When Glenn Beck told listeners of his radio show on March 2 that they should "run as fast as you can" from any church that preached "social or economic justice" because those were code words for Communism and Nazism, he probably thought he was tweaking a few crunchy religious liberals who didn't listen to the show anyway. Instead he managed to outrage Christians in most mainline Protestant denominations, African-American congregations, Hispanic churches, and Catholics--who first heard the term "social justice" in papal encyclicals and have a little something in their tradition called "Catholic social teaching." (Not to mention the teaching of a certain fellow from Nazareth who was always blathering on about justice...) (To read the rest of his article just click here)
I often get accused of hating Christianity.
I don't.
However I am often EXTREMELY frustrated that the gentle and reasonable Christians that I grew up with stay silent as their religion is hi-jacked by slick haired televangelists, anti-abortion extremists, and hate filled religious homophobes.
So I have to admit that I am glad to see at least some in the Christian community (many still remain quiet) coming out against the insane attack on the fundamentals of their religion from this teabagging wing nut.
When I heard Beck make the statement that Christians should "run from their churches" if they preach social justice I thought "If the Christians ignore this attack on their principles they can no longer claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ." So I am heartened to see at least SOME response.
However I now ask myself about certain political heavyweights who claim to have a very important religious foundation. For instance why has Mitt Romney remained silent on this issue? He and Glenn Beck share the same faith and yet Romney obviously lacks the conviction to speak out and defend his faith against this scurrilous attack. Mitt should be ashamed.
Where is the outrage from minister turned politician, and fellow Fox News host, Mike Huckabee? You would imagine that he could not allow such inflammatory language to be spewed in a television studio he shares without speaking out. Would Jesus have stayed silent?
And let us not forget the most famous political figure to wrap her image in the pages of the bible, Sarah Palin.
Palin shared a stage in Tulsa with Beck right after he made his controversial statements and did not seem at all bothered that he compared the tenets of her religion with communism and Nazism. Oh my God! Could this mean that Sarah Palin is a hypocrite?
The facts are that if the Christians want to repair the image of their religion they need to stand up and speak out when individuals like Glenn Beck, or Pat Robertson, or Jerry Prevo misrepresent them. Until that happens they will be defined in the minds of those not actively practicing the Christian faith by what is said by their representatives on television, on the radio, and in other media outlets.
Huffington Post's Paul Raushenbush has more:
Sane Christianity doesn't see God's hand in hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes; or in cancer, AIDS, and Tuberculosis - except in a way that is so far beyond our comprehension as to forbid speculation (My ways are not your ways says the Lord). The response of the Christian is to mourn the dead and honor their memory, and commit their spirits into God's keeping. Sane Christianity also rejects the fantasy that these catastrophes are signs of end times or rapture or any other pre-millennial inventions from the 19th Century - they are simply the reality of our world which includes natural tumult as well as sickness and death.
What Beck decries as the Church's "social justice" and "progressivism" has been responsible for such consequential commitments as the abolitionist and civil rights movements. Unless Beck is suggesting that these efforts, largely fueled by the church, were a waste of time then he should reassess his thoughts about social justice and the church.
Now THAT is the kind of Christian with whom I could have a conversation with.
Great post, Mr. Gryph.
ReplyDeleteI recommend that you read this blog post by Roger Ebert:
"Jesus was a Nazi, So's your Preacher"
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/jesus_was_a_nazi_and_sos_your.html
-Michelle
I have read several rebuttals to his statement, including one from a Jesuit priest.
ReplyDeleteI find the current scandals in the Catholic church alarming and repulsive. But I am very fond of my religious foundation. There are many things wrong with the political organization of the Catholic church, but the teachings still hold the basic premises of Christ -- charity, kindness, love of fellow man, forgiveness.
I may be accused of religious bias, but I find Beck to be the antithesis of most Christian, and Mormon teachings. I believe he roused their criticism over that comment.
I was in a Christian church in my early teens, and though I am no longer a believer, this Jesus guy is looking really good to me. As Ghandi said,his followers, not so much.
ReplyDeleteI dislike organized religions because all organizations and religions are MAN made, and so, corruption will follow power, it always does, always will.
And religions give people excuses for thinking THEY know the truth about life and death.
Doubt.
One must be able to entertain doubt, and that is what I can't stand about uber-religious people, they KNOW and they know what I should do too.
If ONLY this WERE a Christian country!! We would have universal healthcare, decades ago.
You said it well 10cats.
ReplyDelete"However I am often EXTREMELY frustrated that the gentle and reasonable Christians that I grew up with stay silent as their religion is hi-jacked by slick haired televangelists, anti-abortion extremists, and hate filled religious homophobes."
ReplyDeleteMany Christians aren't staying silent. The problem is that a) most of them are too busy actually doing things to be on TV and b) those that do try to gain a wider audience aren't controversial enough to actually get noticed. What is more likely to get covered by the current media - someone bitching about how their relgiious freedoms are being trampled on if we have gay marriage or someone being reasonable and rational and pointing out that odds are God could care less about someone's sexuality?
Yes, sane Christians need to speak out and many of us are. We just don't make the news.
I think that Beck’s megalomania is so inflated that he thinks himself bigger than all of Christianity. I think he also makes the rather intellectually sloppy mistake of projection: he assumes that others are like himself. What is he projecting? His theological ignorance of his own church, the LDS, i.e., Mormons.
ReplyDeleteIn his truly bizarre cant, he equates social and economic justice with fascism and communism. He then instructs his brain dead sheeple to leave their churches if they profess these two evil beliefs. The problem is that the Mormons have made social justice one of the cornerstones of their church for many decades. Is Beck leaving the Mormon church? I somehow doubt it. But it does display the depth of ignorance that he possesses about his own stated beliefs.
He also is WAY out of his league. No amount of nonsensical doodling on his chalkboard can explain away the more than 2,000 references in the Bible to the poor. The New Testament is essentially one long narrative on social and economic justice and Beck’s professed ignorance will not change that. He has essentially declared “Jesus didn’t know shit” and I am willing to bet he will lose viewers - at least a few - and he has focused the attention of many angry Christians his direction. Any widespread boycott of Beck’s few remaining sponsors by Christians is going to make those sponsors VERY nervous and uncomfortable. Beck seems to think that he’s even bigger than his sponsors as well. Good luck with that one, Beck.
I think this is the deepest pile of shit that Beck has stepped in yet. Combined with all of the other big steaming piles of stink that he has been wallowing in for months, I can’t help but wonder if this could be the tipping point that gets him yanked off the air. If a diverse coalition of Christians start boycotting Beck’s advertisers, it very well could be the end of Beck on Fox. The very last people that FauxNews wants to alienate are the churchgoers. The marketing strategy of Ailes to shrink his potential viewers to the most insane, hate filled ignoramuses in the country is truly bizarre. I don’t care what their ratings are, if they push this conspiracy theory driven message of continuous bullshit, they are driving away all sane Americans. It is not a sustainable model. This is a kind of ponzi scheme for ratings. At some point it will collapse.
By antagonizing most of Christianity, maybe Beck and Ailes have finally overplayed their hand.
I hate kristiyanity and I'm not afraid to admit it. Why not hate something that does so much evil in the world today? A fraud which mascerades as a savior of the people as it picks their pockets. Isn't that something worth your hate? Even makes more sense than hating Palin who is only a politician with a different POV. Albeit a hateful POV.
ReplyDeleteBeck is Palin's buddy she chose to team up with for a tour. Is it possible for a journalist to attend their demonize others tour and report on what they preach?
ReplyDeleteAttack Glen Beck on a hundred different issues by wait, anybody who hates cristianity can't be all bad. Oh but if it were true and he actually did hate it! That would be a start for the right in a new and better direction.Best of luck on that one!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Beck actually believes the garbage he spouts or not. But he is smart enough to know that the more outrageous he is, the more exposure he gets and that is what he lives for.
ReplyDeleteIn some respects he and Palin are much alike...they both will do or say anything to keep their name in the spotlight. It makes them money and gets them exposure.
Anyone with a modicum of sense knows they are both worthless but for some reason, we and the media are drawn to them like moths to a flame. Neither one could handle the strain of rejection or being ignored, but that is what we/media need to do.
Well-said Gasman. Beck seems to have forgotten his own Mormon faith here.
ReplyDeleteTo those who ask why aren't Christians rising up in disgust or defending themselves against these inane comments and antics by Glenn? Many of us who profess the faith are busy walking the talk and addressing issues of social justice and peace. It usually never makes the press. Good news rarely does...
Gasman, well said. I do wonder about Christians who were watching Beck EVER, but I hope they stop now!
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that Jesus said he was coming back soon, something about this generation will not pass...so they just don't know how to deal with no one being smited by God, which used to happen in the OT.
I think these crazy Christians don't really believe God exists anymore and they must BE God on earth, do his job, judge and punish here since they have no guarantee that there will be a judgement day anymore.
My theory.
One of your best, Gryphen!!!!!! Fine job!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI posted on this just before I read here and did a bunch of research and I believe that Beck not only offended Christians -- he offended every other religion because each of them in their own way believes in social justice!!!!!
Gryphen, did you read about Alaskas don young at TPM
ReplyDeletehttp://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/
I grew up in an unchurched household and began attending church at 12 out of a desperate desire to be seen as "normal". I was escorted to the door of that church by the pastor when I was 14. He said, "We don't want your kind here. Jesus only wants people of faith." My 'crime'? It was a dunking church and I asked why Jesus or God would care if someone wasn't baptized or was 'sprinkled' instead.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this was the same pastor who spent an entire sermon railing against the sin of mini-skirts. Oh, and his most memorable sermon? When the Church of the Nazarene in our town began a free lunch program to feed the needy. Pounding the pulpit and turning red in the face, this excuse for humanity thundered, "We are not here to feed people. We are here to bring people to Christ."
Needless to say, I'm no longer a Christian having foundthat, unlike those who profess goodness, nature holds no pretenses to cruelty - but is what it is. Still, I think Jesus is a righteous role model which is why, as editor of a small town newspaper in a stultifyingly backward town governed by Palinesque poseurs of pretend leaders, I regularly ask myself "What would Jesus do?"
Ha, if Beck offended kristyuns then he's finally done something worthwhile with his show.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gasman and 10 cats, your posts frame the insanity of Beck and the vacuum of dissenting opinions from others in politics and public life is very telling.
ReplyDeleteAll organized religions are flawed only because they are human based interpretations of God's word, but that doesn't mean they are divoid of compassion for the poor and the ills of social issues.
Luckily, Beck and his ilk are their own worst enemies.