Glenn Beck's War on Social Justice and Human Rights

Glenn Beck says something outrageous and disgusting an average of at least twenty times a day. But his comments earlier this month that churches that work for social justice and human rights are akin to people who support Nazism and Communism deserve to be called out for what they are -- dangerous.

On his radio and television programs, Beck begged his minions to look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" when it came to their church. If they saw such words, they should immediately run for the hills because these liberal buzz words threaten to undermine conservative values.

"Social justice and economic justice: they are code words. If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish," said Beck, breaking the kneecaps of people like Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Romero, and the numerous other religious folks who, while across the board in terms of their political ideology, all rooted their work in social justice.

"Both the Communists who are on the left ... and the Nazis are on the right. But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and flew one banner ... on each banner read the words here in America: social justice," Beck continued.

Why would Beck take the time to trash religious activists who work for human rights and social justice? Well, ratings, for one. But also because they're a threat to his agenda. There's simply no way to read the Bible -- Old or New Testament -- and not see the overarching themes of economic justice and human rights underscored more than anything else.

Time Magazine asked the question: "Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?" Hate may be too strong of a word there, but one thing is clear: for Beck to insult people who are religiously motivated to work to end genocide, end poverty, prevent HIV/AIDS, and feed the hungry, he certainly showed his true colors. Here is a man who knows a whole lot about inflammatory media, but nothing about the working on behalf of the common good.

"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," writes Amy Sullivan for TIME. "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.'"

What Beck seems to be pushing for is a cafeteria style of religion. Pick the pieces out of religion that will allow you to become fat, rich and lazy, and leave the rest on the buffet line. That has some religious leaders, including Rev. Jim Wallis, calling for Christians to boycott Glenn Beck.

"Beck says Christians should leave their social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Glenn Beck," Wallis writes. "Christians may disagree about what social justice means in our current political context — and that conversation is an important one — but the Bible is clear: from the Mosaic law of Jubilee, to the Hebrew prophets, to Jesus Christ, social justice is an integral part of God’s plan for humanity."

Beck knows he stepped in it big time here. He might not like the nuns on the street corner preaching against the war, or the Unitarians working to stop harsh anti-gay laws in Uganda, or the religious networks working to honor the dignity and service of immigrants, but Beck doesn't get to revise religious history to fit a Tea Party agenda.

Dozens of advertisers have left Beck because of his inflammatory views. Religious folks who place at least a nominal value on serving the common good should do the same.

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