisy and pettiness" of Christians who focus on "sexual issues" such as homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jackson's breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. He said Christians these days are constantly outraged about sex and perceived violations of their rights to display their faith in public.
"Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act," he said. "And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed."
Boyd now says of the upheaval: "I don't regret any aspect of it at all. It was a defining moment for us. We let go of something we were never called to be. We just didn't know the price we were going to pay for doing it."
His congregation of about 4,000 is still digesting his message. Boyd arranged a forum on a recent Wednesday night to allow members to sound off on his new book. The reception was warm, but many of the 56 questions submitted in writing were pointed: Isn't abortion an evil that Christians should prevent? Are you saying Christians should not join the military? How can Christians possibly have "power under" Osama bin Laden?
One woman asked: "So why NOT us? If we contain the wisdom and grace and love and creativity of Jesus, why shouldn't we be the ones involved in politics and setting laws?"
Boyd responded: "I don't think there's a particular angle we have on society that others lack. All good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just don't slap the label 'Christian' on it."
