Not Really Evangelical EitherJust this Sunday we got an article on Greg Boyd of Woodwind Hills Church - and behold he's not 100% behind the Republicans. Ain't that a thing?! As I'm writing, this article is the 2nd most e-mailed story from the Times. Boyd's solemnly expressed concerns about Christians blurring the line between their religion and their politics are quoted extensively. His Kingdom isn't of this world afterall. The Times is giving its imprimatur to something it would like to be a trend in Evangelical circles: If Lumpen-christians can't be transformed then they should go back to those anti-worldliness sermons and stuff like that. But they neglect to tell us something rather important about Greg Boyd.

Demonstrating her cluelessness Goodstein mentions that Greg Boyd "is known among Evangelicals for a bestselling book, 'Letters From a Skeptic."  But that isn't true. Greg Boyd is best known as a major proponent of "Open Theism" - and his book "God of the Possible? A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God (2000)"  The doctrines associated with Open Theism were rejected by the Evangelical Theological Society in 2001. 

Here is Wikipedia with a good summation of Open Theism:  

This view of God, based on a libertarian view of free will and particular philosophical views on the nature of time and other metaphysical matters, is supposed to allow its advocates to 1) Attribute both power and wisdom to Him without suggesting that He ordains everything to His own glory, including evil (Calvinism) 2) Avoid what Open Theists regard as the inconsistency of suggesting that libertarian human freedom can coexist with foreknowledge and Divine Sovereignty (Arminianism).

This is not only a rejection of predestination as it is understood by Calvinism, but also of most accepted alternative versions. The writers in favor of free-will theism differentiate their views from those of Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Arminianism, Eastern Orthodoxy, neo-orthodoxy, and Islam, all of which—differently from one another, but similarly over against open theism—assert that God has a certain knowledge of all aspects of the future.

Great work Times! For my fellow Catholic readers and students of the ancient world this is like doing a story on Arius' view of imperial politics without even bringing up the fact that he is in a pitched theological battle with the majority of bishops of the Church. A story on Greg Boyd could be an interesting (cough -- five years ago). But that good story would be about his theological dissent, not about how he distinguishes himself politically. One would expect the Times to gloss over it - but to miss it entirely? It's still the best newspaper around, but that says alot more about newspapers.

Hat tip to Peter Suderman.