After urging his radio-show listeners to "run as fast as you can" from churches preaching "social or economic justice" — a term he called "code" for Nazist or Communist ideology — Fox News' Glenn Beck has become persona non grata for a diverse list of Christian leaders. Left-leaning evangelical leader Jim Wallis called for Christians to boycott Beck's broadcasts, and National Council of Churches of Christ President Peg Chemberlin said Beck, a Mormon, is disrespectfully pushing his own political agenda. Did Beck cross a line? (Watch an ABC report about Glenn Beck's comments)
Reducing the Bible to "Communism" is perverse: Beck's distortions are absurd, says Bill Press in The Hill. "Jesus expected his followers to help the poor, the hungry and the dispossessed." Christians call this the "social gospel." By stigmatizing the word "social," Beck is, in effect, telling Christians to ignore role models like St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa and "instead follow the teachings of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and George W. Bush, who don’t give a fig about the poor." Now we know Beck's theology is as sick as his politics.
"Glenn Beck turns Christianity upside down"
Beck wasn't being un-Christian: Glenn Beck "didn't say Christians should abandon their religion," says Catholic League president Bill Donohue in Opposing Views. He merely recommended that they "find a more conservative parish if [they are] dissatisfied with hearing left-wing sermons." There's nothing shocking in this: Some Catholic priests are "stridently left-wing," while others are "stridently right-wing," and parishioners "shop accordingly" all the time.
"Is Glenn Beck anti-Christian?"
It's Beck critics who are un-Christian: Evangelical Jim Wallis has failed to respond "in a way that emulated Jesus’ exhortation to 'love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,'" says Joel Mathis in Philadelphia Weekly. In the fall-out from Beck's remarks, his holier-than-thou critics seem "more interested in scoring political points than in doing God’s work in the world."
"Jim Wallis’ un-Christian response to Glenn Beck"
