Democracy Responds to Boyd's Myth of a Christian Nation

Over the last two weeks I have written four essays about Pastor Greg Boyd’s controversial stand on Christians in politics—they shouldn’t be—where I pretty much disagreed with his position. Apparently I am in the minority opinion in the blogosphere. I thought my reasoning was sound but I couldn’t find any comments like, “Wow, Lisa, I never considered that,” or “You have struck the proper balance.” Well, one or two might be there but most likely they got caught in the stampede of “right-on-pastor” comments by Pastor Boyd’s new fan base.

In his latest book and in his sermons Pastor Boyd attempts to shoot down the concept of America as a Christian nation. “When were we a Christian nation?” he bellowed from the pulpit. “Was it when we were enslaving people and beating them? Or was it when we stole Indian lands?...I don't get it...Where was God in this?” Not that any of these atrocities were carried out under the banner of Christianity but it’s these historic examples of “power over people” that may be associated with the idea of "Christian Nation" that has Pastor Boyd's jeans in a jumble. He is concerned that the evil perpetuated in our history may be associated with the name of Christ. Today's politics (which will be tomorrow's history) are to him a clear and present danger to the reputation and the expression of the kingdom of God when Christians use the political and legislative processes. He calls this methodology to force the Christian agenda (if you can call biblical rightness an agenda) on society through the power of a worldly system "power over people." Such an approach by Christians, he says, is the antithesis to the New Testament teachings that Christians are called to live radically loving lives that will effect changes in the human heart which he believes will ultimately change society.

According to Boyd, political engagement was never part of Jesus’ earthly mission. For example, Pastor Boyd points out that Jesus did not challenge the Roman government in Palestine, but rather taught submission to it and loving one’s enemies. "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles," Jesus said (Matthew 5:41) A teaching like this would have irritated Jesus' audience because the Jewish nation wanted their Messiah to throw off the shackles of the hated Gentile oppressor and make Israel preeminant. Despite Jesus' teachings there were many that rebelled against Rome's imperialistic authority and most of them were horribly executed. But Jesus used the Roman oppressor to demonstrate God's love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). But America is not governed by a tyrannical oppressor but is the land of the free where freedom of thought, religion and speech are paramount to a civil and just society. It is by God's laws that we have a civil and just society. Ergo, Christians can and should utilize the political and legal provisions of a representative democracy to secure that civil and just society. I can't understand how the Christians-out-of-politics crowd can morally equate the Roman emperor with the American constitutional democracy and the Christians who seek national strength through obeying God's laws. Such a comparison is hyperbole and borders on slander.

But still, the Lord requires His followers to go the extra mile as Pastor Boyd correctly teaches. However, we are called to take a stand in our society for rightness even as we serve. They are not polar opposites in God's kingdom but are complements. The world knows the difference between right and wrong, but we Christians know and must stand on the Truth. There is New Testament precedent for godly engagement in secular business: John the Baptist challenged the marriage of King Herod to the wife of his own brother. He lost his head for his efforts. The story is significant because John challenged the moral practices of the Roman-appointed authority on Biblical grounds. Sounds pretty much like Christian activism today, doesn’t it?

Christians in politics is not a new 21st century phenomenon. Some have accused the Republican Party of taking political advantage of the Christian voting block. So what? The Republican Party has not been the first to do this. The Christian voting block came to the attention of the Democratic Party elite in 1976 when apparently large numbers of Christian voters helped elect Jimmy Carter, a ''born-again'' Christian. This voting block became terribly disappointed and disillusioned with Carter's liberal politics and absence of common sense, which motivated them to pursue candidates with more sound policies. Christians became a major recruiting ground for the ''New Right''--which included many of the issues Christians and other conservatives are concerned with today--and secured the twice over election of Ronald Reagan. Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition and his campaign for the Republican nomination in 1995 galvanized the Christian community to seek alternatives to the extreme left policies of the Clinton administration.

Unfortunately, Pastor Boyd makes a grotesquely inaccurate comparison between the Roman Emperor Constantine and the American Church’s political activism. Emperor Galerius issued an edict of toleration in 311 which stipulated Christians, who had "followed such a caprice and had fallen into such a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity", be granted an “indulgence.”

"Wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes."

I find it remarkable that this ruler of a decadent, worldly Roman Empire called the Christians to national intercessory prayer.

In 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which returned the meeting places and other properties which had been stolen from the Christians and sold out of the government treasury. Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the empire and replaced symbols and temples of the old gods with those of Christianity. Christianity in the Roman Empire, Boyd argues, became a political tool wielded by the power of a worldly government, often employing the sword along with it.

Boyd’s analogy disintegrates like vampires in sunlight under the scrutiny of the First Amendment. Christianity never was and never will be declared by the US government to be the country’s official religion. At the same time, the First Amendment guarantees the right to practice religion unhindered by the government. It also keeps Christianity's enemies from using the government to stop its practice, which includes evangelism and its application to good governance--a byproduct the secularists hate. We cannot logically equate Constantine’s official use of Christianity and the public stand the Church takes in the public debates allowed by democracy.

But to hear Pastor Boyd talk about it, you’d think there was something inherently anti-Jesus about Christians exercising their rights in the democratic process. Pastor Boyd rejects the use of the tools of our democracy as a “kingdom of the world” thing. But democratic values are in line with biblical values. Let’s not confuse nomenclature. “Christian nation” does not refer to a theocracy but a set of principles, biblical in nature, which have been part of American governance and culture. Each citizen benefits from the biblical idea of freedom and the rule of law regardless of his religious persuasion.

God created this country so that people could govern themselves according to biblical ideas and not be forced to unrighteousness and strife from dictatorships. Democracy gives us the governmental vehicle to spread the Good News. Remember that pesky First Amendment I talked about earlier?

• It was under democracy based on biblical principles that the Indians were recompensed.
• It was under democracy based on biblical principles that slavery was abolished and condemned as an institution.
• It is under democracy based on biblical principles that immigrants can come here to worship God without fear of being tossed in jail or sent to forced labor camps.
• It is under democracy based on biblical principles that these same immigrants can come here and make better lives for themselves.

It is under this democracy based on Christian principles that the Church fights for the lives of the wounded and the helpless.

Christians are working to preserve this framework. In decrying Christian political activism, Boyd undermines the very vehicle that lets Christians practice their religion. If this is not true, then it makes no sense for the ACLU to be on a constant search and destroy mission to remove even the symbols of Christianity from the public place.

Are we a Christian nation? I see us as a nation of Christians living in a worldly culture that is not entirely devoid of Christian standards—due to democracy based on biblical principles.

This is LM.
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Greg Boyd's Controversial Stand Part 4

History Shows Christian Political Activism

Pastor Greg Boyd’s fame has spread like oil on a hot griddle among bloggers of all religious leanings thanks to the July 30 New York Times article that lauded his stand for Christian political pacifism. Despite the historical facts of Christian involvement in politics, like the founding of the United States of America for instance, Pastor Boyd believes Christians should stay out of the public debate and commit themselves only to Christ-like service.

Pastor Boyd is concerned that many pastors around the country are hawking for the Republican Party thinking, consciously or not, that they are promoting God's righteousness in the form of the Party's political platform. They are driven in large part by some publicly known pastoral pundits who don't sound much different from their secular conservative counterparts. These pundits politically proselytize with an almost evangelistic fervor making it appear that an umbilical exists between Christianity and the Republican Party.

I think media hype makes such an enjoining appear bigger and deeper than it is. First, most non-profit religious institutions understand they can lose their IRS non-profit status if they are found to be an arm of any political party. Second, most people realize that the Lord does not associate Himself with any political party, nor does any political party represent Him. The reason many Christians vote for Republican candidates is because of ithe Party's apparent willingness to include Christian concerns in its platform. Since our democratic system really only provides two political parties to choose from, despite numerous independents that always crop up at election time, it’s natural for many in the Christian community to endorse the Republican Party for its apparent acknowledgment of the Judeo-Christian God's place in American culture.

We all know that no political party or action committee can save the world from its problems. Salvation, both eternal and temporal, comes only through Jesus—only He is Salvation. The Lord Jesus does not hate gays, or women who have had abortions, or fathers who have abandoned their families or even those who kill Americans in the name of Jihad. He loves us all desperately and died an unspeakable death so that no one would have to face eternal judgment. We do not want to dilute His message of eternal life.

That said, I am very concerned that Dr. Boyd is throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Pastor Boyd decries a tradition of our democracy that has been around since the start of the American experiment: Christian activism. America was founded on Christian principles and they can be seen very clearly in the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, in the philosophies of the Founders, to cite a few references. The Founders believed in God and in His absolute moral law: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Founders recognized that the strength and sustainability of our democracy depended on the continued presence of the providential hand of God. Take at look at some of their explanations:

Thomas Jefferson said: “No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion, nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man, and I as chief Magistrate of this nation, I am bound to give it the sanction of my example.”

Patrick Henry stated, "The greatest pillars of all government and social life (are) virtue, morality and religion. This is the armor my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible."

James Madison said that “Without God democracy cannot and will not long endure.

The Bible makes it clear that the Lord requires not only individual fealty, but national as well. Here are a couple of examples:

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34);

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Palms 33:12);

“The wicked return to the grave; all the nations that forget God.” (Psalms 9:17)

I have no doubt that at least one Founder recognized these truths:“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors,” said the Father of our Country—George Washington.

Apparently such an august precedent doesn’t impress Pastor Boyd. He quotes Ephesians 6:12 to prove that Christians have no place in the public debate: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” He neglects the scripture that immediately follows in the context: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13) Moreover, the Lord tells us: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” (Matthew 5:13) Salt is a preservative that prevents decay. Rather than aligning themselves with the "kingdom of this world" as Dr. Boyd put it, I think scripture is clear that Christians would be remiss in their duty to the kingdom of God to remain silent on social, religious and moral issues. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.” (Galatians 6:7-8) I showed in my last essay what happens when we as a nation forsake God’s laws and the Church does not take a stand. The legacy of the 1960s exemplifies this principle in psychedelic color. As Edmund Burke put it, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

Today, the secularists would have America believe that a solid moral foundation that honors God’s laws is establishing a theocracy in contravention of the First Amendment. They just keep on trying to remove all vestiges of God from the public square despite the legacy of rot left by the so-called progressive thinkers of the 1960s. But the Founders have made it clear that such a foundation is the basis for the First Amendment. And the Church would be unforgivably foolish to respond the same way today asit did back then.

This is why Christians are so involved with the state of our union.

When I first addressed the New York Times article about Pastor Boyd, I asked if the principles of the Kingdom of God preclude the participation of the faithful in the political processes of our democracy and if participation in the democratic process contradict the sacrificial aspect of God’s kingdom. After four essays of analysis, I conclude:

that the Lord calls the Faithful to take a stand against everything that would usurp His authority, including taking a stand for rightness in our culture. His people are to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with their God.

This is LM.

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