Social Justice: Slapping the Shit Out of Beck

"For I the Lord love justice."

Isaiah 61:8

Over the weekend, while perusing Facebook, Flannista came across this headline in a link on Chrysosista's Facebook page: "Christian Leader Calls for Glenn Beck Boycott Over 'Social Justice' Comments". Intrigued, Flann clicked on the link.

About a week ago, the omnipresent Beck told his audience that "social justice," the term that many churches use to address poverty and human rights is a "code word for communism and Nazism."  To reinforce his point, Beck held up a pictures of a swastika and one of a hammer and sickle (see above) declaring again that "social justice" has the same philosophy as the Nazis and communists.  He continued:

I beg you look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church website.  If you find it, run as fast as you can.  Social justice and economic justice, they are code words . . . .  If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish.

I attend a church committed to social justice and personally believe in a God of social justice.  When I read what Beck had spewed, everything I believed about the love and forgiveness of God evaporated. The room seemed to start spinning.  I instantly pictured God as Don Corleone in "The Godfather"; the scene when he vows to other dons that if some unfortunate accident should befall his youngest son, Michael, "then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room and that, I do not forgive." 

I beg you, help me to forgive Glenn Beck. If for no other reason he transforms God into Don Corleone.

Following is what I'd like to say to him: 

Social justice is not as you said "a perversion of the Gospel."  It is the heart of the gospel. 

To love one's neighbor as one's self means to refuse to accept that divisions in society are normal, those divisions between the respected and the marginalized, righteous and sinners, rich and poor, friends and enemies.  It means to have compassion that is not simply an individual virtue, but a sociopolitical paradigm.  Jesus directly attacked the central values of his social world's conventional wisdom: family, wealth, honor, purity and religiosity.  He confronted the politics of oppression and the economics of affluence.  In other words, he stuck it to The Man.  Over and over again. 

Perhaps sitting in your studio it's easy to avoid the implications of following Jesus.  You would like to think that the gospel is all about the interior life and not the exterior, about heaven and not earth, about the future rather than the present, and above all, about religion safely and securely quarantined from politics.  Well, it ain't.  It's about taking your bloated language and self-righteous opinions and allowing them to shrink to the size of a mustard seed.  Instead of being full of yourself for possessing what you perceive is the truth, why not live your life the way Jesus did?  Humbly and above all, quietly.  Among the poor and oppressed.

I read one time that we ought to preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.  Forgive me for not preaching it now because I truly believe Jesus would like to slap the shit out of you.

UPON FURTHER REFLECTION:

Thanks to babysis, I changed my mind.  I don't need to forgive you, Glenn Beck.  Instead, I'm picking a fight with the person I intended to pick a fight with all along.  That's right, with you, you outrageous prick. You make me so mad, I just spit on my computer monitor.

Comments

[Flannista]

Oh dear.

I wrote this post right before I went to bed last night after a fairly reflective day and just re-read it.

I should probably change the title to "March Madness." Not that I would take back anything I said to Mr. Beck, but God transforming into Don Corleone? I did not make up that part -- that's really what what I thought. But when someone pisses me off, I think of THAT scene from "The Godfather"?

Where's the social justice in that response? Geez.

[Flannista]

The sassosphere noodled on this issue somewhat in Westsista's February 2010 "Meet the Sass" when she asked "Is Jesus Mom or Dad?" Here's the link to that post and ensuing sass stream:

http://www.sassistas.com/sassistas_our_dish_on_the/2010/02/is-jesus-mom-or-dad.html

(Look for this month's "Meet the Sass" this Wednesday, by the way.)

[Flannista]

Yesterday, when I first shared with Matissta what Beck had said about churches that advocate social justice, she was shocked. Then I heard myself say this, in a surprisingly calm, even sad, tone:

"That man is headed for such a hard fall."

I would like to think that folks who so cavalierly and for profit say outrageous things will get theirs one day. Usually when I think that, though, I get mine.

[Flannista]

Interesting article about Beck in today's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/03/15/ST2010031503503.html

Question: what is Beck? A journalist? Pundit? Entertainer? Clown?

It's a serious question.

[Chrysosistah]

Of course, he can say whatever he likes, I suppose (except for "Fire!" in a public theatre); but I agree with your preceding sentiment, he's gonna have a hard fall.

I presume FOX airs him because he gets enough viewers to justify the air time -- that's actually the part that really frightens me. The thought that there are so many out there who watch (and presumably agree) with him bowls me over. The fearmongering is SO disheartening . . . and his views are so warped, it's hard to understand how any free-thinking person (Christian or not) can endorse him.

[babysis]

I would probably leave a church that used Mr.Beck's name on their marquee.

[Flannista]

No certain how to interpret your brief comment, babysis. Reminds me of the response Jesus had to the Pharisees about paying taxes. He held up a denarius and said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." His response was masterful in that he turned the situation back on his opponents. He set a countertrap.

Your response skewers both Beck and this church committed to social justice. You are also perhaps skewering me and this post. In any event, I feel as though this post has been turned back on me which, to some extent, I deserve. I spewed back at Beck in the same tone he spews at churches who believe in and practice social justice.

That being said, you would leave a church that boldly (and more politely than I did) expressed on an outdoor sign how they interpret the teachings of Jesus because the sign included the name of the offender who spit on them? That somehow including the name offends what you believe about the teachings of Christ? I get that on some level. I really do.

I am honestly struggling with how to respond as a Christian to Beck. Should I ignore him? Not care that millions hang on his every pronouncement? Leave him to Jesus? I don't think the answer is turning my back. I am reminded of a quote from Dr. King: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

The message on the marquee above is a protest against evil.

[Chrysosistah]

I wouldn't want to ever be seen as strident as Beck -- but I liked that marquee sign myself. Dr. King was right, no doubt, but I often take the chicken way out and keep my opinions to myself unless someone specifically asks.

I confess I do hope that he has a very hard day of reckoning for the views he promulgates and the ego trip he's apparently on . . .

[Flannista]

FYI -- the image for this post was originally Beck holding up the pictures of the swastika and hammer and sickle (an image now linked in the post). I thought it was too incendiary and, at the last minute, switched the image to the church marquee which originally had been a link in the post.

[Jerseysista]

I suspect Beck is, as usual, just trying to stir a row. We will never know what he truly believes and what he does for sensationalism. He does, however, have his finger on the pulse of a large minority in this country and he is that minority’s very vocal mouthpiece. His attack on social-justice churches and his waving Nazi and Communist images is not new. I grew up in a church and community preaching the same things. The difference here is that he seems to be using these touchstone phrases and iconic images to deliberately define and mold his audience. By exaggeration of the issues, he is creating a sort of caricature of his audience. To the extent that audience stays and applauds, they are grasping onto an easy, concrete identification of themselves and abandoning what was once more nuance, varied and complicated. To me, this is the real danger in Beck. He is forming a non-nuanced, rigid, juggernaut out of a chunk of society. He is elevating what were once only aspects of many conservatives and making those aspects there very identity. He is like Samuel Adams during our revolution, revving up the mobs for his purpose.

This group that loves Beck, has always had these beliefs about the church’s role in social justice. No one is going to be converted in either direction by Beck or by his critics. It’s Beck’s amazing ability to form and manipulate and magnify this minority that makes me angry – and frightened.

[Flannista]

babysis: why not just come out and say you would not attend the church that posted this message on its marquee because you would find it too liberal? I know you think Beck is a butthead, but you think these churchgoers are, too?

[Jerseysista]

Regarding church marquees, if the one in this post is a real one, it is a good means of grabbing the attention of passersby and making the church's point, but those marquees (progressive and conservative) both tend to be little propaganda boards, in my view. As such, they seem cheap and tawdry. Using Beck's name only makes it more so.

[Flannista]

Very thoughtful response to Beck, Jersey. One that humbles me which is not easy to do.

By the way, I grew up in the same community that you did, and I don't remember our community preaching what Beck is now. Neither did I church my family attended; in fact, Mrs. Peterson (pastor's wife)) started the local food bank, etc. So your comment is interesting in that respect.

Your description of Beck's ability to magnify a minority is spot-on. It never occurred to me that he was caricaturing his audience. So he doesn't even represent them with much equanimity. Chryso is right. He's quite warped. And it is disheartening to watch folks you thought you knew lining up to buy tickets to the speeches he gives outside his FOX studio.

[Flannista]

Jersey -- those marquees tend to announce the title of the upcoming sermon or church raffle. That does not make them, in the aggregate, propaganda boards. For heaven's sake, this church's annual budget is probably what Beck makes in a week. The marquee is perhaps their only way to counter Beck's tripe.

It didn't take long at all, by the way, but I found a newsletter from the Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church from November. In it they list every member who has served in the Armed Forces. "Remember to thank a vet" the newsletter says.

Bet that propaganda appears on the marquee around Veteran's Day, too.

[Jerseysista]

If that marquee is "their only way to counter Beck's tripe," as you say, then that church has problems. I'm with babysis; wouldn't attend, either.

[Flannista]

Oh for heaven's sake again.

The more I clumsily defend this church and its marquee message, the more I do it great disservice and harm. I suspect this church has done far more than me or any of us in countering Beck's tripe with unnoticed acts of charity.

I'm sorry I used the image, period. In fact, I'm pondering removing it altogether.

[Flannista]

Done.

[Jerseysista]

The church I grew up in was not a mainline denomination. It was a fundamentalist independent Baptist church. A consistent undercurrent message in that church and others like it was that “those liberal churches have abandoned the true gospel. They have forgotten that the gospel is about salvation on faith alone.” There was a very deep suspicion and cautiousness about those churches that preached “good works” over “faith.” The fundamentalist churches did not disagree that Jesus preached the need attend to the poor but, because of this strong aversion to being led to perdition by relying on good works, attending to the poor was assumed to be a natural outcome of a devout life; it wasn’t something a believer should be focusing on as a goal. Those churches that had social programs not tied to missionary messages were viewed as “Communist” and insidious threats to the faith and were to be resisted.

If Beck had attacked “caring for the poor” he would not have had an audience. His use of the words “social justice” was a deliberate use of the code words in fundamentalist churches for the liberal churches thought to be the “whore of Babylon” leading people away from a saving faith. The problem is that Beck is creating a deliberate distinction, an “us” and “them” scenario for his own ends. He is not thinking at all about whether churches should care for the poor.

[Flannista]

I could not have said this better myself, Jersey.

Thank you. I mean it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for getting us back to the point of this post which until this comment had been unclear, even to me, and for that, I take full responsibility. In screaming at Beck, I, too, set up an "us" and "them" scenario for MY own ends.

Man, when will I ever learn to wait for my moment?

[Matissta]

Jersey, I too thank you. I would have never picked up on the "code words," but it now all makes sense.

I really couldn't understand why FOX would support him on this, but it speaks directly to his audience. And we liberals, are giving him the exact reaction that he wants.

Quite masterful.

[Jerseysista]

Flann, your railing against Beck does not need forgiveness. It's called indignance over injustice. There is nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, if you hadn't wondered if you needed forgiveness for your railing, I would say you might be lacking in love. It's healthy to do battle with a constant tension between love and justice.

[Jerseysista]

The more I think about Beck I think his main plan is to crystallize a conservative bloc. He does this by identifying the key issues in tangible, simplified bites that can be latched onto. By making those issues controversial or outrageous, he creates a reaction from the liberal critics which only solidifies the conservative bloc more. It's like his audience, hearing the code words and seeing the icons, says, "Yes, that's me" and then feels attacked by liberals for who they are, which in turn entrenches the views all the more. It doesn't hurt that Beck studiously fails to reveal the coded meaning of much of what he says. The disconnect only guarantees more of a liberal attack. It's ingenious.

[half-a-sista]

Flann, why, when I sign into Sassistas! do I get the picture of Glenn Beck holding the hammer and sickle in one hand and the swastika in the other. Did you change the pictures?

I liked the marquee, but wouldn't attend the church for other reasons.

Why forgive Glenn Beck? He needs to beg a lot of people for their forgiveness.

I'll stop while I'm ahead.

[Flannista]

half-a: I changed the photo when it became a post flashpoint. It seemed easier to respond to the sign than to either Glenn Beck's actions and/or my response to him (though Chryso made no mention of the church marquee when she was the first sista or mista outside of me to post this morning). When two beloveds on opposite ends of the faith spectrum (babysis and Jersey) both announce that they would not attend the church based on its message marquee alone, you know it's time to start over. I felt bad for the church.

You raise a good question: why forgive Glenn Beck? Why am I even paying attention to his drivel? It goes back to Jersey's 12:53 pm comment -- balancing love and justice. I appreciate Jersey giving me permission to express my outrage at what I perceive as injustice, but she also recognizes that I have little love for Beck. As a follower of the teachings of Jesus, I should be both picketing AND praying for him. I haven't been praying for him.

Thanks for asking the question, half-a. You don't have to stay away if you don't want to. I've scared away a lot of folks already, anyway. Also, based on the small number of hits we've gotten today, I'm guessing the title of this post is a big yawner. Should have gone for "Slap the Shit Out of Beck" or something a bit snappier.

Can you tell that I am having a miserable Monday?

[babysis]

Flann, forgive me for not looking at your blog again until just now. You sometimes attempt to put words in my mouth and thoughts in my heart that are simply not accurate. I'll try to set the record straight.

I read your post, the comments up to that point, and thought: Why does Flann feel the need to forgive Glenn Beck? Forgive him for what? And why does she think that's her job?

It's a serious question. Three questions actually. Then my thoughts turned to what I do believe about forgiveness, which is based on my belief in God and the means of grace, which has something to do with why I belong to a church.

I wasn't trying to slam that particular church or make a statement on social justice. I was trying to say GB doesn't figure into the foundations of my faith, and I'm not inclined to attend a church that bothers with recognizing him.

I'm having a lovely day playing Wii with my boys and enjoying them being home. I figured I would eventually take another look here, and not anticipating any response to my single line, I was planning to say this:

Flann, honey, lay that burden down. You don't need to forgive Mr. Beck.

Now I'll just add this: Yes, Flann, Jesus cares for the oppressed, the broken hearted, the poor, the orphans, the widows, the strangers, etc. If we claim to follow him, we should to.

Forgiveness is a much more difficult topic, which I doubt was the intent of your post today. But it's the word I picked up on, and I guess it doesn't fit with a completely appropriate airing of grievances about a popular public figure with outrageous views.

If you want to pick a fight with me, don't do it over this.