Amy Sullivan, writing in Time Magazine, asks the quesstion. I've said on various blogs covering this latest embarrassement from FOX News' leading crackpot that Beck apparently knows nothing about Chritianity and even less about his adopted faith, Mormonism.
When Beck urged his listeners and viewers to leave their churches should they hear their pastors talk about "social justice" or "economic justice" because those are code words for "Communism" and "Nazism," he knew he would get the attention he so desperately craves and needs to keep his audience tuned in to listen to his paranoia. He needs listeners to keep his ratings high and, therefore, justify the obscene amounts of money he receives to spread his lies and disinformation. The problem for Beck is that he has to keep topping himself with more and more idiotic irrationalities and brainless theses-- his claim that social justice is a form of Communism and Nazism. He should have checked with the Elders of his own Church before he made a colossal ass of himself.
Apparently, Beck crossed a line here. You don't mess around with Jesus in America. Beck did, and he's reaping the whirlwind that he so richly deserves.
Give a fool enough rope, and eventually he'll hang himself. Good job, Glenn.
Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?
Posted by Amy Sullivan Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 4:40 am
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...)
He also managed to bring the National Council of Churches--once a powerful umbrella organization for Christian churches--out from hibernation, in the form of a withering response from leader Peg Chemberlin. Progressive evangelical leader Jim Wallis, taking a page from his conservative counterparts, is calling for Christians to boycott Beck's shows. And Beck has given the folks who come up with slogans every week for church signs plenty of material to work with.After initially doubling-down on his statements, Beck is now trying to walk them back somewhat, making a distinction between religious injunctions for individuals to help the poor and the broader notion that society has an obligation to care for the "least of these." But as religious scholar and blogger Mark Silk points out, that's not what Beck's own tradition--the Latter-Day Saints--believes:
"Not to belabor the point, but the Judeo-Christian tradition from which Beck's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints springs expects the poor to be provided for as a matter of public law. And indeed, in the days when the LDS Church ran its corner of North America as a theocracy, that's just what it did."
