Christians fire back at Glenn Beck
Last week Glenn Beck called on Christians to leave their churches if they hear preaching about social or economic justice, saying they were code words for Communism and Nazism.
This week the remarks prompted outrage from several Christian bloggers, according to a NY Times story:
"The Rev. Jim Wallis, who leads the liberal Christian antipoverty group Sojourners, in Washington, called on Christians to leave Glenn Beck.
“What he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show,” Mr. Wallis wrote on his blog, God’s Politics. “His show should now be in the same category as Howard Stern.”
In attacking churches that espouse social justice, Mr. Beck is taking on most mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, black and Hispanic congregations in the country — not to mention plenty of evangelical churches and even his own, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mr. Beck said on his radio show on March 2, “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 I am going to Jeremiah Wright’s church,” he said, referring to President Obama’s former pastor in Chicago. “If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop.”
Religion scholars say the term “social justice” was probably coined in the 1800s, codified in encyclicals by successive popes and adopted widely by Protestant churches in the 1900s. The concept is that Christians should not merely give to the poor, but also work to correct unjust conditions that keep people poor. Many Christians consider it a recurring theme in Scripture.
Mr. Beck himself is a convert to Mormonism, a faith that identifies itself as part of the Christian family, but is nevertheless rejected by many Christians.
Philip Barlow, the Arrington professor of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, said, “One way to read the Book of Mormon is that it’s a vast tract on social justice.”
“A lot of Latter-day Saints would think that Beck was asking them to leave their own church,” he said.
Mr. Barlow said that just this year, the church’s highest authority, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, issued a new “Handbook of Instructions” in which they revised the church’s “threefold mission” and added a fourth mission statement: Care for the poor."
On 3/12 Beck talked about the backlash of these comments. He said he stands behind what he said and doesn’t care if people disagree with him (as one caller did vehemently).
RBR-TVBR observation: During that 3/12 show, Beck went to his “this half hour brought to you by…” live spot in-show and didn’t have one for that half hour. He shouted something like, “I don’t have any sponsors this half hour? What’s going on around here? Fine.” And they went into a commercial break. Just another lesson learned. Talkers need to be very careful about whom they offend. There are ways to get your point(s) across without being crass.
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Jesus said "The poor you will have with you always"No wonder we lost the war on poverty
Glenn Beck is right on
I think he's a grown mamas' boy that needs his butt kicked.
but he isn't a chosen leader or religious leader with any authority so I just laugh at his rantings. He used to be a clown and he continues to act like one who has lost some of his brain matter. Poor Dave. He is never happy unless he is the center of attention. Perhaps he hasn't really been to enough AA meetings to learn how to be humble and less divisive. I've got better things to do in my life than to listen to his caustic humour. I just flip the channel or get busy helping real people who need my genuine
Christian help. Betty in WA state.
God wants us to help the poor. God Command it, and He expect it.
Here is just a few of many places in the Bible I would ask Mr. Beck to read.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God. (NRSV, Leviticus 19:9-10)
He who despises his neighbor sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor. (NAS, Proverbs 14:21)
"Feed the hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be as bright as day. And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy you with all good things, and keep you healthy too; and you will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. (TLB, Isaiah 58:10-11)
And the crowds asked [John the Baptist], "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." (NRSV, Luke 3:10-11)
But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (NAS, 1 John 3:17)
He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses. (NAS, Proverbs 28:27)
And [Jesus] looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." (NAS, Luke 21:1-4)
Finally, our good deeds should be motivated by a sincere desire to help others. Public recognition should not be the goal.
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (NIV, Matthew 6:1-2)
This is not about the church helping those in need. That's what the church has always done and will do. It's not called social justice or economic justice, but brotherly love.
And this from a nation where people support a progressive income tax so the govt. can take from the rich to provide for everyone.
Helping people in need should come from the heart of the individual and not from a collective group being led by someone who wants personal recognition for themselve or their religion. Churches have become nothing more than another form of politics claiming one form of religion is better than the other.
I will not be indoctrinated by Glenn Beck but I will listen to him and examine the truth to make my own decisions.
From what I can see anyone who would say that the politicians of this country have not been corrupted and that we are in danger of losing the country our founding fathers gave us certainly is choosing to be blinded by a desire for leadership.
Beck has a lot of interesting things to say. Most of it is true especially when it comes to what progressives are doing to our country. Beck is in no way a spokesman for conservatives. How quickly yall forget him being on CNN bashing what the bush administration and conservative in congress were doing to our country.
He has said many times Bush and Obama are progressive. So he isn't speaking for political parties. He's speaking out against what is happening to our country. He has great passion when he does this. There is another right we all have, the separation of church and state, remember that one.
I think Beck is trying to warn people about preachers and churches trying to influence people on how to vote cause it's "god's will"
Personally I think the churches would benefiy from our country becoming socialist. Things would get way worse for the united states, misery would be wide spread and lots more people would likely seek religion, driving up attendance and revenues.
George Washington
Y'all keep listening, ya hear?
Philip Barlow is correct if the focus is on individual action rather than state action.
Glenn Beck was talking about those who use the phrase "social justice" to mean the exercise of the confiscatory power of the state. Most graphically, it is the forcible taking of assets from one group of people (who earned them) for redistribution to another group (who did not earn them) through the exercise of governmental power.
Jesus Christ advocated no such thing. Rather, he sought to persuade the wealthy to give to the less fortunate -- voluntarily.
Converting the gift to a tax deprives the giver of any merit for the act of giving, and deprives the recipient of appreciation for the sacrifice that the distribution represents.
The Mormon Church has never advocated high taxes and additional government programs to support those who cannot or will not work. Instead, the Church operates a network of farms and factories that, along with cash offerings from Church members, provides for the needs of Church members out of work as well as disaster relief in all parts of the world. These are mainly staffed by volunteer labor and, to the extent possible, by those receiving the aid, so that able-bodied recipients can maintain their self-respect.
Members of the Mormon Church contribute a higher proportion of their incomes (typically more than ten percent) to charity than any other religious group in America. The Church has no paid ministry on the local level, so a higher proportion of those resources are available for the relief of the poor and disaster victims than would be true of churches with professional clergies.
Presumably Glenn Beck pays a full tithe on his income, at a minimum. If so, he is a better position to discuss this issue (having walked the charitable walk) than those who give very little of their personal funds to charity, but who would force you, through taxation, to finance the "social justice" causes that they favor.
Fox has some good current events programming these days, except some of their news bunnies are all hair and no brains.
DO NOT trust this kind of garbage. The RBR-TVBR author doesn't even have the courage to put his name down. It's these kind of drive-by articles that mislead people who trust (blindly) that the person who writes articles (like this), have done their research and are giving you a TRUE, UNBIASED report.
Watch his show, then research what he says, and draw you're own conclusions.
IMO, Beck is an honest and TRUTHFUL man. Any man that says (as he does) Don't just believe me. RESEARCH what he says. His favorite saying that is a quote from Thomas Jefferson one of our GREATEST founding fathers.... "Question with BOLDNESS". Although the original quote was about GOD, you can apply this to ANYTHING!!!
Beck talks about the founding fathers and wants America to go back to their ORIGINAL design which did not include the government to force people to give to charity. It was based on (as elegantly said here by many posts) a FREE people to DECIDE through the kindness of THEIR heart to VOLUNTARILY give to charity.
This guy (Rev. Jim Wallis) has already been exposed by Glenn. He's a Marxist. Check for yourself. Now if you think that Marxism is good, look it up. Bottom line is, WE ARE NOT SOCIALISTS!!!! Read up about Socialism and why it doesn't work; Communism and Marxism!!!!
It's no surprise that a Marxist like Rev Jim Wallis (who is the new spiritual adviser to Obama) is telling people to not listen to Beck.
"QUESTION WITH BOLDNESS"!!!!!
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