"A SIGNIFICANT SEGMENT OF AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM
IS GUILTY OF NATIONALISTIC AND POLITICAL IDOLATRY"
- Greg Boyd
Dark Vader is a force to be reckoned with in the Star Wars episodes. He practices the old magic which kills, destroys, and ruins others. The dark empire strikes back and it strikes with a vengeance. Christians are aware that they were made for another world but too often unwittingly confuse the powers of the State or allegiance to their country with the kingdom of God.
Greg Boyd is in his provocative book The Myth of A Christian Nation shares his concerns of the dangers of too closely associating the Christian faith with a political perspective. The vision of God's kingdom gets clouded by national and political agendas. How many times have we heard things like "Let's take America Back" or "winning the culture war" or "America is a Christian nation?"
When this happens, rather than living a counter-cultural or radically alternative way of life, we adopt the values of the surrounding culture around us. Although Boyd's book is more focused on the abuses of the religious right, his critique also applies to the religious left as well. God's kingdom is straightforward and uncompromising while the kingdoms of this world are always complex, ambigous, and full of compromises.
How does the principalities and fallen powers of this world influence the church? Is the quest for political power destroying the church?
IS GUILTY OF NATIONALISTIC AND POLITICAL IDOLATRY"
- Greg Boyd
Dark Vader is a force to be reckoned with in the Star Wars episodes. He practices the old magic which kills, destroys, and ruins others. The dark empire strikes back and it strikes with a vengeance. Christians are aware that they were made for another world but too often unwittingly confuse the powers of the State or allegiance to their country with the kingdom of God.
Greg Boyd is in his provocative book The Myth of A Christian Nation shares his concerns of the dangers of too closely associating the Christian faith with a political perspective. The vision of God's kingdom gets clouded by national and political agendas. How many times have we heard things like "Let's take America Back" or "winning the culture war" or "America is a Christian nation?"
When this happens, rather than living a counter-cultural or radically alternative way of life, we adopt the values of the surrounding culture around us. Although Boyd's book is more focused on the abuses of the religious right, his critique also applies to the religious left as well. God's kingdom is straightforward and uncompromising while the kingdoms of this world are always complex, ambigous, and full of compromises.
How does the principalities and fallen powers of this world influence the church? Is the quest for political power destroying the church?
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