If Not Fired, Beck Should Be Excommunicated!

Well, is this it? 

Has Beck finally gone too far. If this isn't too far, I don't know what would be. He could assassinate the Pope and get away with it. 

Murdoch must be a Godless wretch of a man, because this is too much even for "godless liberals" like me and Murdoch nor big Roger seems to be stepping up in this serious matter.

Becks sounds more like the anti-Christ every day. He needs to have all power removed from him, even that of a huge sound system, for his own sake. Can't anyone of the powers-that-be at Fox see that this man is either having a very public breakdown or he is the epitome of evil on the airwaves?
 
Beck's War Against Social Justice

Fox News' radical host Glenn Beck recently told his listeners to "run as fast as you can" if they find their church preaching "social justice," claiming it is a "perversion of the Gospel." "Social justice was the rallying cry," he argued, "on both the communist front and the fascist front. This is not an American idea." Beck even told his listeners to report preachers of social justice to the authorities: "If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop." 

Christian leaders of all denominations -- from progressive Jim Wallis to arch-conservative Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler -- have challenged Beck's attack on social justice. Religious scholars of Beck's adopted faith, the Church of Latter-Day Saints, have explained that social justice is essential to Mormonism. Bread for the World is asking Beck to "[q]uit using [his] bully pulpit to spread misinformation and fear." Wallis has initiated a petition at Sojourners, his social justice organization, for people to let Glenn Beck know they are social justice Christians.

In response, Beck has announced that the "hammer is coming" down on Sojourners and Wallis, whom he claims is a "Marxist." Despite Beck's threats, Wallis has repeated his invitation to sit down and have "an open and public discussion on what social justice really means."


WHAT IS 'SOCIAL JUSTICE'?:  

The concept of social justice runs throughout the Old and New Testaments and includes such virtues as "caring the for the poor and speaking about human rights," explains Pastor Michael Hidalgo. Social justice, the Center for Social and Economic Justice defines, "is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions." "The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation," writes the Catholic Office for Social Justice. 

Social justice necessarily involves the government and the economy. As Peg Chamberlain, President of the National Council of Churches, explains, "one cannot claim to be following the teachings of Scripture while also saying that Jesus and the prophets cared nothing for economic justice and that a discussion of such principles has no place in the Church." The ideas of economic justice, workers' rights, and redistribution of wealth are "in no way foreign to the biblical text." There are certainly disputes among progressive and conservative religious traditions about the proper application of social justice, particularly between the role of material needs and faith. However, to reject the concept entirely is to reject the church -- not one parish or priest, but all.


ECONOMIC JUSTICE:

Economic justice is central to communities of faith, who warn against economic systems unconstrained by social justice. The global financial meltdown was not just an economic failure, writes Center for American Progress Senior Policy Adviser for Faith and Progressive Policy Sally Steenland, but also a "moral crisis that exposes the fatal flaws of unfettered capitalism and rebukes the worship of free-market forces whose excesses are having brutal consequences for everyday Americans." "What is really broken in our economy," writes Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, "is that it no longer works for all the people." 

Churches and synagogues are on the front lines of providing financial advice to those abused by the mortgage industry. More than 40 different religious denominations and faith traditions are part of PICO, "a national network of faith-based community organizations" working "to increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities and revitalize democracy." President Obama was once a community organizer as part of the Gamaliel Network, a "multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-political, multi-cultural" non-partisan group that works for comprehensive immigration reform, health care for all, and economic opportunities for low-income people.
 

FAITH IN PUBLIC LIFE: 

Glenn Beck claims his attacks on social justice are based on his support for the "separation of church and state," even though he is simultaneously promoting David Barton, a radical pseudo-historian who wants to eliminate those walls. Beck does not distinguish the difference between imposing one's religious views on others and acts of civic and public engagement motivated by faith. 

However, millions of Americans working for a more just society without requiring everyone else's allegiance to their own private faith. Instead they recognize the universal messages of healing the sick, caring for creation, and providing refuge to immigrants. Faith in Public Life is a multi-faith group that works for "advancing the common good in the public square," including the Forty Days for Health Reform project. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is promoting initiatives like Go Green for Lent, following the Vatican's lead as the world's first carbon-neutral state.

"Now is the time for followers of Christ to help solve the global warming crisis," says the Evangelical Climate Initiative. Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals has called for Congress to "pass meaningful immigration reform this year." Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform are planning a march on Washington on March 21, unwilling to stand by "as our broken immigration system rips families apart, and anger, frustration, and misunderstanding divide our nation."

I would like to take this opportunity to express my heart-felt gratitude to the various communities of faith, who are fighting in the trenches the immorality of corporate America and the injustices they have brought about with their lust for power and unfettered greed.

Thank you all for your work on behalf of social and economic justice.

Let The Sun Shine In......

Chruches That Teach Social Justice....

....are evil, according to Glenny.

by Jeffrey Joseph
It was probably just a matter of time before Glenn Beck starting making accusations that would put him at odds with Christianity as a whole. Based on statements from his radio program and his FOX show, he has willingly endeavored to do just that.
Attempting to incite his audience into mass action, Beck decided to warn his listeners and viewers to beware churches that preach about the need for social justice. He pleaded, "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words." To ensure that no one misinterpreted Beck's call to action, he followed that immediately by saying, "Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Indeed, Beck, under the guise of a concerned Christian, unconvincingly compared calls for social justice with extremists from both ends of the political spectrum and demanded people leave their churches over the topic. "Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right," said Beck. "But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner... But on each banner, read the words, here in America: 'social justice.' They talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy."

It should not surprise Beck that social justice, the term coined by Jesuit priest Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio to promote compassion and humanitarian efforts for fellow individuals, would include calls for stronger democracy. It began as an effort to help others in a practical manner, such as promotion of democracy or clothing the naked and caring for the sick. In fact, social justice has become so ingrained within the Catholic faith that it bears mentioning in the Catholic Catechism. Being raised Catholic, Beck surely understood the gravity of simultaneously conflating the Catholic Church with both Nazism and Communism. Still, he may not have recognized how wide a swathe of Christians his baseless attacks also opposed, including members of the Mormon faith with whom he purports to agree.

Then again, Beck's theological aptitude led him to conclude that God would not support the right to an education. He must see no need for anyone to read the Bible or any of the books Beck so famously shills on his program; the acquired ability to read would, after all, necessitate some form of education. If Beck does not want to promote the ability to read even the book at the core of Christian faith, would that not mean he opposes the faith altogether, as well?

Beck's crusade against humanitarianism, or "social justice" as it sometimes is called, proves how little he cares about others, even his unfortunate viewers and listeners. In his zeal to fear monger about movements of Nazis or Communists, he successfully alienated Christian churches around the world, though he claims to be a Christian himself. Perhaps it also illustrates that Beck has a better understanding of social justice than he lets on. The movement began as a worldly way for Christians to fulfill their spiritual compulsion to help others. Beck simply inverted and corrupted the equation, letting his worldly desire for infamy and money lead him to vilify any spiritual compulsion or actions intended to help anyone but him and his preconceived message.

The time has come to send a message to Beck to quit his misguided attempts at a warped theology -- one that actually takes aim at Christians everywhere -- and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News. And please forward this article to a friend. You can drive the message home by obtaining a Turn Off FOX Bumper Sticker. Just Click Here.
Originally posted at Turn Off FOX.

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Let The Sun Shine In......