{"id":2222,"date":"2010-05-19T20:01:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T02:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/?p=2222"},"modified":"2011-05-03T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T17:02:09","slug":"at-his-glenn-beck-call-one-pastor-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/05\/at-his-glenn-beck-call-one-pastor-responds.html","title":{"rendered":"At his Glenn Beck & call: one pastor responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is written by pastor and all around good guy (my friend) Adam.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

OK. It makes my wife nervous when I wade into these kinds of discussions, especially when I do it publicly. Now, for the record, I claim no affiliation to any political party, as I think political parties tend to demand a level of allegiance that I\u2019m not willing (or at liberty) to give.<\/p>\n

That being said, this most recent clip of Glenn Beck \u201cteaching\u201d us about social justice and partnership<\/a> is abhorrent in my opinion. Of course, it would be merely ridiculous and laughable if I were simply judging it based on content alone. But that\u2019s not the only issue here. What bothers me is the blatant attempt to co-opt Christians for a political agenda (as well as for ratings). What bothers me more is how wildly successful it\u2019s been. To that, some of you might say, \u201cBut isn\u2019t that what they are arguing against?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, it is. And that\u2019s the hypocrisy of it all.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I don\u2019t think scripture mandates government-enforced socialism or communism (which are not the same thing). However, it should be noted that under the Mosaic Law, redistribution was actually mandated in some ways i.e. \u201cleaving the edges of your field unharvested for the poor,\u201d and the \u201cyear of Jubilee\u201d. But scripture doesn\u2019t advocate unregulated free-market capitalism, either.<\/p>\n

The theme that I read over and over again in scripture is God\u2019s concern with what kind of a people we are becoming–both collectively and individually. Are we becoming the kind of people who actually care about the other person…the poor and the oppressed…the widow and the orphan?<\/p>\n

OR<\/p>\n

Are we becoming the kind of people who find ways to demonize and devalue other people, so that we can justify hoarding wealth and resources for ourselves?<\/p>\n

Do we look for ways to baptize selfishness, or is the unconditional love of God that we\u2019ve accepted making us more loving and generous people? Is grace something that we merely accept, or is it something that we embody?<\/p>\n

Do we care more about the government trying to take our \u201chard-earned money\u201d to help the poor and oppressed than we care about the fact that they are poor and oppressed?<\/p>\n

Do we use one verse (out of context) from Second Thessalonians to justify our way out of more than 2000 verses of scripture that deal with our responsibility to the poor and oppressed?<\/p>\n

(SIDE NOTE: Did you realize that the prophet Ezekiel identifies the \u201csin of Sodom\u201d as the fact that they were \u201carrogant and overfed\u201d and that they \u201cdid not care about the poor and the oppressed\u201d?)<\/p>\n

Are we so troubled by the plight of the poor and oppressed that we wrestle with the complex nature of the problem and the inadequate solutions offered by political leaders on all sides, or are we suckers for T.V. personalities whose confident, righteous-sounding rhetoric gives us ways to justify our selfishness, greed, and\/or prejudice?<\/p>\n

You see; the term \u201csocial justice\u201d was coined because the word \u201cjustice\u201d became obscure over time. That happened because the legal, punitive meaning of \u201cjustice\u201d began to dominate society\u2019s understanding of the term. But in the Bible, the dominant meaning of \u201cjustice\u201d is more akin to what is currently meant by the term \u201cSocial Justice.”<\/p>\n

(Glenn Beck badly mis-characterizes “social justice” in the video clip.)<\/p>\n

Sadly, we Christians have a very pervasive tendency to remake God in our own image instead of the other way around. And we use Scripture as a tool to prop up what we already want to believe rather than allowing God’s story to change our hearts.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it saddens me to hear Jerry Fallwell Jr. and George Lillback happily lend their support and “wisdom” to Beck\u2019s propaganda. In this clip alone, they oversimplify issues that are deeply complex (Biblical and otherwise), and even poorly reveal the actions and words of historical figures (like Rauschenbusch, for instance, which will be clear to anyone who has actually read his works) and concepts they cite. I\u2019m unclear if their actions are because they haven\u2019t taken the time to adequately research these issues, or if they think they\u2019re serving some \u201cgreater good\u201d.<\/p>\n

To me, it seems they\u2019ve allowed themselves to be co-opted and used. Multiple positions could be intelligently and compellingly argued by people of faith, if they would simply admit the complex nature of the argument. Instead, we get people passing themselves off as experts to support what is little more than political, social, and media propaganda.<\/p>\n

Sure, I\u2019m disturbed by the fact that Glenn Beck is presuming to tell people where they should and shouldn’t go to church.\u00a0 But you know what bugs me the most? The fact that so many Christians actually buy into Beck\u2019s message. Where’s our discernment? Why are respected Christian leaders standing next to him and supporting his propaganda?<\/p>\n

And why in the world do so many people of faith feel the need to be at this man’s beck and call and serve his<\/em> agenda rather than the agenda of Christ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is written by pastor and all around good guy (my friend) Adam. OK. It makes my wife nervous when I wade into these kinds of discussions, especially when I do it publicly. Now, for the record, I claim no affiliation to any political party, as I think political parties tend to demand a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glenn-beck","category-god","category-jesus","category-jesus-needs-new-pr"],"yoast_head":"\nAt his Glenn Beck & call: one pastor responds - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/05\/at-his-glenn-beck-call-one-pastor-responds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At his Glenn Beck & call: one pastor responds - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is written by pastor and all around good guy (my friend) Adam. 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