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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