Beck vs. Greer: The Common Good

Fightin Words ^ | June 3, 2010 | Walter Scott Hudson

[Walter Scott Hudson]

In our political discourse, there are many words and phrases which mean entirely different things to different people. Justice, charity, and "the common good" come to mind. When Glenn Beck began warning people to run from houses of worships which preach "social justice" earlier this year, many critics took it as a stand against charity. Variations of "how could you be against 'social justice?" reverberated throughout the media.

Perhaps the most prominent response came from Simon Greer of Jewish Funds for Justice. In a Washington Post op-ed, Greer took issue with Beck's charge to "make sure your church puts God first and politics and government last." Amidst a theological case for government helping the needy, Greer concluded, "to put God first is to put humankind first, and to put humankind first is to put the common good first."

Beck rejected that notion on his radio show, calling Greer's piece "exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany." Beck explained that atrocities like the Holocaust were excused by apologists appealing to "the common good."

Wednesday, Greer fired back, arguing "the common good" is a founding principle of American government:

Given Glenn Beck's self-professed fealty to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, I thought he might appreciate these words from John Adams: "Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men."

Greer clearly sees this quote as a grand "gotcha" moment. To those of us who understand what Adams meant (because we've considered more than one sentence), it demonstrates only a semantic disparity inhibiting productive discourse.

In Greer's defense, Beck did a fairly poor job of making his point when he deemed "the common good" a precursor to death camps. Beck's generalization was sweeping, making his own producer wince. Stu Burguiere argued not everyone who evokes "the common good" does so with nefarious motives, and urged Beck to qualify the statement further.

That said, Greer's interpretation of "the common good" does have nefarious application, even if Greer does not intend it so. The reason is simple. Government, as George Washington told us, is force. When we speak of utilizing government to affect "the common good," we are speaking of using force. It is therefore incumbent upon us to strictly define what "the common good" is, lest we use force arbitrarily. This is where Adams differs from Greer. The latter, as judged from his writings, views "the common good" as provision for the largest number. Adams view of "the common good" was upholding the integrity of individuals' natural rights. That is a significant distinction.

Even the quote Greer cited makes this case. Adams tells us government is "not for [the] profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men." In other words, government may not be rightly used to benefit a select group at the expense of another. This would preclude the redistributive taxation implied in the "social and economic justice" Greer advocates.

Beck's point, though poorly made in a moment of exuberance, is a crucial one. When it comes to government, there is no "common good" which minimizes or sacrifices the individual. The only common good which government affects is liberty, freedom from arbitrary or despotic control. Sacrifice and charity are individual acts, the virtue of which are wholly undone when coerced.

[ETL]

"Variations of "how could you be against 'social justice?" reverberated throughout the media."

From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive — 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."

Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845
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"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at"
--Bill Ayers (1970), quoted in New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
_____________________________________________________

REVOLUTION: Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
[Revolution] Interview with Bill Ayers, Revolution #63, October 1, 2006:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html
_____________________________________________________

[John O]

“social justice” is never justice and is always socialism.

[cripplecreek]

When Nancy Pelosi starts spending her free time spreading “The Word”, its time to take a serious look at how marxists, communists, and socialists, etc, have used churches throughout history.

[ETL]

...how marxists, communists, and socialists, etc, have used churches throughout history.

"Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal".--James (Jim) Cone,
African American Religious Thought: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Cornel West (Editor), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Editor)
____________________________________________

SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
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Obama's Church: Gospel of Hate
Kathy Shaidle, FrontPageMag.com
Monday, April 07, 2008

In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama’s pastor in a heated interview about his Church’s teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to "Black Liberation Theology"...

Like the pro-communist Liberation Theology that swept Central America in the 1980s and was repeatedly condemned by Pope John Paul II, Black Liberation Theology combines warmed-over 1960s vintage Marxism with carefully distorted biblical passages. However, in contrast to traditional Marxism, it emphasizes race rather than class. The Christian notion of "salvation" in the afterlife is superseded by "liberation" on earth, courtesy of the establishment of a socialist utopia.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=30CD9E14-B0C9-4F8C-A0A6-A896F0F44F02
____________________________________________

Catholics for Marx [Liberation Theology]
By Fr. Robert Sirico
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 03, 2004

In the days when the Superpowers were locked in a Cold War, Latin America seethed with revolution, and millions lived behind an iron curtain, a group of theologians concocted a novel idea within the history of Christianity. They proposed to combine the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx as a way of justifying violent revolution to overthrow the economics of capitalism.

The Gospels were re-rendered not as doctrine impacting on the human soul but rather as windows into the historical dialectic of class struggle. These "liberation theologians" saw every biblical criticism of the rich as a mandate to expropriate the expropriating owners of capital, and every expression of compassion for the poor as a call for an uprising by the proletarian class of peasants and workers.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=460782B7-35CC-4C9E-A2C5-93832067C7CD
____________________________________________

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. William Ayers
are greeted by Rebekah Levin with the Committee
for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune / May 17, 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ayers_wrightmay18,0,6689521.story
____________________________________________

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
____________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

[ETL]

"It is this subjugation of genuine Christianity to the supremacy of the Marxist class struggle, which marks the true delineation between traditional Christianity and black liberation theology, as Pope Benedict XVI (writing in 1984 as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) sums up thusly:

"For the marxist, the truth is a truth of class: there is no truth but the truth in the struggle of the revolutionary class."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/obama_black_liberation_theolog.html

[vanilla swirl]

keep

[MosesKnows]

social justice

A most interesting expression, utterly meaningless, but interesting nonetheless.

Is there any definition of "social justice" that can be reconciled with law.

America’s Constitution does not and cannot guarantee justice. America’s Constitution can and does guarantee due process, which is all any government can provide.

Social justice is a concept that liberals use to describe their movement towards Obama’s socialist America. They imply that social justice would achieve economic equality with progression taxation and income redistribution. The socialist would even extend their agenda to property redistribution.

Socialist persuades liberals to support Obama’s socialist agenda by presenting them with the vision that the government can manufacture the equality of outcomes. Liberals begin to believe they can bypass that meddlesome equality of opportunity that America guarantees. Many liberals are foolish enough to accept the misguided notions the socialist offer.

[ETL]

“social justice” is commie speak, just like “struggle” and “Liberation”.

[ETL]

Re: ““social justice” is commie speak, just like “struggle” and “Liberation”.”

How could I forget this other example: “Change”

[ETL]

"We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America"
--B.H.Obama, 2008

_____________________________________________________

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek"-- BARACK OBAMA
_____________________________________________________

From the website of the Communist Party, USA...
(prior to the election)

"The Communist Party USA views the 2008 elections as a tremendous opportunity to defeat the policies of the right-wing Republicans and to move our country in a new progressive direction.

The record turnout in the Democratic Presidential primary races shows that millions of voters, including millions of new voters, are using this election to bring about real change. We wholeheartedly agree with them."

http://cpusa.org/cpusa-2008-electoral-policy/
_____________________________________________________

After the election....

A Landslide Mandate For Change

A breakthrough election
Congratulations on an extraordinary history making election!

We can think back with pride to decades of hard work toward our strategic goal of a big enough, broad enough and united enough labor and all-people’s movement that could overcome the ultra-right blockage to all progress. That all people’s movement has come to life, it is dynamic and it has the potential to keep growing.

The election of Barack Obama and a strengthened Congress creates new conditions in our country. There is now the possibility to shift gears and move forward. This new day requires us to further develop our tactics in order to continue to deepen and broaden labor and people’s unity.

There are thousands of experiences that we all have had in these momentous days, some large, some small, all of which express the enormity of change in thinking and readiness for involvement that is underway and that steels us for the battles ahead.

The tears of joy we all shared as crowds gathered to watch the election results here and throughout the world dramatize the new moment we are in.

http://cpusa.org/a-landslide-mandate-for-change-report-to-the-national-committee-meeting-11-15-08/
_____________________________________________________

July 1, 2009...

Change is Here, Change is Coming

Sam Webb, National Chair, Communist Party, USA:

Let me begin with a simple observation: If the last 30 years were an era of reaction, then the coming decade could turn into an era of reform, even radical reform. Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.

In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.

We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.

We can imagine the troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan while U.S. representatives participate in a regional process that brings peace and stability to the entire region.

In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.

Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.

Isn’t it possible in the Obama era to create millions of green jobs in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy in tandem with an attack on global warming?

Can’t we envision taking new strides in the long journey for racial and gender equality in this new era, marked at its beginning by the election of the first African American to the presidency?

And isn’t the overhaul of the criminal justice and prison system – a system steeped in racism – no longer pie-in-the sky, but something that can be done in the foreseeable future?

All these things are within reach now!

http://cpusa.org/change-is-here-change-is-coming/
_____________________________________________________

"Barack Obama told supporters that
'change has come to America' as he
claimed victory in a historic presidential election."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/election.president/index.html

[backwoods-engineer]

Great article. I added a sentence from it to my tagline.

[backwoods-engineer]

Oops.

[Walter Scott Hudson]

America’s Constitution does not and cannot guarantee justice. America’s Constitution can and does guarantee due process, which is all any government can provide.

A simple point which is nonetheless astute. I shall steal it. I never quite thought of it that way; but, it is very true.

I think the lies have gotten so far ahead of us that we sometimes fail to catch up with them. For instance, I have been focused on how government's imperative is justice as opposed to morality. Beck makes the same point when he distinguishes equal justice (i.e. true justice) from this contrived "social justice." But you're point goes even deeper to the heart of the matter. No human can provide another with justice.