Glenn Beck Tells Christians to Say "NO" to Social Justice

If any of you somehow find yourself within earshot of Glenn Beck, here are four simple rules you should follow:

1) Stick out both your pointer fingers.
2) Shove said fingers into your ears.
3) Sing "la la la" loudly and continuously until you’re out of range of his egocentric, self-serving word vomit.
4) Repeat as necessary.

Glen Beck, über right-wing nutcase/talk show host, recently told everyone who would listen that "social justice" is a code word for Communism and Nazism, and if your church promotes social justice in anyway, you should leave it as fast as your little legs can carry you AND report the church to its authorities. (Because they couldn’t possibly be aware this has been going on since, oh, the beginning of Christianity.)

Now, I could explain how Communism and Nazism are radically different, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Beck is the only one who missed this day in 8th grade history class -- and he won't be reading my "leftist communist-Nazi" drivel anyway.

Instead I want to point out that working for and honoring justice is definitely one thing conservatives, liberals, Christians, non-Christians, Atheists, and that weird guy on the corner in the tinfoil hat decrying the world's end can and should agree on. Justice is a foundational belief of Christianity, most religions in fact, and if anything, there needs to be a greater movement within the Church to recognize this. In the NIV translation of the Bible, the word “justice” appears 134 times and in most cases is either a call to do justice or a warning not to act unjustly -- meaning do things like free trafficking victims and don't exploit the poor.

I'll be honest. I'm an active Christian. I go to church every Sunday and I try to follow Jesus every day. I’m also an active abolitionist and human rights activist. So is my church. The Bible I have is full of directives to serve the poor and oppressed, care for widows and orphans, put others before yourself, and support justice for all. I guess, as a friend put it, Beck must be using some new "right-wing whack job" bible. Whatever his reasoning is, and I use the term lightly, someone needs to have a "come to Jesus" talk with Mr. Beck.

I hope that any non-Christians out there who’ve heard this twaddle don’t hold it against the rest of us. Even if you don’t agree with everything that’s in the Bible, fighting for social justice should be common ground for us all. And for the Christians who listen to Beck, I urge you to take a look at what your actual, non-Beckanized Bible says about justice -- and then walk the hell away from all things Glenn Beck.

If you’d like to go a step further, check out the Sojourners response to Beck. There’s a letter you can send to him “outing” yourself as a social justice Christian. In the meantime…

Hey Glenn Beck, I’m a Christian and I fight for social justice. Church authorities, come and take me away!

Photo credit: Erna-Louise