Conservative evangelical pastor steers clear of politics, and pays

iMonk in his recent entry The Tactics of Failure: Why The Culture War Makes Sense To Spiritually Empty Evangelicals, points to an article about a pastor of a mega-church in St. Paul that recently lost over 1000 members "in response to his stand against typical conservative culture was issues." Here's a good quote from Pastor Greg Boyd:

"America wasn't founded as a theocracy," he said. "America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

"I am sorry to tell you," he continued, "that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ."

You can read the entire article here.

UPDATE: This should go without saying, but the fact that I posted the above quote is not a whole-sale endorsement of all of Greg Boyd's books and teaching. I just like what he said in the article. Boyd has published works about a theology called Open Theism which I wholly reject. As with any teacher/preacher, "chew the meat, spit out the bones."