Evangelical Leader, Rev. Gregory A. Boyd: Church Should Steer Clear Of Politics
Robert Paul Reyes
July 31, 2006
A person who joins an evangelical church is not only making a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, he is also identifying himself as a proponent of a conservative political ideology.
The vast majority of fundamentalist/evangelical congregations embrace a conservative ideology: Anti-abortion, Anti-gay, pro-war, pro-family values...
I believe that a member of Jerry Falwell's church does not have the freedom to publicly espouse views that run counter to Falwell's. I think that a member of Falwell's church who makes a public statement in favor of gay rights will be ostracized and kicked out of the congregation.
The Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn is an evangelical megachurch, led not by a Falwell clone, but by a the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd -- a preacher who answers to his God and not to the mullahs of the religious right.
Rev. Boyd doesn't believe in mixing religion and politics and he didn't want to be identified with the religious right, so he preached a series of sermons in which he laid out his views.
The New York Times reports: "He (Boyd) 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."
Rev. Boyd might as well have declared that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ, the preacher's controversial sermons resulted in the church losing 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
Boyd is no flaming liberal; he is against abortion and believes homosexuality is a sin. But he believes that Christians should preach the gospel and stay out of politics.
Rev. Boyd may have lost 1,000 members, but he gained a lot of credibility inside and outside the evangelical realm. I'm persuaded that Boyd's common sense and courage will attract many new members who don't want to be fed a diet of homophobia and intolerance.
The vast majority of fundamentalist/evangelical congregations embrace a conservative ideology: Anti-abortion, Anti-gay, pro-war, pro-family values...
I believe that a member of Jerry Falwell's church does not have the freedom to publicly espouse views that run counter to Falwell's. I think that a member of Falwell's church who makes a public statement in favor of gay rights will be ostracized and kicked out of the congregation.
The Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn is an evangelical megachurch, led not by a Falwell clone, but by a the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd -- a preacher who answers to his God and not to the mullahs of the religious right.
Rev. Boyd doesn't believe in mixing religion and politics and he didn't want to be identified with the religious right, so he preached a series of sermons in which he laid out his views.
The New York Times reports: "He (Boyd) 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."
Rev. Boyd might as well have declared that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ, the preacher's controversial sermons resulted in the church losing 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
Boyd is no flaming liberal; he is against abortion and believes homosexuality is a sin. But he believes that Christians should preach the gospel and stay out of politics.
Rev. Boyd may have lost 1,000 members, but he gained a lot of credibility inside and outside the evangelical realm. I'm persuaded that Boyd's common sense and courage will attract many new members who don't want to be fed a diet of homophobia and intolerance.
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