Greg Boyd is the senior pastor of an evangelical megachurch. He also thinks the modern church has subverted the original message of Christianity, opposes Huckabee’s call to amend the Constitution, and defines himself as a Christian anarchist.
It’s not appropriate for Kingdom people to either support or revolt against governments. This gives them too much credit. Rather, following the example of Jesus, we should ignore them as much as possible, put up with them as much as we need to, and stay focused on living out the radical Kingdom.
In a time when the Left can too often pigeonhole all evangelicals as right wingers, it’s good to realize there is a growing movement of progressive evangelicals.
You’ll find such views among both Protestants and Catholics– and I wholeheartedly agree. IMO, when Christians seek political power, they’ve left the Teachings behind.
But before you label them Progressive (or any other political moniker for that matter), do a little checking into what the “Radical Kingdom” means. Dorothy Day opposed government support of the poor because, in her view, it denied each of us the opportunity to feed the poor ourselves. The Catholic Worker is based on this model of radical self-dedication: communalistic, self-denying, constantly serving those who have less– but also entirely extra-governmental.
For those who would change the government into a tool to help people, the Radical Kingdom is no ally: it looks not to government, but to God working in each of us to do the work as individuals. In this sense, Huckabee (with his penchant for government programs) is the Progressive, and the radical Christians are more like traditional conservatives. (And so am I!)
Progressive, perhaps [and the message does ring loudly of the christ cult of my youth]; yet clinging to adolescent fairy tales to explain away the dark never-the-less, incapable of rational thought, bowing down to the jew/muslum/christofascist god of abraham. Animals, bow down to gods; Human Beings, do not.
The greatest evolutionary challenge the human species has ever faced, this clinging to adolescent fairy tales to explain away the dark… we may very well be at our dead-end.
I won’t try to speak for Boyd himself, but I’m doubtful that he’d accept the label of “progressive evangelical.” Though it seems like an easy fit, having listened to him weekly for a while now. But I think he might argue that he’s simply trying to be true to the message of Jesus, and therefore: Christ-like, period. That’s a far cry better than most messengers of the faith, it seems. And certainly a key reason why I love listening to his sermons.