Friday, March 12, 2010

Media Portray Liberals as Christians RE: Glenn Beck

Due to journalists' ignorance of the Christian faith (and their anti-evangelical bias), they repeatedly report the social justice advocacy of liberal "christians" as if it were the core of Christianity, whether the subject at hand is electing Obama, or voting patterns, or higher education, or health care. With the help of the media, these liberals masquerading as Christians attempt to fool the public into believing that their social justice agenda is the sole Christian mission.

-- From "Evangelical leader takes on Beck for assailing social justice churches" By John Blake, CNN 3/12/10

An evangelical [sic] 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.

Wallis says at least 20,000 people have already responded to his call to boycott Beck. He says Beck is confusing his personal philosophy with the Bible.

Social and economic justice is at the heart of Jesus' message, Wallis says.

But a prominent evangelical leader says he, too, is suspicious of churches that preach economic and social justice.

Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, says Jesus wasn't interested in politics. He says that those pastors who preach economic and social justice "are trying to twist the gospel to say the gospel supported socialism."

"Jesus taught that we should give to the poor and support widows, but he never said that we should elect a government that would take money from our neighbor's hand and give it to the poor," Falwell says.

Falwell says that Jesus believed that individuals, not governments, should help the poor.

"If we all did as Jesus did when he helped the poor, we wouldn't need the government," says Falwell, the son of the late evangelical leader, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Christians Rip Glenn Beck Over 'Social Justice' Slam" by Hanna Siegel, ABC News 3/12/10

Wallis is in good company among leading Christians. The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA, which oversees 100,000 [liberal] congregations across the country and has about 45 million members, has objected to Beck's comments as well.

On his radio and television shows, Beck suggested any church promoting "social justice" or "economic justice" merely was using code words for Nazism and communism.

"I beg you look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church Web site," he said. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. ... Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If they're going to Jeremiah Wright's church, yes!

"If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish," he said. "Go alert your bishop and tell them, 'Excuse me, are you down with this whole social justice thing?' If it's my church, I'm alerting the church authorities: 'Excuse me, what's this social justice thing?' And if they say, 'Yeah, we're all in on this social justice thing,' I am in the wrong place."

Stu Burguiere, executive producer at "The Glenn Beck Radio Program," sought to clarify Beck's comments today.

"Like most Americans, Glenn strongly supports and believes in 'social justice' when it is defined as 'good Christian charity,'" he said. "Glenn strongly opposes when Rev. Wright and other leaders use 'social justice' as a euphemism for their real intention -- redistribution of wealth."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.