"Disowning Conservative Politics Costly for Pastor"

Some of you may have already seen this news item from the New York Times (via AOL here) but it is just too closely related to the message of this blog to pass up linking to it.

The Rev. Gregory L. Boyd, pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, took a stand and lost about 1,000 of the 5,000 members of his church as a result.

Rev. Boyd had the nerve (and I mean that in a good way) to stand up against being a conduit for conservative political messages. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Before the last 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,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”

It is important to point out here that he is not merely doing this to advance the political causes he believes in. He is anti-abortion and does not think homosexuality is something God would sign off on.

Rev. Boyd, however, puts his views in perspective and subjegates them to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, an increasingly novel approach these days, especially in "mega-churches" that have thousands of members.

Rev. Boyd has written a book titled, "The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church,” which is based on his sermons.

I suspect that book is worth checking out. If I'm ever in the St. Paul area, I'd love to drop in and visit a church where I can be confident of hearing Jesus preached and not listening to a recitation of points from the Republican Party platform.