The Church and Moralizing

Allow me to take a quick break from my Disney vacation entries to quickly comment on an article I just read concerning the words of a Minnesota pastor.

Apparently, Greg Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN has lost over 1000 church members for firmly letting his congregation know that his sermons are not going to be political in nature, nor are they, or the church, going to rally behind moralizing issues. Boyd has gone on record saying that the church should "give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming America as a 'Christian nation', and stop glorifying American military campaigns." Basically, Boyd is saying that the Church has no business dealing with issues of politics and needs to stay clear of aligning the church and it's purpose with that of American issues.

I agree, in part, with his comments. It does seem that we have confused the cross, and the point of Christ's ministry, with a set of morality rules. It is an interesting parallel that I sometimes get told how great of a job I am doing in youth ministry because the students behave so well during church. What? Are my church members judging my ministry and it's purpose on how well the teenagers sit in a church service? Or are they judging it on how aware they are of their relationship with God, and if they are glorifying Him with their lives. The Bible is not a morality book folks. True, we find through it's message a path we should take and paths we should not. But the message is all about Christ, His blood which saves us, and our worship of Him with our lives.

Boyd says that he was sitting in a "megachurch" during the 4th of July service and at the end of the service, a video was played of American fighter jets flying over the cross. He said “I thought to myself, ‘What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?’” Interesting to think about.

Back to Universal Studios. We just ordered room service. See you tomorrow.