On Glenn Beck and Social Justice
by: Valerie Elverton-Dixon on March 13th, 2010 | 23 Comments »
Fox News host Glenn Beck has created a firestorm by calling for Christians to leave congregations that preach and teach social justice. According to Beck, this is code for a socialist agenda. He has said that the one idea that Nazis and Communists have in common is the concept of social justice. Many Christians, and I would dare say many non Christians, are outraged by such statements. It is clear that Beck has neither a clear understanding of what social justice is or what most religions require of believers. Moreover, social justice is not only a requirement of faith, but it is a duty of citizenship.
Religion is the recognition that we as individuals are connected to others—to a transcendence, to other human beings, to nature and to all of creation. This connection leads to moral responsibilities both to ourselves and to others. We err when we think that we exist only for our individual selves or only for our family, tribe or nation. The more we grow in spiritual maturity, the wider is our range of moral concern. We not only care about our moral obligations to ourselves, but that care extends out to all. The them versus us delusion falls away, and we come to recognize that they and we are the same. We each are a part of the other. Martin Luther King called it a network of mutuality. This insight helps me to know the imperative that commands me to love God with all my heart and soul and to love my neighbor as myself.
This means that when I see anyone in need, I have an obligation to help to meet the need. I have an obligation to see to their health and well-being as I have an obligation to see to my own. I have an obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, care for the sick, welcome the stranger, and to visit the prisoner. This was so important to the teaching of Jesus that he said that “As you have done to the least of these you have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) It is important to remember that when Jesus spoke these words, Christianity as a separate religion did not exist. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. It is also important to note that Jesus is recognized as a prophet in Islam. Humanists recognize him as an important teacher in the history of human ideas. Non Abrahamic religions also teach an obligation to give to the poor and to treat others the way we would want to be treated. So the instruction to see to the needs of the poor is a critical moral duty across religions and in the history of human thought.
However, this is not only an instruction for our personal righteousness. This is a value that does have social, political and economic implications. We come together in societies and form governments to craft an order that will help us live together with as little friction as possible. We live under a rule of law, and our laws reflect our values as a society. Our religious understandings help us to shape shared values and beliefs and these values in turn help us to shape our laws. When we care about the needs of the least among us, that is and ought to be not only a matter of personal righteousness, but it becomes a matter of social justice. How do the structures of society affect the economic well-being of people in the society? How does the political economy favor one group over another? According to one assessment, only ten per cent of Americans own most of the nation’s wealth.
“The top 10% have 80% to 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity,and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United State of America.” (http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html accessed 3/13/2010)
Do the top 10% of America’s families work harder than the bottom 90%? The reason for this disparity is because of the work that we value in the country and the structure of our political economy. It is a function of who the tax laws favor and whose interests are represented in Congress. Social justice requires a more equitable distribution of the goods of a society. It requires that laws see to the life and flourishing of all of a nation’s people. This is the political and economic dimension of the religious obligation to care about social justice.
Further, social justice is not only a religious obligation. It is an obligation of citizenship. The preamble to the Constitution of the United States reminds us that the Constiution exists to, among other things, “establish justice.” Justice is multifaceted. Distributive justice is an aspect of justice. This is the concept that there ought to be equity in how goods and services are allocated. Each ought to get what is due him or her as a person living in this society. Justice is necessary for peace, for the domestic tranquility that is another reason for the Constitution’s existence.
This is not the first time that Glenn Beck has said outrageous things. He has called President Obama a racist. He called Van Jones, special advisor for green jobs to President Obama, a communist. Jones left that position in the wake of the controversy. Now Beck is calling social justice a code word for socialism. The logical fallacy that Beck makes here is to think that because there may be some forms of socialism that are bad, that everything that calls for social justice is also bad.
When I was a girl, my teachers taught me: She who knows not and knows that she knows not and wants to learn is a student, teach her. She who knows and knows that she knows is wise, learn from her. She who knows not and knows not that she knows not is a fool shun her. As I have grown and lived my life, I know that even she who knows and knows that she knows also knows that there are things that she knows not. The more I learn, the more I learn how much I do not know. Glenn Beck does not seem to know that he knows not.
Supporting and promoting social justice are good Christian acts. They are also good Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Pagan acts. It should be obligatory for all of us if we are to be truly human. Is Beck part of humanity?
I think Beck has made a very good suggestion. Those who take him seriously should, indeed, leave those churches that teach social justice. It seems to be that would be a good way to rid the flock of the sick sheep.
At first glance I reacted to your suggestion Jim. But in fact, the notion of pruning, or burning out the toxins is very biblical. It might show a more realistic picture of our congregations if we actually saw the presence of those who understand social justice to be part of the expression of our faith & our constitutional expectations. It would be quite a reality check I dare say.
But the fact remains as the author of this article states, In all Glenn Beck has little to no clue about what the living out of our faith entails.
At first glance I reacted to your suggestion Jim. But in fact, the notion of pruning, or burning out the toxins is very biblical. It might show a more realistic picture of our congregations if we actually saw the presence of those who truly understand social justice to be part of the expression of our faith & our constitutional expectations. It would be quite a reality check I dare say.
But the fact remains as the author of this article states, in all likelihood, Glenn Beck has little to no clue about what the living out of our faith entails.
I Have tried to Open minded to Both Atheists and Christians even now I am still trying, as Always these two Majorettes claim they Are somehow the Minorities, As always they Both persecute me with the Way they vote with the Way they Preach and Teach their Absolutism. Now as for Glen Beck I find him to Be Racist, interesting how Censorship wishes to take down Howard Stern who’s just simply Obnoxious, but no one Sincerely seeks to Profile Glen Beck as a Racist even though that is exactly who he is. All Christians love Glen, TBN, Islamicphobic Media and they all believe World Peace is the Antichrist. I am A constant victim OF Antisemitism. ”I have Come to Know Jesus in my Own Way Glen Beck” so this I Must say, Thank you Jesus and Glen Beck for the Wars for the Racism, I Want to thank you Both that EveryDay I Have to look over my Shoulder Because I’m Jewish, thank for Your modern Crusades Glen, and be sure to thank Your Jesus for the Inquisitions Ageist Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Homosexuals and Freethinkers that is going on today, in America and Throughout the World. My Daughter was Born with an Injury but because it is A preexisting injury every life Insurance Company refuses to Cake her, yea to Christian Minded Capitalism. I Make no Apologies to that Demon Jesus or his Pawn Glen Beck, I guess sometimes I forget that Christianity has nothing to Do with Social Justice and Has Everything to Do with Capitalism.
Glenn Beck stated in an interview that he views himself primarilly as an entertainer. His comments are intended to create controversy, anger and division. He is similar to a nine-year old boy who has learned some hateful words and shots them in a school yard. Unfortunately, the economics of cable broadcasting and advertising means that the louder that Beck shots, the more people in the targeted demographic watch his show, and the more that Fox earns from his obnoxious behavior.
Turn off the television, read Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, weep, and pray.
As a white male I have long thought that it is interesting that those who have historically been the benificiaries of “entitlement programs” (white males who benefited from slavery, Jim Crow, keeping women from having the right to vote, keeping labor from organizing, fighting socialized medicine, etc.) are the ones who complain the loudest when those who have historically been disenfranchised make gains through social programs or affirmative action.
Those who benefit the most from the structure of our society (American consumer culture) should pay the most to maintain the infrastructure of our society (keeping those who toil the hardest for the lowest wages healthy, housed and fed). But of course that is not the case and in the interest of increasing profits for shareholders and executive compensation packages factories are closed and moved to where labor is even cheaper and where governments will not allow labor to organize. Meanwhile the American worker, who is also the American Consumer their businesses depend on, loses their jobs, their benefits, their savings and their homes.
It would seem that being Conservative/Republican these days can be boiled down to being Anti-Abortion, Anti-Healthcare, Pro-War/Pro-Torture, Pro Capital Punishment and against allowing people to chose when they want to end their own lives. In other words they care about unborn children in the womb but after that you are on your own until you get to the end of your life then they want to make sure you don’t have the right to make your own decision either.
America, what a country.
In 1971, the World Synod of Bishops in its document “Justice in the World,” wrote that it was a constitutive dimension of the Gospel:
“Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”
Is Mr. Beck suggesting that faithful Roman Catholics should leave the Church?
We don’t need to spend our time discussing how horrible Beck’s rants are. We need to figure out – how do Spiritual Progressives get our word out? How do we get on AM radio? How do we get on TV? HOw do we reach out to people who get their information from Beck, Limbaugh and co.?
As Christians, we should all stive to live a just and charitable life. But the attacks on Beck miss the point. Even a brief study of history will show you the result of either a theocracy (either modern Islamic examples or historic Christian examples) or a atheistic authoritarian government (China as an example). What you get is persecution running from minor descrimination up to complete extermination. The only way is to prevent the government from ever having power necessary to enforce one group’s views over anothers. Do you trust the government to rule by Christian principals? What happened to faith in the power of individuals to follow Christ’s teachings in thier own lives? Is anyone so naive to think turning more power over to the Federal government will have long term positive effects on Christian principals? History has proven otherwise again and again.
I’d Like it if the Churches&Religions All LIVED that instead of just Mouthing it, or ONLY “Helping”, when they can Prostelatize(sp), while the “Lucky” Beggar’s get to Eat.
No Dignity.
BP
We are a divided nation. I may believe that Beck is an idiot, as is Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and Coulter. These brain-dead morons have a hugh following. They have the time to think of new and more hate messages but working Americans and the progressives do not have as much leisure time to counter their hate messages.
Much time should not be lost documenting that Mr. Geck is a blooming “idgit” [spelling in line with this week marking St. Patrick's Day]. But I wonder where he was before he suddenly appeared on Fox [i.e., "fixed" news] & Headline News. However, the “Jesus only” crowd of charismatics & far-right evangelicals champion him in their “biblical literalism” and anti-
everything stances. The “gap” within organized religion is wider than in society at large. All of
this we should find quite distressing.
But the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Editorial Cartoon today (3/14/10) by its resident acclaimed
satirist Tony Auth makes strident gains with his visual representation of Herr Beck’s “Sermon
on the Mount” with all its vituperative invectives. The coming days may show “letters” who
assail [and thereby defend Beck] & others that decry the damage done by he and his kind.
But I’d like our public & social debate to one day leave such verbage as Beck’s in the dust
while espousing a much higher and deeper calling. Yet, how long…….?
As has been alluded to by others here, the real question seems to be how can such moronic statements gain traction. Social justice is hardly a radical proposition and one that is pretty much acceptable by civilized societies today. And Hitler?
So the fact that he has gained traction suggests to me that the ignorance in this society runs deep. Somehow we’re not educating people to think…
Agreement here. Long has appeared to me that the success of the stupid right must be linked to the failure of education and the education system. It really is “all kids left behind” in terms of being able to think critically and to think beneath the surface of dumb statements like this one. But if you can dumb down education with big classes and overworked or inept teachers and fast food for lunch then you have a mob of trogs who will accept anything they are fed, as long as they get a daily portion of violent emotion to help it go down. If Beck has a brain in his head, he’s a criminal.
Tom, You are a soul mate.
It’s so refreshing to know that someone else thinks Glenn Beck is so very misguided. I understand his points on keeping government from controling citizens, but that is as far as I go. My husband and I have watched GB since his days on CNN and have seen him get more and more intolerant and racist with each day. When I am able to sit through a whole show of his rants, I find myself shaking my head No for an entire hour. I find myself saying No, You’re wrong throughout the show. It’s a shame that he has amassed such a following and I agree that we should keep him on our radar, but focus more on getting NSP to reach more and more people before things get out of hand.
I think it would be useful to frame the question as, “Why is Glen Beck so much more successful than us in reaching millions of Americans?” The way I see it is Americans have to rise to a level above arrested childhood development before they can respond to our message. While we are throwing “pearls before swine,” the far right is slopping the hogs.
Glenn Beck may have a point. If you do not believe in social justice, you should leave your faith or religion. Believing in the Golden Rule is a key for a better world. Do the majority of Americans oppose a world of justice and peace? I believe Americans oppose justice and peace from the strong hate messages that are out there in our nation. We are living in dire and sad times in our country.
Were The esteemed Mr. Glenn Beck not affiliated with a TV cable network such as FOX, that considers facts at best extraneous and will twist, manipulate, and promote outright untruths on issues for the sake of revenue, we would have ignored him long ago. As terrifying as Mr. Beck is in his peculiar, eerily reptilian personna, the real threat lies with his slothful, incurious,sound bite- addled audience, whose opinions are formed out of poorly expressed and often sadistic stereotypes, cliches, and gross generalizations that spew forth from Beck & Co. like a broken sewer trunk line. These are the legacies of the proverbial snake oil medicine show audiences…………..except now the rubes have cell phones, tweet, twit, rant, gather for their 15 minutes in front of equally boorish media hacks, and erect larger TV satellite dishes.
Mr. Beck has the right, short of yelling fire in the crowded movie theater or blathering on with blatantly incendiary language, to speak his [sic] mind. I take great pleasure at that seemingly ironic circumstance. Mr. Beck and his ilk need the very people they condemn…to protect them and provide a platform for their views. If a society does not support free speech and every other aspect of our basic human rights for the best citizen and the worst scoundrel alike we have nothing. Mr. Beck is not who interersts me. He’s a consummate [media] narcissist who has taken his craft to a whole new bizarre level (or descent as the case may be). He is a user…..a user of rights and privileges that he would deny others in a heart beat. His audience on the other hand, are a group of unpaid, llimelight -seeking hacks, who will engage in all manner of behaviors for the sake of the camera. I ‘d be willing to be that this devoted audience has earned the utter disrespect and ridicule of its media icons. the same rubes are buying bottles of the false doctor’s treatment for all that ills ya.
Perhaps the true culprit here is the ease with which ignorance is spread and reinforced in our instant electronic age.
I’m a Social Justice Mormon, which is in keeping with the most significant message of our faith. Convert Beck does not speak for me or any Mormon who understands the essence of Christ’s teachings. . Monte R. Bona
Glenn Beck is an aspiring neo-nazi that might not necessarily mean what he says, but is opening the door for those that spew hate to justify their racism. As seen yesterday in Washington.
It hasn’t taken long for Beck’s rants against “Progressivism” to seep into mundane affairs. Last night at a parent meeting for a local “progressive-education” charter school in a virulently neo-conservative area, a large white man stood up during the Q&A period to pointedly ask, crackling with attitude, “All this use of the term ‘progressive’ in your presentation here, that’s not that ‘progressive’ political thing is it?” You could hear a pin drop. At least 80% of the room were neighbors and known progressive and liberal activist parents. Fear gripped the entire room and this man stood up even straighter and repeated, “Well, is it that progressive politics thing or not?” The founder of the school took the mike and replied, “No. Progressive education is not progressive politics.” Having been a member of the founding group of that school and knowing that she was flat out lying-but-not-lying, I felt my guts clench. He continued, “Well, you used that word social-justice… that’s code you know, code for anti-American stuff.” She quickly added, “Well, in California progressive education is supported by many Republicans, just read our website” and she moved on to another question.
Glenn Beck’s minions, his “entertaining” ideas and fascist agit-prop “suggestions” have indeed driven a massive spike into the hearts of our community, so much so that this one lone white man could spur a roomful of parents to terror, and cause an honest teacher to shrink back and rely on a technicality to spare us a potential riot, and our complicit silence…. this was a sickening realization.
Later outside this same man gloated that he had “shut down any hope of that godless socialism from infecting our kids.” People can dismiss Beck all they want. But his wicked drivel has a viral infectious lethal effect on even the better parts of our leftist selves.