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 ...
Jim Wallis is not a Christian.
A socially leftist Christian is just a socialist. They are quite fine with taking the money of others and redistributing it.
My dad courageously fought the libs in the Methodist church every step of the way. Unfortunately, he died and they didn’t.
Beck is right on this. The moment (at least nominal) Christians talk about “social justice” instead of love, charity, philanthropy (or keeping it in Greek philanthropia), they invariably are trying to fob off on Caesar what the Church and individual Christians should be doing to succor the poor and oppressed.
Of course, Christians should indict themselves before looking for faults in others. Every Christian ought say to him- or herself, “If I had been doing more to see to it that the poor received medical care, the temptation for other Christians to pass of their responsibility to Caesar might not have been there, or been so strong. If I had been looking out for my neighbor like the good Samaritan, my countrymen might not have had the delusion that their fellows lacked medical care because they lack medical insurance.”
oh please
...He is good at fact finding. What makes him stand out is the mixture with entertainment and history. I remember in grade school, liking teachers that were enthusiastic about the subject, opposed to teachers that were just going through the motions...
The only problem here is that they are not Christians. They might call themselves that but supporting abortion would knock them right out of that claim,IMHO!
This is such b.s. I’m not a Mormon but I know they’re more for getting the government out of it than any religion. In fact, they’re probably more Christ like than my Baptist faith when it comes to charity.
And I don’t think the majority of Christians are upset with Beck. I’m a Christian and I agree with him. I think he was probably talking about the Wright kind of churches.
The problem with the church today is that many believe they're all about social justice. They would rather run food banks or give away backpacks then preach the gospel. Most of these "social justice" churches talk about coexisting with other religions rather then acknowledging Christianity is the one and only true belief and the only way to heaven is to repent and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ for His saving grace. They wouldn't dare say such a thing. These people are tares and blight on the true church and the message of the gospel.
Glenn Beck is absolutely correct. Christianity is NOT about social justice but receiving a changed heart through the saving work of Jesus Christ. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to reexamine their doctrine.
Now all that being said, there is far more social justice being performed by atheist Conservatives than Christian liberals. It is not social justice to demand the government take away something from one person and give it to another. The scriptures call that stealing.
And you aren’t Darth Vader.
Wallis is using Alinsky tactics with Beck. Fortunately only the simple minds fall for it.
Folks like Wallis misread “The Sermon on the Mount”
No, the reference was to Jim Wallis, the “pastor,” who like Jeremiah Wright, advocates for Marxist outcomes.
Oh, so now Jim Wallis, commie, is determining who’s a Christian and who isn’t. Beck never said that Wallis or Father Coughlin, both advocates of Social Justice, weren’t Christians, he said that Christ never said a word about Government bringing about Social Justice. For Christ, it was an individual responsibility to G-d and his fellow men.
It was the Evangelical church that gave the liberals the concept of social justice, the real kind, not subsidizing indolence, etc, but an emphasizing salvation and doctrine.
The political side is secondary to the spiritual, yet insofar as conservatism goes, an increasing number of conservatives seem to suppose it came out of bottle, and that the effects of a living (not institutionalized) Christianity and its evangelicalism were and are not crucial to the real greatness of a nation. And more importantly, to the salvation of souls.
From the Library of Congress exhibit: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel07.html
“Benevolent societies were a new and conspicuous feature of the American landscape during the first half of the nineteenth century. Originally devoted to the salvation of souls, although eventually to the eradication of every kind of social ill, benevolent societies were the direct result of the extraordinary energies generated by the evangelical movement—specifically, by the “activism” resulting from conversion. “The evidence of God’s grace,” the Presbyterian evangelist, Charles G. Finney [foremost a revivalist] insisted, “was a person’s benevolence toward others.” The evangelical establishment used this powerful network of voluntary, ecumenical benevolent societies to Christianize the nation.
The earliest and most important of these organizations focused their efforts on the conversion of sinners to the new birth or to the creation of conditions (such as sobriety sought by temperance societies) in which conversions could occur. The six largest societies in 1826-1827 were all directly concerned with conversion: the American Education Society, the American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Bible Society, the American Sunday-School Union, the American Tract Society, and the American Home Missionary Society.
VII. Religion and the New Republic
The religion of the new American republic was evangelicalism, which, between 1800 and the Civil War, was the “grand absorbing theme” of American religious life. During some years in the first half of the nineteenth century, revivals (through which evangelicalism found expression) occurred so often that religious publications that specialized in tracking them lost count. In 1827, for example, one journal exulted that “revivals, we rejoice to say, are becoming too numerous in our country to admit of being generally mentioned in our Record.” During the years between the inaugurations of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, historians see “evangelicalism emerging as a kind of national church or national religion.” The leaders and ordinary members of the “evangelical empire” of the nineteenth century were American patriots who subscribed to the views of the Founders that religion was a “necessary spring” for republican government; they believed, as a preacher in 1826 asserted, that there was “an association between Religion and Patriotism.” Converting their fellow citizens to Christianity was, for them, an act that simultaneously saved souls and saved the republic. The American Home Missionary Society assured its supporters in 1826 that “we are doing the work of patriotism no less than Christianity.”
Alexis de Tocqueville commented,
“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.” - Democracy in America, Volume I Chapter XVII (1835)
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion; for who can read the human heart? but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society. - Democracy in America.
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