Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical
megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his
blessing and the churchıs 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 anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute ³votersı
guides² that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country
at war, please couldnıt the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?
After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before
the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called ³The Cross
and the Sword² in which he said the church should steer clear of politics,
give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a
³Christian nation² and stop glorifying American military campaigns.
³When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,² Mr. Boyd
preached. ³When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put
your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.²
Mr. Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks
homosexuality is not Godıs ideal. The response from his congregation at
Woodland Hills Church here 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. By
the time the dust had settled, Woodland Hills, which Mr. Boyd founded in
1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
But there were also congregants who thanked Mr. Boyd, telling him they
were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to
share.
³Most of my friends are believers,² said Shannon Staiger, a
psychotherapist and church member, ³and they think if youıre a believer,
youıll vote for Bush. And itıs scary to go against that.²
Sermons like Mr. Boydıs are hardly typical in todayıs evangelical
churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal
debates now 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 and an evangelical, has written ³Thy Kingdom Come: How the
Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America an
Evangelicalıs Lament.²
And Mr. Boyd has a new book out, ³The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the
Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church,² which is based on his
sermons.
³There is a lot of discontent brewing,² said Brian D. McLaren, the
founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and
a leader in the evangelical movement known as the ³emerging church,² which
is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical
establishment.
³More and more people are saying this has gone too far the dominance of
the evangelical identity by the religious right,² Mr. McLaren said. ³You
cannot say the word Jesusı in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage
going along with it. You canıt say the word Christian,ı and you certainly
canıt say the word evangelicalı without it now raising connotations and a
certain cringe factor in people.
³Because people think, Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual
bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about activist judges.ı ²
Mr. Boyd said he had cleared his sermons with the churchıs board, but his
words left some in his congregation stunned. Some said that he was
disrespecting President Bush and the military, that he was soft on
abortion or telling them not to vote.
³When we joined years ago, Greg was a conservative speaker,² said William
Berggren, a lawyer who joined the church with his wife six years ago. ³But
we totally disagreed with him on this. You canıt 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 70ıs, it wouldnıt
have happened. But the church was asleep.²
Mr. Boyd, 49, who preaches in blue jeans and rumpled plaid shirts, leads a
church that occupies a squat block-long building that was once a home
improvement chain store.
The church grew from 40 members in 12 years, based in no small part on Mr.
Boydıs draw as an electrifying preacher who stuck closely to Scripture. He
has degrees from Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary,
and he taught theology at Bethel College in St. Paul, where he created a
controversy a few years ago by questioning whether God fully knew the
future. Some pastors in his own denomination, the Baptist General
Conference, mounted an effort to evict Mr. Boyd from the denomination and
his teaching post, but he won that battle.
He is known among evangelicals for a bestselling book, ³Letters From a
Skeptic,² based on correspondence with his father, a leftist union
organizer and a lifelong agnostic an exchange that eventually persuaded
his father to embrace Christianity.
Mr. Boyd 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 ³idolatry.²
He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurchıs
worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with
the chorus singing ³God Bless America² and a video of fighter jets flying
over a hill silhouetted with crosses.
³I thought to myself, What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the
cross?ı ² he said in an interview.
Patriotic displays are still a mainstay in some evangelical churches.
Across town from Mr. Boydıs church, the sanctuary of North Heights
Lutheran Church was draped in bunting on the Sunday before the Fourth of
July this year for a ³freedom celebration.² Military veterans and flag
twirlers paraded into the sanctuary, an enormous American flag rose slowly
behind the stage, and a Marine major who had served in Afghanistan
preached that the military was spending ³your hard-earned money² on good
causes.
In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of
Christians was not to seek ³power over² others by controlling
governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should
instead seek to have ³power under² others ³winning peopleıs hearts² by
sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said.
³America wasnıt founded as a theocracy,² he said. ³America was founded by
people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a
Christian theocracy where it wasnıt bloody and barbaric. Thatıs why our
Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.
³I am sorry to tell you,² he continued, ³that 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.²
Mr. Boyd lambasted the ³hypocrisy and pettiness² of Christians who focus
on ³sexual issues² like homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jacksonıs
breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. He said
Christians these days were constantly outraged about sex and perceived
violations of their rights to display their faith in public.
³Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act,²
he said. ³And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed.²
Some Woodland Hills members said they applauded the sermons because they
had resolved their conflicted feelings. David Churchill, a truck driver
for U.P.S. and a Teamster for 26 years, said he had been ³raised in a
religious-right home² but was torn between the Republican expectations of
faith and family and the Democratic expectations of his union.
When Mr. Boyd preached his sermons, ³it was liberating to me,² Mr.
Churchill said.
Mr. Boyd gave his sermons while his church was in the midst of a $7
million fund-raising campaign. But only $4 million came in, and 7 of the
more than 50 staff members were laid off, he said.
Mary Van Sickle, the family pastor at Woodland Hills, said she lost 20
volunteers who had been the backbone of the churchıs Sunday school.
³They said, Youıre not doing what the church is supposed to be doing,
which is supporting the Republican way,ı ² she said. ³It was some of my
best volunteers.²
The Rev. Paul Eddy, a theology professor at Bethel College and the
teaching pastor at Woodland Hills, said: ³Greg is an anomaly in the
megachurch world. He didnıt give a whit about church leadership, never
read a book about church growth. His biggest fear is that people will
think that all church is is a weekend carnival, with people liking the
worship, the music, his speaking, and thatıs it.²
In the end, those who left tended to be white, middle-class suburbanites,
church staff members said. In their place, the church has added more
members who live in the surrounding community African-Americans,
Hispanics and Hmong immigrants from Laos.
This suits Mr. Boyd. His vision for his church is an ethnically and
economically diverse congregation that exemplifies Jesusı teachings by its
membersı actions. He, his wife and three other families from the church
moved from the suburbs three years ago to a predominantly black
neighborhood in St. Paul.
Mr. Boyd now says of the upheaval: ³I donıt 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 didnıt know the price we were going to pay for doing
it.²
His congregation of about 4,000 is still digesting his message. Mr. 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: Isnıt abortion an evil that Christians
should prevent? Are you saying Christians should not join the military?
How can Christians possibly have ³power under² Osama bin Laden? Didnıt the
church play an enormously positive role in the civil rights movement?
One woman asked: ³So why NOT us? If we contain the wisdom and grace and
love and creativity of Jesus, why shouldnıt we be the ones involved in
politics and setting laws?²
Mr. Boyd responded: ³I donıt think thereıs a particular angle we have on
society that others lack. All good, decent people want good and order and
justice. Just donıt slap the label Christianı on it.²
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Faithfully,
Gene Poole
http://grace.break.at
God is still speaking
http://www.stillspeaking.com
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