Glenn Beck's Attack on Christianity

[bloodyminded]

Another example of this bizarre brand of Christianity that despises its own traditions.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, an evangelical leader who is the CEO and president of Sojourners, a Christian networking group in Washington, D.C., has been one of the loudest voices against Beck.

"When Glenn Beck is asking Christians to leave their churches, the Catholic Church, the black churches, Hispanic, evangelical, to leave all our churches, I'm saying it's time for Christians to leave the Glenn Beck show," he said. "This offends Christians. This is salt, something at the heart of their faith. It's something many of us have spent our lives trying to do, to practice.

"Yesterday, he went further and he said social justice is a perversion of the gospel. ... I'm saying it's at the heart of the gospel."

Wallis said it's time for a conversation.

"Brother Glenn, let's dispense with personal attacks," he said. "I don't know you. I have no reason to attack you. But you made a statement here that needs a serious conversation. ... I know you're used to monologues, but when you say things like this, you invite a dialogue. What do you say about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., what do you say about Desmond Tutu, about Mother Teresa, what do you say to the reverends and rabbis who gave their lives to social justice because that is their faith?"

Wallis is in good company among leading Christians. The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA, which oversees 100,000 congregations across the country and has about 45 million members, has objected to Beck's comments as well.

"I hesitated to respond," she said, "because it seemed like such a ridiculous statement. But this is really an attack ... a misunderstanding, at least, of what the Bible says. Justice is a concept throughout the scriptures. It's one that should be and must be organized around any congregation.

"It's very disturbing," she added. "He's speaking on behalf of his political views and trying to take out of the biblical text the things that are going to oppose his political views.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/glenn-beck-social-justice-christians-rage-back-nazism/story?id=10085008

Edited April 5, 2010 by bloodyminded

[Mr.Canada]

I agree with almost everything Glenn Beck says but this is over the top, even for me. Knee jerk at it's finest.

[bloodyminded]

I agree with almost everything Glenn Beck says but this is over the top, even for me. Knee jerk at it's finest.

Yeah, well enough Christians agree with you on this that their angry responses have apparently been overloading FOX's email inboxes. So it's got to be a lot.

[Shady]

Another example of this bizarre brand of Christianity that despises its own traditions.

Complete nonsense. When it comes to Christian traditions, you're about the last peson anyone should seek out.

Beck is making a larger point. A point about the loaded term "social justice." And the way it's been used, and whom it's been used by. Of course, what Beck actually said, and the detail he actually said it, is conveniently left out of the orginal post. However, I'm not suprised.

[CANADIEN]

Complete nonsense. When it comes to Christian traditions, you're about the last peson anyone should seek out.

Beck is making a larger point. A point about the loaded term "social justice." And the way it's been used, and whom it's been used by. Of course, what Beck actually said, and the detail he actually said it, is conveniently left out of the orginal post. However, I'm not suprised.

Always ready and eager to jump to the defense of media nuts when they are in the right side of things, aren't you?

Let see some of what Beck actually said, shall we?

"I beg you look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church Web site,"

"If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. ... Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If they're going to Jeremiah Wright's church, yes!

"If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish," he said. "Go alert your bishop and tell them, 'Excuse me, are you down with this whole social justice thing?' If it's my church, I'm alerting the church authorities: 'Excuse me, what's this social justice thing?' And if they say, 'Yeah, we're all in on this social justice thing,' I am in the wrong place."

Taking a few examples of people who pepper their commitment to social justice with hateful or racist propaganda to draw the false conclusion that social justice equates nazism or communism is, quite frankly, ignorant. It ignores calls in the Bible and early Christian authors. It ignores teachings of the Catholic Church from Leon XIII to the current Pope. It ignores Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King and countles authors.

His spokespersons may try and try to argue that he was only addressing ways the concept of "social justice" is used. But that subtle distinction is not to be found in what he said. It wasn't "if you hear social justice, ask what they mean", but "if you hear those words, run".

But then, damage control is a tradition of the nut fringe.

[bloodyminded]

Complete nonsense. When it comes to Christian traditions, you're about the last peson anyone should seek out.

Beck is making a larger point. A point about the loaded term "social justice." And the way it's been used, and whom it's been used by. Of course, what Beck actually said, and the detail he actually said it, is conveniently left out of the orginal post. However, I'm not suprised.

The post is expressive of the opinion of millions of Christians from mutliple denominations. Most likely including your own.

Take it up with the Churches based on Scriptural teachings, not with me. They're the ones who disagree with Beck.

[Michael Hardner]

Beck is basically a character in a fictional television show anyway. He has already shown that he will say anything to get viewers. I think it's sad that so many people think that he's a real person. Maybe if the character says enough offensive things, though, he will lose viewers and be taken off the air - or at least have a cute child character added to the show as often happens in the dying days...

[Shady]

The post is expressive of the opinion of millions of Christians from mutliple denominations. Most likely including your own.

Take it up with the Churches based on Scriptural teachings

"Social justice" as defined in todays terms has never been a part of the teachings of the church. Btw, which church do you belong to?

And the title of your thread is dishonest. Beck's attack is on so-called social justice, not Christianity. But you either don't know any better, or were just too lazy to do the digger required to understand it.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Shady

[GostHacked]

Beck is basically a character in a fictional television show anyway. He has already shown that he will say anything to get viewers. I think it's sad that so many people think that he's a real person. Maybe if the character says enough offensive things, though, he will lose viewers and be taken off the air - or at least have a cute child character added to the show as often happens in the dying days...

Yup he is about as real as Colbert is. And people still don't understand that Colbert is doing satire. They think he is the real deal too.

[CANADIEN]

"Social justice" as defined in todays terms has never been a part of the teachings of the church. Btw, which church do you belong to?

And the title of your thread is dishonest. Beck's attack is on so-called social justice, not Christianity. But you either don't know any better, or were just too lazy to do the digger required to understand it.

Social justioe has been part of the doctrine of the Catholic Church for over a century now.

And Beck did not use the term "so-called social justice", he did not ask church-goers to watch and ask what their priest/pastor means when they use the words social justice. Had he done so, his point would have been different, and more exact.

[Shady]

Social justioe has been part of the doctrine of the Catholic Church for over a century now.

Yes, it wasn't introduced with the advent of communism/socialism. Btw, the Catholic Church is thousands of years old. So century you refer to is like a week.

[CANADIEN]

Yes, it wasn't introduced with the advent of communism/socialism. Btw, the Catholic Church is thousands of years old. So century you refer to is like a week.

As our understanding of ourselves and our world evolves, so those our understanding of what the call of God to follow Him means. The call to love each other and to do something about poverty and hunger as always been there, and it has always meant doing something about social conditions and attitudes that cause it. That members of the Church have taken a long time to recognise it does not mean that the call is something new that came out of thin air.

[ToadBrother]

Yeah, well enough Christians agree with you on this that their angry responses have apparently been overloading FOX's email inboxes. So it's got to be a lot.

Which only demonstrates that Beck has served his purpose. Fox makes more money with each absurd and hyperbolic utterance Beck makes. He, like Coulter, is a comedian, a performance artist whose schtick is manipulating both his supporters and detractors.

[bloodyminded]

"Social justice" as defined in todays terms has never been a part of the teachings of the church.

1. Sure it has. It clearly has.

2. There is no "the church."

Btw, which church do you belong to?

I am not religious. I grew up Anglican. It didn't take.

And the title of your thread is dishonest. Beck's attack is on so-called social justice, not Christianity. But you either don't know any better, or were just too lazy to do the digger required to understand it.

I was repeating the charges made about him by the innumerable Christians who totally disagree with him.

Edited April 5, 2010 by bloodyminded

[ToadBrother]

Beck is basically a character in a fictional television show anyway. He has already shown that he will say anything to get viewers. I think it's sad that so many people think that he's a real person. Maybe if the character says enough offensive things, though, he will lose viewers and be taken off the air - or at least have a cute child character added to the show as often happens in the dying days...

Well, Coulter has certainly faltered. Beck seems to have stepped into the vacuum left by her. Even Limbaugh, to my mind, is a performance artist, though sometimes I don't get this sense that his tongue is as firmly planted in his cheek as either Beck or Coulter, so I tend to think of him as being at least partially sincere.

[Shady]

The call to love each other and to do something about poverty and hunger as always been there, and it has always meant doing something about social conditions and attitudes that cause it.

Absolutely. But that's very different from the meaning of the term social justice.

[CANADIEN]

Absolutely. But that's very different from the meaning of the term social justice.

I'll stick to the use of the term in Catholic social teachings. Many people use the term in different ways, many of them distorting the concept. For Beck to apply his own understanding of the word and assume that everyone using it means the same thing, is ignorant.

As I said, had he said to churchgoers to ask and get informed about what their priest/preacher mean by social justice, he would have made a valid point. He didn't, he gets hammered for it, and rightly so.

[Smallc]

2. There is no "the church."

Well, generally, that is how the Catholic Church is referred to. The Church is used quite often.

[Michael Hardner]

I agree with almost everything Glenn Beck says but this is over the top, even for me. Knee jerk at it's finest.

That's a foolish thing to do, because he doesn't tell the truth. He told USA Today that he believes in Global Warming yet he makes fun of it on his show.

[Mr.Canada]

That's a foolish thing to do, because he doesn't tell the truth. He told USA Today that he believes in Global Warming yet he makes fun of it on his show.

Well then that would fall into the almost category.

[Michael Hardner]

Well then that would fall into the almost category.

I suppose that I also like fictional characters and believe them some of the time.

[Mr.Canada]

I suppose that I also like fictional characters and believe them some of the time.

Not that I believe in him per se but many of his attitudes and ideas are the same ones I have already. Except, I am obviously, a real person, hehe. Not a personality which exists just to fill his own pockets with outlandishness.

[Michael Hardner]

Not that I believe in him per se but many of his attitudes and ideas are the same ones I have already. Except, I am obviously, a real person, hehe. Not a personality which exists just to fill his own pockets with outlandishness.

See, if I find somebody on TV who believes everything I do, I usually turn the channel.

[bloodyminded]

Well, generally, that is how the Catholic Church is referred to. The Church is used quite often.

But this wasn't about the Catholic Church. It was about the Christian "community" at large. They are as frequently fractious, with disagreements as fundamental as atheism vs Faith, as they are "a church." Moreso, even.

Edited April 11, 2010 by bloodyminded

[Jack Weber]

See, if I find somebody on TV who believes everything I do, I usually turn the channel.

You mean,you're one who's interested in critical thought and does'nt mind being challenged by someone with a different point of view...I'm like that...Some prefer the ideological reaffirmation excercise that the likes of Beck deliver.They don't have to think so much...They just have to be willing "nodders".

I'm surprised one of the usual suspects has'nt brought up the dreaded "Left Wing Media Bias" canard yet...

Edited April 12, 2010 by Jack Weber