Two interesting articles about churches being involved in politics.

The first is a New York Times article about the pastor of a Minneapolis megachurch who preached that he would not lead his church in political activism, because he does not believe politics is the solution. As a result, about 1,000 conservative Christians among his 5,000 attenders stopped coming. From the article:

He preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns. “When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”

The second is a blog post at RedBlueChristian on the above by theology professor Scot McKnight, who basically applauds the minister’s position. Scot writes:

Each person [church member] is responsible to decide where he or she stands. If we educate, we permit others to make up their minds; if we indoctrinate, we don’t. Churches that align themselves with one party indoctrinate; churches that follow Jesus remain politically independent and gain a hearing for a prophetic stance. But, if we educate, we permit folks to make up their minds — and that means within local churches some will find abortion important and others war and yet others the poor and still others the economy. If your church cares about only one, there is indoctrination. If it has a variety of folks, there is education and there is responsibility being left on the shoulders of local Christians to make up their own mind.