Evangelical leader takes on Beck for assailing social justice churches

Evangelical leader takes on Beck for assailing social justice churches

www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- An evangelical leader is calling for a boycott of Glenn Beck's television show and challenging the Fox News personality to a public debate after Beck vilified churches that preach economic and social justice.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a network of progressive Christians, says Beck perverted Jesus' message when he urged Christians last week to leave churches that preach social and economic justice.

Wallis says Beck compared those churches to Communists and Nazis.

(visit the link for the full news article)

:O It would appear that the Fundies are not going to take any more of the right wing douchebaggery that is the voices of Faux News. You see friends, this is the kind of church I could become a member of. Churches like this are doing what is right, not what their political party wants.

The courage of the churches involved with this is pretty great to see considering modern day Christianity is pretty full of hypocrisy and charlatans.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

For anyone who knows Jim Wallis, this was a no-brainer. Wallis was never a fundamentalist, and the Sojourners movement has always been much closer to activist Catholicism than conservative evangelicalism.

We all pick our churches or synagogues or temples according to our fundamental beliefs.

iMacFanatic has posted a thread on Beck's original outrageous comments, and I have responded in detail describing how I see the relationship between religion and society, so I won't repeat it all here.

I'll just say I applaud the work of Rev. Wallis and the Sojourners. He preaches the kind of Christianity I can believe in.

I also find my beliefs very compatible with most Jewish teachings on the subject of social responsibility. In addition there are aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism and other world religions which similarly address the individual's relationship to the suffering on earth.

I have explored the teachings of many religions and philosophies and have arrived at my philosophy. I choose, rather than just accepting what is put before me.

Social justice really means take your money and give it to someone that someone deems worthier than you to have it.

If this minister is engaging in politics, and it appears he is, he can and should the tax exempt status his church has with the IRS.

Churches need to talk about salvation and souls not spending and socialistic demands.

Separation of Church and State.

Preach/Lecture from the Bible.

People don't need to be TOLD what to do politically. The Bible and faith will guide that.

No other book was used so extensively to lay down the base laws of our land than the Bible.

You can believe and bank on that.

God allows those into power that he wills.

It's beyond our questioning or reasoning. That means "you don't question it!" duh.

America, with all it's flaws, is the greatest nation that we could come up with; crafted by absolutely brilliant minds!

Who can argue otherwise.

We're greedy, corrupt, flawed, liars OMG such a huge list of human failings.

If we accept those elements of humanity as successes, we have ultimately failed completely.

It's up to us to strive, as the lone free society, to achieve what is currently still accepted as higher goals.

Something opposite of greed. Something opposite of corrupt. Something opposite of lying.

I don't understand why people feel the need to complicate things into obfuscation. Seems evil to me.

God isn't complex. The Bible isn't complex.

Edit to add:

Clearly the pastor/priest is asking for an ass kicking. God is always more than happy to ass kick his own that are worthy; Else God's already abandon that guy to his own ends. Too many 'leaders' have achieved God's despite.



[edit on 3·18·10 by DrMattMaddix]

Originally posted by Jenadots
Social justice really means take your money and give it to someone that someone deems worthier than you to have it.

If this minister is engaging in politics, and it appears he is, he can and should the tax exempt status his church has with the IRS.

Churches need to talk about salvation and souls not spending and socialistic demands.

What do Christians in America think Jesus preached about?

Jesus stood for social justice. He helped those in need. The early Christian church stood on those same principles.

If anything it should be the job of the Churches, not the State, to help those in need. Who is always first to bring aid to disasters? Not FEMA, its the Churches. The Churches are some of the greatest Charitable organizations in the world, far better than the corrupt Red Cross.

This nonsense about the Church having no role in the world, other than a spiritual one, is only going to weaken and corrupt the Churches further.

BTW, I don't agree with tax exempt anything. "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. "

Edit to add:

Tzedekah, social justice and charity, is a very important concept in the Torah and to G-d.

Want to quickly anger G-d? Don't help those in need. The function of tithing is supposed to be helping people, not lining the pockets of preachers.

There is nothing Darwinian about the Torah or Jesus.

From the words of Jesus

"I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of G-d"

[edit on 19/3/10 by MikeboydUS]

reply to post by MikeboydUS

"I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of G-d"

That statement speaks volumes.....