Revolting Beauty

Dr. Greg Boyd preached a sermon series in 2008 called "Revolting Beauty." This sermon series outlined this followup to his book, "The Myth of the Christian Nation."

Boyd's previous book garnered a fair amount of criticism, namely from politically conservative Christians, insisting he goes too far. Growing up under that influence, I admit I have some reservations with agreeing wholeheartedly. This latest book, however, does much to reinforce his views. Boyd isn't against conservative politics nor against America or nationalism. Rather, his thesis is that we, as Christians, ought to have our focus on Christ, not our nation, comparing America (or whatever nation one belongs to) with Caesar: "So instead of working together to do what Jesus did, we often waste time fighting each other over what Caesar should do," (p. 28). Boyd's contention is that Christians are a religious people who often act nothing like Christ. If we did, on the whole, act as Christ, many of the national issues America faces would not be important.

Consider: Christ worked with the poor. If all who professed Christianity spend time each week feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, and sheltering the homeless, these issues would seem very mute in our society, since some 70-80% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion and there are significantly less needy people about.

The chapter about nationalism was a little hard to wrap my head around, having been infused with patriotic hymns, pledging allegiance to the American flag and honoring veterans whenever in church services, it only seems natural to adhere to "God and Country." Boyd makes a point to not do these things in church. While Jesus encouraged his followers to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's," he didn't make a point to honor those soliders who had killed in the name of caesar at the temple, nor pledge allegiance to Rome or sing Roman songs of patriotism. Rather, Jesus drove out the money changers from the Temple, seeing it as a misuse of God's holy place. With this in mind, it does seem outrageous to use a church as a place waxing Americana. Particularly when Jesus died not only for Americans, but also for every nation that America has ever warred against: Native Americans, French, British, British again, Mexico, both North and South during the civil war, Spain, Germany, Germany again, Italy, Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq again, and every smaller conflict in between and every war yet to happen. Jesus loves everybody, not just Americans. So why would he want us to go and kill "them"?

Which is not to say I am not patriotic. I enjoy America and its freedoms, and always will. There is a time and place to be patriotic. Just as prayer is not welcome in public schools, perhaps we should take America out of our churches - that's God's holy place, to be used accordingly.

Boyd continues this train of thought as all nations have always looked toward God or some gods and claimed that this divinity is on their side. Therefore they are right, all others are wrong and gives us right, if not necessity to war against other nations. This thinking has led to very un-Jesuslike wars across time. Perhaps it isn't practical for a "Christian Nation" to be peaceable, as others would take advantage, but that really isn' the Christian's concern. Ours is to be Christ to our neighbors. Let Caesar address foreign affairs.

While I enjoyed this challenging book, I had a few issues I found. Firstly, Boyd says "Jesus never..." a few times. One cannot logically prove a negative, especially with the incomplete history of Jesus' life we have available. Just because the Bible doesn't say something, doesn't mean it didn't happen. See John 21:25. I'm sure Boyd knows that, so it sounds like he's overemphasizing something, hoping we won't notice. Secondly, on page 147, he notes Jesus cursing the fig tree as the only destructive miracle Jesus performed. Again, so far as we know, but also, Jesus removed demons from a man and cast them into a nearby herd of pigs, about 2000 fold. They then jumped off a cliff. I would constitute this as destructive. Matthew 8:28-34.

Again, these are minor points. The main purpose of the book is to show the reader that being a sunday morning Christian is not enough. We are to be Christ's representative on earth 24/7. If we're not doing that, then we're missing the point.