Posted on 03/27/2010 5:18:42 PM PDT by Steelfish
Christians Stand Up To Glenn Beck
By Jim Wallis Saturday, March 27
Glenn Beck has picked a fight with me, but he recently started a more troubling battle with the nation's churches with his criticism that "social justice" is "code" for "communism" and "Nazism," and that Christians should leave their churches if they preach, practice or even have the phrase on their Web site.
While Beck initially claimed that "social justice is a perversion of the Gospel," he now suggests his concern was really the association of the phrase with "Big Government." He even adds that when "social justice" refers simply to individual charity, it is permissible to him. But for millions of people, this is not a joking matter. Christians across the theological and political spectrum believe that social justice is central to the teachings of Jesus and at the heart of biblical faith. Because Christians couldn't "turn in" their pastors to "church authorities" as Beck suggested (the pope would turn himself into . . . himself), many have started turning themselves in to Beck as "social justice Christians" -- 50,000 at last count.
Journalists, cable and radio talk shows, and even Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have reported on or spoofed Beck's attempt to discredit this concept. What might be lost in all this are the facts that a commitment to social justice unites Christian churches of different doctrinal and political beliefs. Even leaders in Beck's own church and scholars of Mormonism have made it clear that they believe social justice is integral to their faith and that they want it known he doesn't speak for the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Your intellectual acuity does not allow for those less educated. The largest portion of the American people have been so dumbed down by their FEDucation. It is to these people Glenn Beck addresses so wisely on their level. It is working! I believe his ratings out distance those of anyone I know. Every day he risks harm from the vicious left for what he is doing. That takes enormous courage. I pray for his protection. So go Glenn Beck!
A proper education is self education. Part of the problem is too many American expect others to educate them.
And the ‘dumbing down’ of basic concepts feeds this. Rather than Glen Beck dumbing down politics he should be trying to raise the bar, make people think and research on their own, like Rush.
Spoon feeding the masses doesn’t help the underlying problems. This complacency and expectation of others doing your research for you is what has gotten us into this mess. People believe what the see on TV and don’t bother to find out if it is actually true.
As a teenager, I got into a situation that has haunted me for years because I took what some other people said something meant rather than looking at both sides and really doing my own research.
Several years later, I started researching the topic and found out that I was lied to and got out of the situation. That experience made me VERY, VERY careful to research everything and don’t believe what I am told, or what is on TV, or what I read, that trait has also made me a good historian, a hardcore Conservative and a devout Christian.
I sense NOTHING about Reagan in what you write. So maybe yous hould change your screen name to ReaganNOT.
What did I say that you think Reagan would disapprove of? Hmmm?
You think Reagan would support believing what others said without reasearching it himself?!?
One of Reagan’s famous quotes is “trust but verify”. Well we can’t trust anymore, we MUST verify.
And I do not TRUST Beck, and I have good reasons for it.
The worship of Beck on FR is disturbing. His ‘cult of personality’ is disconcerting. The lemmings are going to follow him right off a cliff.
Beck is not going to save the Constitution by being the class clown. The American masses need to get away from their TV’s and get back into reading the great works this country was founded on.
I suggest you take your vendetta elsewhere, ReaganNOT. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
isn’t wallis that democrat party mole for the christians.
real christians are wise to skip this fool and even just ignore the anti-mormon retoric. (remember even Jerry Falwell had no problems with mormons when it came to the business of the day)
What vendetta? Where do you suggest I go? You can’t be questioning my conservativeness just because I don’t like Beck.
Read my tagline, my eyes are open wide. And I see Beck for what he really is.
Now, pick almost any other conservative and I will have an opinion of them as well.
Rush... (adore him)
Will...(great respect)
Coulter...(love her)
Hannity...(disagree on a few things but like him)
Mark Levin...(ROCKS!)
And you still didn’t answer me how I am espousing principles contrary to R.R. Instead I get ad hominum attacks directed at me.
Or are you so in love with Beck that you are the blind one?
real christians are wise to skip this fool and even just ignore the anti-mormon retoric.
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REAL Christians ARE anti-Mormonism. Christianity and Mormonism are diametrically opposed and the twain shall never meet.
Souls are more important than politics.
For the record, I don’t like Wallis either, but he isn’t wrong in his assessment of Mormonism even if he is completely stupid about his politics.
And, IIRC, the Mormons weren’t pushing this “we are Christians, too” bit during the Fallwell years. They were still pretty separatist. This co-opting of Christianity really started in the early 1990’s.
Why don’t you come out with the real reason you dislike Glenn Beck so much rather than tossing out innuendo as you talk down your nose to the rest of us?
I like Glenn Beck. He’s a brave, brave man.
************************
Agreed. I think he's great!
I have failed to detect anything but unrevised American history in any Glenn Beck’s presentations.
“....und ich bin genauso suess, wie er ist.”
Hoppla! Ist das einer der beruemmtes Nazi `Gauleitern’?
;^)
And if you are willing to let the country and the constitution go down the toilet because you are bust being anti Mormon then shame on you
Of the three, Beck is by far the most correct on politics. I doubt there is much difference between Wallis and Wright on most political issues.
All three would describe themselves as Christians. I'm most inclined to believe Wallis on this. I think that Christians can be political liberals without undermining their faith in Jesus Christ. At least in my Bible, being a liberal is not the unforgiveable sin. Pastor Wright's anger makes me wonder about his Christian faith. He certainly doesn't appear to exercise the fruit of the spirit. Beck, despite his assertions, just isn't a Christian.
Wow, I have no real issues with Beck as a commentator, though like Hanity I think he goes off on a tangent at times, but if he is all that stands between us and the country and Constitution going down the toilet, we may have some other problems to look into...
Jim Wallis is a freaking communist & political hack!
******
Jim Wallis wants you to know he’s not a liberal. Yes, he’s been a chief critic of the Religious Right since its inception, gave the Democratic weekly radio address after the 2006 midterm elections, and has been an often-controversial voice for social justice since his early-’70s days at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
For many years, Sojourners preached against racism, poverty, and unbridled materialism, but somehow the culture critique was directed primarily at conservative Christians who had sold their faith, it seemed, for a mess of Reaganism. Liberal or fashionably radical assumptions rarely came in for the same kind of scrutiny.
“Souls are more important than politics.”
I applaud anyone’s desire to ‘save’ another. However, to suggest that we have no obligation to our country or our fellow citizens is naive at best. The history of our nation has depended upon people being willing to disagrre on all sorts of things but standing together on the really important stuff. If reaganaut would prefer an Islamic theocracy or a communist dictatorship, it is just around the corner
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