{"id":9244,"date":"2006-08-02T09:53:48","date_gmt":"2006-08-02T16:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/08\/02\/an-evangelical-message-most-folks-i-know-could-stand-behind.html"},"modified":"2014-11-05T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T22:18:20","slug":"an_evangelical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/02\/an_evangelical.html","title":{"rendered":"An evangelical message most folks I know could stand behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interesting article on an evangelical “megachurch” pastor and an unusual message he preached to his conservative congregation. I don’t necessarily agree with his theology, but I think he’s spot on with this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

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-abortionwork? Would the church distribute \u201cvoters\u2019 guides\u201d that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn\u2019t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary? <\/p>\n

After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called \u201cThe Cross and the Sword\u201d in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a \u201cChristian nation\u201d and stop glorifying American military campaigns. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,\u201d Mr. Boyd preached. \u201cWhen it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How refreshing. And it’s not like this is some whacko left-wing Episcopalian or something. Nor was the preaching without cost.<\/p>\n

\n

Mr. Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks homosexuality is not God\u2019s ideal. The response from his congregation at Woodland Hills Church here in suburban St. Paul \u2014 packed mostly with politically and theologically conservative, middle-class evangelicals \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

[…] 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.<\/p>\n

Mary Van Sickle, the family pastor at Woodland Hills, said she lost 20 volunteers who had been the backbone of the church\u2019s Sunday school. \u201cThey said, \u2018You\u2019re not doing what the church is supposed to be doing, which is supporting the Republican way,\u2019 \u201d she said. \u201cIt was some of my best volunteers.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But a lot of the congregation welcomed the message. And many of the folks who left have been replaced by others.<\/p>\n

\n

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 \u201cidolatry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurch\u2019s worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with the chorus singing \u201cGod Bless America\u201d and a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought to myself, \u2018What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?\u2019 \u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I might actually buy the book<\/a><\/a> he’s written from those sermons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interesting article on an evangelical “megachurch” pastor and an unusual message he preached to his conservative congregation. I don’t necessarily agree with his theology, but I think he’s spot on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,718,9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-marriage-equality","category-politics-law","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134492,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/30\/mayor-nashville-renounces-nashville-statement.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":0},"title":"The Mayor of Nashville renounces the “Nashville Statement”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Aug-17 12:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood\" -- an evangelical Christian group -- issued their \"Nashville Statement\" the other day on the heels of their group meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Nashville's mayor is not at all happy about the nomenclature. Among those who rebuked the declaration was Nashville\u2019s mayor, Megan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-10-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25525,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/18\/bearing-false-witness-against-thomas-jefferson.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":1},"title":"Bearing false witness (against Thomas Jefferson)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Jan-12 11:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a quotations wonk (http:\/\/wist.info). Pulling elided phrases out of context to provide a meaning not originally meant irks the hell out of me. In this case, we have the National Prayer Breakfast folk absconding with Jefferson's love for the moral code preached by Jesus to make it sound like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10669,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/25\/well_as_long_as_they_have.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":2},"title":"Well, as long as they have their priorities straight","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Nov-06 11:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"Evangelical groups are fighting tooth and nail to keep their fundamental missions from being watered down by distractions and dubious side activities. Take the decisive action by the Pat Roibertson-founded...","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10924,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/17\/the_shifting_priorities_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":3},"title":"The shifting priorities of the Religious Right?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-May-07 7:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting article on NPR yesterday about some demographic shifts going on in the evangelical \/ conservative Christian \/ \"Religious Right\" movement.\u00a0 While issues like abortion and homosexuality are still important,...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133308,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/21\/religious-freedom-for-me-but-not-for-thee-from-russia-with-love-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":4},"title":"Religious Freedom for Me but Not for Thee (From Russia with Love Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Apr-17 10:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past few years, even through to the present, Vladimir Putin has been a poster child for elements of evangelical Christianity in the US. \"He's standing up to gays!\" they shout. \"He's standing up to Muslims! He's making the official church of Russia strong!\"Whether or not persecuting gays and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51036,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/12\/americas-religious-face-is-changing-like-it-or-not.html","url_meta":{"origin":9244,"position":5},"title":"America's religious face is changing, like it or not","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-May-15 10:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Pew Research Center's most recent major survey of religion in America has some remarkable results. In just the last several years, Christianity as a whole in the US has declined as a percent of the population. Most of that loss has been among Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, who now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46701,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9244\/revisions\/46701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}