Greg Boyd in his work, Myth of a Christian Nation argues that the quest for political power by those on the Conservative Right is actually destroying the church.  He argues that the kingdom of God always looks like Christ who died innocently on the cross for the sins of the world.  He argues that wedding our faith with politics too closely can undermine what the church is supposed to be about, namely loving the world.   He makes numerous strong points, the primary one I believe being: "Jesus ain't a Republican."  But a place where he seems to go a bit sideways is in his practical application of issues in Chapter 9 of the work entitled Christians and Violence: Confronting the Tough Questions.   

In it he addresses matters of self-defense, the military, wars, and the overthrow of oppressive governments.  A few statements he makes, which leave holes in his thinking and are incredibly painful to hear are the following:  "While I respect that people will have differing convictions about this, I must confess that I find it impossible to reconcile Jesus' teaching (and the teaching of the whole New Testament) concerning our call to love our enemies and never return evil with evil with the choice to serve (or not resist being drafted) in the armed forces in a capacity that might require killing someone."  He goes on to say that, "I don't see that they warrant making military service, as a matter of principle, an exception to the New Testament's teaching that kingdom people are to never return evil with evil. "  These statements appear to communicate Boyd's subtle pacifism without admitting it.  I think he's also rejecting an important image of Christ presented in scripture, namely that one day Christ will judge our souls and those of the whole world (1 Peter 4:5; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1).  Furthermore, he seems to miss a clear quality regarding love, namely that it always protects (I Corinthians 13:7).  For those young men and women considering entering into roles requiring great bravery in defense of the innocent, his words are incredibly destructive.  I find Boyd a super sharp guy, but one who seems to drift away from the full teaching of Scripture.  His interview with Charlie Rose is below (disregard image not available, video still works): 

Here's an interesting website documenting various leaders of Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths.  The portrayal of Christianity is what I'm most interested in at this point to get a read on how Christians are perceived by others:  Sometimes we can act positively in love and other times we can act like total wackos:   http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/