Glenn Beck Social Justice

If the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, he would have been on Glenn Beck's blackboard. That is because King was clearly a Social Justice Christian -- the term and people that Beck constantly derides.

I met with a couple of filmmakers at the church I serve and together we decided to create Public Service Announcements with the aim of helping people understand what social justice is and its place at the center of Christian faith.

The difference between Christian social justice and socialism is a matter of not just goodwill but free will.

Perhaps if the Second Coming were today, it is Pat Robertson who'd get the cosmic ass-kicking, not Perez Hilton.

Demagogues like Coughlin and Beck use ever more shrill appeals to cause serious short-term turmoil but, in the process, turn their followers' hearts to stone. People are happier, Day believed, when they are good.

Beck has stooped to lying about a good man. He has forgotten one of the chief principles of his Mormon faith, and indeed of all major faiths; that we should treat others as we seek to be treated.

Glenn was enraged. He knew now beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was not only a socialist but a Marxist. Glenn had his Foxwater security agents evict Jesus from the dinner party.

A Million Christians for Social Justice will bring us together to fight injustice and inequality, to fight hunger and hopelessness, and, ultimately, to love and nourish all the souls that are part of God's creation.

Now Glenn Beck has added concern for the environment to his list of Christian no-no's and the insidious threat of socialism.

I thought Glenn Beck must have moved on to other things, but the other night, he went back to his attack on social justice churches. This time the issue was climate change.

Most Mormons I know have quite a bit in common with Rev. Jim Wallis, who is dedicated to the service of others. By contrast, Glenn Beck has devoted his life and career to expanding the media footprint of Glenn Beck.

When Glenn Beck advised Christians to "run as fast as you can" from churches that preach "social and economic justice," he told us a lot. Whatever Beck's "Christian America" may be, it is hardly Christian.

We should thank Robertson and Beck. They have reminded us that we crave -- no, DEMAND -- sane Christianity, and that actually there are many millions of us who profess it.

Speaking as a Christian ethicist, in flippantly attacking the concept of social justice, Glenn Beck inadvertently poked a finger in the eye of every person who takes the Bible as God's revealed Word.

You've moved from labeling social justice as Communist or Fascist to saying it only means "big government". Then you said that if social justice means "empowering" people to act individually, then that might be okay. That's progress, but there's still some need for conversation here.

Glenn, could you please dispense with the personal attacks and get to the substance of what you and I are saying about social justice? Let's have a conversation about whether social justice "is a perversion of the Gospel," as you say, or at the heart of the Gospel, as I say.

Glenn Beck says Christians should leave their social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Beck. Beck attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show.

Social justice is an essential part of Catholic teaching. It's part of being a Catholic. So Glenn Beck is, in essence, saying "Leave the Catholic church."