Beware Beckian Theology: Beck v. Wallis

A Wantagh church is having none what Beck is selling.

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There is a face off brewing between FOX News personality Glenn Beck and Jim Wallis, noted evangelical faith-based activist.

It started March 2 following comments Beck  made  on his radio show:

“I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words,” and, ”Social justice is a perversion of the gospel.”

Jim Wallis, head of Sojourners, and sometime lecturer and teacher at Harvard’s School of Government and Harvard School of Divinity, countered with a request for a sit down with Mr. Beck:

“I know you are used to a monologue on your show and elsewhere, but let’s have a dialogue — civil, reasonable, respectful, moral, and, above all, biblical — to discuss what you have charged. You asked people to leave their churches, a serious thing, so until we have a public dialogue about this, or until you apologize, I will keep asking people to stop watching your show.”

Beck then lobbed a somewhat eepycray response:

“So Jim, I just wanted to pass this on to you. In my time I will respond — my time, well, kind of like God’s time, might be a day, might be a week to you, I’m not sure. But I’m going to get to it in my time, not your time. So you go ahead and you continue to do your protest thing, and that’s great. I love it. But just know — the hammer is coming, because little do you know, for eight weeks, we’ve been compiling information on you, your cute little organization, and all the other cute little people that are with you. And when the hammer comes, it’s going to be hammering hard and all through the night, over and over…”

I realize Beck is primarily an entertainer, but that was just weird.   His time is like God’s time, the hammer is coming, see, just weird.

Then, Tony Perkins of the right-wing hate machine Family Research Council, jumped into the mix:

Charming imagery from the FRC: Social Justice is an apparently gassy, rabid sheep/wolf

Perkins, addressing the volley between Beck and Wallis remarks how Mr. Wallis’ reaction “indicate how deeply Beck’s comments cut.”  Perkins goes on to say;

“He [Wallace] has been the Left’s main proponent of merging the biblical idea of justice with the liberal agenda to transform America into a place where the government orchestrates all facets of the economy.  The Bible teaches that the state has a very limited roll, a view reflected in the Constitution….”

It is easy to write off Glenn Beck as a whack job, as unpredictable as Brownian motion, but do so at your peril.  He commands a large, loyal audience of true believers. And although my suspicion is that Mr. Beck is in it just for the ratings, he is dangerously close to inciting a religious riot where there is only need for religious dialog.

More info:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com
• Family Research Council
• Sojourners
• Glenn Beck

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