I am angry tonight. I have already prayed a prayer asking God to guide my words, and if they are angry then I want it to be a righteous anger. Yes, there is such a thing. We must not dismiss evil, we must not allow it, we must never, ever be silent in the face of evil, because to be silent in the face of evil is itself evil.
The video below is from the Flashpoint Live Pasadena event that took place on November 30th. It starts with host Gene Bailey asking a question that is answered brilliantly by Abby Johnson, who resigned from Planned Parenthood in 2009, and now has a ministry fighting valiantly against the abortion industry.
But before we get to the video, I want to explain the source of my anger.
Greg Boyd is the pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is considered a mega-church, which means a lot of people attend. Boyd is a prolific author and has a popular blog, and his voice reaches far and wide. I was reading Boyd’s blog at ReKnew.org, and these are some of the things he says about abortion:
“I am pro-life to the core of my being. I believe that all life is a sacred creation of God. I am therefore opposed to all unnecessary violence toward any life, and especially human life. (People who know me know that I even avoid killing bugs if at all possible!) So obviously, I am opposed to abortion. Abortion is predicated on the pervasive, fallen, anti-Christian assumption that violence solves things. In the long run, violence always deepens and perpetuates problems. It never solves them.” https://reknew.org/2012/10/qa-what-is-your-stance-on-abortion/
Sounds pretty good. I would agree with everything he says here. The problem comes when he continues:
“Yet, it’s also true that I refuse to tell attenders at my church (Woodland Hill Church) how they should vote on this (and every other) issue. This is not because I’m afraid of offending anybody — obviously, since my refusal to get behind pro-life politicians and agendas (or pro-choice politicians and agendas) resulted in offending many people who then left my church.” https://reknew.org/2012/10/qa-what-is-your-stance-on-abortion/
Now he’s starting to slide down the slippery slope. In his defense, I would not expect him to tell people how to vote. But to not even address how a vote for this or that could change things for the better, how the laws of the land can indeed be used to bring justice and the humane treatment of the unborn, and to refuse to address politics at all from the pulpit is, dare I say it, cowardice of the greatest order.
He actually seems to take pride in offending people:
“The truth is that I offend people all the time at my church and routinely have people leave. This doesn’t bother me in the least as long as I believe that what I’m teaching is true and is what God is calling to me teach.” https://reknew.org/2012/10/qa-what-is-your-stance-on-abortion/
You see, Boyd is very adamantly opposed to the idea of Christians being actively involved in politics. Here is Boyd’s opinion on voting:
“The reason I put no value on voting in politics is because, as I read the New Testament, followers of Jesus are to see themselves as missionaries from God’s country (Phil 3:20), stationed in a foreign land (I Pet 1:17, 2:11), serving a different king and kingdom, with strict orders not to get involved in “civilian affairs” (I Tim.2:4). All our trust is to be in our king and his kingdom, which alone holds the solution to the world’s problems.” https://reknew.org/2014/11/greg-on-politics/
Boyd sees the act of voting and becoming involved in politics as tantamount to serving two masters:
“I see absolutely no precedent or warrant in the NT for followers of Jesus to be invested in trying to enforce their ideas on others through the power of a vote. Our whole allegiance is to be to our king and his kingdom, for we “cannot serve two masters” (Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13). This means we should have no allegiance to any earthly king, any worldly government, and any earthly nation.” https://reknew.org/2014/11/greg-on-politics/
I think this man is refusing to acknowledge what it means to live in a constitutional republic! This is where his argument that Jesus never said anything about how Christians should be involved in politics falls flat on its face. Of course He didn’t teach that Israeli citizens should try to change Caesar’s government, because they did not live in a constitutional republic. There was no such thing as voting. They lived under the rule of a despotic king and they had no ability, no rights, no possible route to take toward changing their government.
When asked by his interviewer “What do you have to say in response to people who contend that every single vote matters?” Boyd’s answer was:
“I politely smile. But if they are kingdom people, I will encourage them to consider that the way followers of Jesus are to “vote” is not by expressing our opinion about what Caesar should do once every couple of years, but by how we sacrifice for others to manifest the love of God day by day.”
He continues the “two masters” theme as follows:
“I say that my duty as a citizen of the kingdom of God (Phil 3:20) trumps whatever “civic duty” my culture wants to place on me. Indeed, as a citizen of a kingdom that is “not of this world” (Jn 18:36), I am a “foreigner” in this land (I Pet 1:17, 2:11), so the “civic duties” of the land in which I’m stationed don’t apply.” https://reknew.org/2014/11/greg-on-politics/
His final words:
“Think deeply about what it means to be a follower of Jesus and whether or not you should be having any allegiance to the politics of this world.” https://reknew.org/2014/11/greg-on-politics/
With this kind of hands-off attitude toward politics, it’s obvious where he gets his (extremely wrong and dangerous) opinion that silence on one of the most heinous acts of barbarism in history – the violent murder of babies – is biblically justified.
In his defense, Boyd makes it clear that there is a better way to address the abortion issue, and he gives examples of “kingdom” ways of taking action, and I agree with all of it. He encourages befriending those faced with the choice of abortion, and encouraging them, and helping them through it, and perhaps talking them into saving the baby, but at the same time providing real physical and financial support that will help the mom through the process of giving birth which. He believes this approach is absolutely better than abortion and I agree.
But he makes a very clear case that he is for the “kingdom” approach only, and he puts no faith whatsoever in how the force of law may affect the outcome. His primary mistake, and it is a huge one, is that he sees the kingdom approach and the political approach as mutually exclusive. THEY ARE NOT. I believe that anti-abortion laws will absolutely reduce abortions (not eliminate them), AND that the church should step up and help these (mostly) young, confused girls who believe they have nowhere to turn. However, as I have mentioned, and it bears repeating, the two solutions are in no way mutually exclusive.
Well, I want to make it very clear that he is absolutely wrong about rabidly avoiding political involvement, and it is my opinion that he is leading thousands astray by encouraging them to avoid political engagement. It’s sad but true that probably the majority of church-goers do not process these things well by themselves, and they trust their pastor to lead them into all truth. If Boyd is truly interested in doing kingdom work, maybe he ought to re-read the great commission: “Go into ALL THE WORLD and preach the gospel.” ALL THE WORLD includes politics.
A salient quote, often attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, goes like this: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
If our founding fathers, or those who fought against slavery, had had the same attitude that Boyd has, then you know the outcome. This country has a history of followers of Jesus standing up for the rights – yes, the POLITICAL rights – of the downtrodden. Boyd may not agree, given what he writes in his book Myth of a Christian Nation, but I think he’s way, way off base.
Now that I have laid the groundwork, I want you to please watch this thirteen-minute video of a former abortion activist turned born-again Christian, and her opinion on whether or not the church should be involved in the political battle against abortion. It is powerful, it is shocking at times, but it is honest and necessary if we are to fight the fight that Jesus wants us to fight on behalf of the innocent babies.