Glenn Beck calls on Christians to leave their church

[Vekseid]

if they talk about 'social justice'.

Naturally, Mormonism is happily accepting members.

To be fair, I was expecting this. I just didn't think he'd be so stupid and try this stunt so soon.

BECK DOUBLES DOWN ON OPPOSITION TO 'SOCIAL JUSTICE'.... This week, on his radio show, right-wing host Glenn Beck raised a few eyebrows when he condemned churches that take "social justice" seriously.

"I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church web site," Beck urged his audience. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Today, Beck returned to the subject, insisting that the notion of social justice is "a perversion of the Gospel," and "not what Jesus would say." He wasn't kidding.

He went on to say that Americans should be skeptical of religious leaders who are "basing their religion on social justice," and explained his fear that concern for social justice is a problem "infecting all" faith traditions.

Beck's condemnations aren't going over well in some faith communities. The Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent evangelical figure and president of the Sojourners network, argued yesterday, "I don't know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or just trying to make money. But in any case, what he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show."

...

For some reaction from Christians:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2010/03/hey-glenn-beck-listen-to-jesus.html
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100310/glenn-beck-s-church-advice-sparks-outrage/

Maybe now this psychopath can be driven off the air. I hope.

[Revolverman]

I'm waiting for his head to meltdown on air. It must be like Chernobyl up there.

[Strungintandum]

Glenn Beck kills me. I usually presume that comments as absurd as these are meant to either generate viewership or are uttereed with the intent to provoke the other side into making equally rediculous comments. It's no surprise that he'd attack churches either, since playing "Who can be the most shockingly fundamentalist?" has become such a common game. The argument about what Jesus might say is also not unexpected nor is his lack of scriptural reference to back that assertion up. Contrarily, as the links showed, the Bible is indeed full of passages about "social justice." I wonder if Beck even reads the Bible he claims to so reverently cling to.

[RubySlippers]

I'm a Christian Anarchist and although agree Christians should leave the churches ,little c intentional, for the Church that is the body of spiritual strength of all believers. Since we now have the Bible in the common languages and God who needs ministers of any sort?

But arguing one should leave over social justice which Jesus did teach and the Early followers practiced is crazy, its not supported in the Bible at all. He did comment that the Apostles didn't have the resources to save all the poor and there would always be poor but that doesn't say we have no obligation to try and aid the needy and do good in this life.

[Callie Del Noire]

I put him on that list of folks I shake my head at...and ignore.

Others:
-Pat Robertson
-Anne Coulter
-Dick Cheney
-Nancy Pelousi (actually the last 2 I sort of watch with misgivings)

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Should add Sean Hannity to that list.

[Xenophile]

I see a disturbing lack of Bill O'Reilly in that list.

[Avi]

And Michelle Bachmann... and Rush Limbaugh... and Chris Matthews... and that dude from the Ed Show on MSNBC. 

I attend a Church of Christ congregation here in Madison, specifically the Four Lakes congregation, and when I read this, I got quite angry.  Has Beck even seriously read the Bible?  The book of Luke and the book of John both emphasize service to others and making sacrifices to help those in need.  Sure, it's a socialist idea, but there's not anything modern about it.  It's found in one of the oldest books on the planet, one which I believe came from God Himself through the aid of the Holy Spirit, and for him to suggest that the idea should be cut out of religion is disrespectful at best and disgusting at worst.

[Trieste]

And then, naturally, we have this.

[Zeitgeist]

Yes, perhaps if we focus on what the far right is saying maybe people won't notice our Democratic Congress and President are failing miserably.

As far as 'social justice' is concerned, in my opinion it is used as an umbrella to lump together liberal progressive agenda items, such as open-ended welfare, universal health care and reparations. The religious element of this doesn't interest me, I am agnostic and don't come by my conservative leanings from a religious perspective.

Using the term 'social justice' is just a mechanism to make these progressive agendas more palpable to those who might otherwise be leery of a big brother, nanny state government.

[Xenophile]

Zamdrist, you sure make it sound like progress is something to steer away from.

[Vekseid]

Michelle Bachman, as an example, gets much of her wealth from farm subsidies. Corporate welfare. It's not that she's 'far right', it's that she's a shameless hypocrite. Are Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders (the American far left with any power) that bad? Even if so, their views are largely ignored compared to the parade of hypocrisy we see from the Republican party. It's what they are becoming known for and synonymous with.

Changing that perception is ultimately not going to be done by arguing on Internet forums claiming that Democrats are just as bad. It could be true - or even an understatement - but that is irrelevant. You still have problems in your own party to deal with.

If you want the Republican party to be respected, participate in primaries and hold them to a higher standard. That's what the Tea Party was supposed to be about, but in letting it get subverted like it is, you, as a conservative, are failing.

For crying out loud, both the Tea Party and the Progressive Movement - the two most powerful philosophies that will be shaping America's future for decades to come - are demanding transparency. That is not a coincidence, it is fucking important. But the groups are going to need to realize they they do in fact have common ground (shock horror, most Americans want a better America), and for conservatives, realizing that trusting a media organization with ties to communist China and a that won legal right to lie to its audience is not necessarily a good idea.

[Jude]

I don't like the phrase social justice; it's purposely ambiguous, symbolic, and imprecise.  If you take it at face value, it's something everyone should be for.  Who doesn't want a just society?  The question is, what does it represent?

I do think it's a term that sums up progressive causes, but everyone who uses it doesn't necessarily support every progressive cause.  Each progressive is different, to paint them like the far right is a mistake because there's less of a spectrum of opinion in the far right than in the progressive movement.  I'd argue the far left is certainly embedded within the progressive movement as a small group, but not every progressive is far left or adheres to them.  In fact, I think they're largely lacking in influence over Democratic politics.; but Dems as a whole are progressive.

Remember, progressives fought for legislation of meat manufacturers, to end child labor, and to give women the right to vote.  Anyone who labels progressivism as universally bad (like Glenn Beck) is simply delusional and doing a selective reading of history.  It's almost as ridiculous as people who think the country was better at its founding (Glenn Beck again), you know, back when we had slaves and only rich white land owning men could vote.

[Cythieus]

We're about a week away from Glenn Beck pulling his penis out on the air.

That's just the kind of insanity the man's come to represent.

Does anyone remember how he made this big long speech about the evils of socialist policy and then went on to tell people he looked them up in the library and they should too...as if the irony that the library is a socialist institution didn't hit him. Being the web savvy person I am, I want to believe he's an IRL Troll. There's no way someone could really be like this, I keep thinking. But I doubt that's the case.

[OldSchoolGamer]

It's people like Beck that make me rather pessimistic as to America's chances of coming through oil depletion with anything less than epic upheaval and possibly collapse.

Clearly, we as a people intend to continue to cling to this whole "Left versus Right" thing long after it plainly has become a major liability. 

Neither the Left nor the Right have much to offer us going forward.  The Right wants the rich to get richer.  The Left wants new big government programs to solve everything.  Both of these utterly fail to address the new reality we're moving into.

And where does Beck get off thinking people are so weak-minded they'll leave their spiritual homes on his say-so?  I'd tell him to his face his pay grade ain't anywhere near that high...

[Revolverman]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/jesus_was_a_nazi_and_sos_your.html

A rebuttal by Roger Ebert of all people.

[RubySlippers]

Its odd if one reads the ends of Acts after the Pentacost (when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples) the first congregation in the Bible of the Jesus Movement was they prayed, shared the Lord's Supper and gave of all they had sharing it with the poor. Luke was a doctor was he taking fees for service I wonder?

Clearly that is not Capitalist its communal and to me smacks of Socialism ...

Just making an interesting point since its clear the early early faith was very charitable which brought souls to God since in the same passages many came to know Jesus. So one could argue going against charity and social good is going against the wishes of God not very Christian to oppose that then.

[Vekseid]

The right-wing view is that social needs should be handled by charities, and churches are one the primary drivers of charities.

The need for social support is never ignored in any highly functional society - if there is no social net, you force the creation of ever-deepening guard economies, and this eventually brings economic production to a standstill. Right wing and left wing differ on the method - but it takes a true nutjob to claim that it should not be handled at all.

[Sol Invictus]

Does anyone remember how he made this big long speech about the evils of socialist policy and then went on to tell people he looked them up in the library and they should too...as if the irony that the library is a socialist institution didn't hit him. Being the web savvy person I am, I want to believe he's an IRL Troll. There's no way someone could really be like this, I keep thinking. But I doubt that's the case.

This as well as numerous other things make me believe that Glenn Beck is just trolling America for money.  Instead of trying to be relevant he says crazy things that almost make sense if you are right wing just to get attention.  I tend to get mildly annoyed at all political pundents regardless of affiliation because of their inability to get their heads out their own asses but Glenn arouses a fiery hatred every time he is mentioned for the gross amounts of stupidity he peddles to America.  Seriously i mean come on now.  Say what you will about Christianity and even the Bible but Jesus was pro social justice.  Ive read the bible and im pretty sure that Jesus was for all intents and purposes a communist or a socialist by todays standards.  Now Im not saying these things are necessarily correct but to say that its anti Christian is stupid.  Has Glenn Beck read the Bible?

[SaturnsWings]

Beck really pissed me off with his statement, actually. I, myself am Mormon (or LDS to be a little more proper about it) and we really get very bad press without nutjobs like him running around and smearing our names even further. I really just wanted to strangle him. I may not be the perfect example of a Mormon young lady and I question my religion quite a bit but really we're no more crazy than any other mainstream religion. We're just slightly different and we rub the wrong people the wrong way. We have just as many crazies in our church as any other. No more, no less.

I really would like to know what the church's official response to this was, though, if they made one. Maybe I should pay more attention in my religion class...