Jack & Jill Politics

Uh oh — looks somebody done stepped on the wrong evangelical toes… African-Americans know: Jesus has always been all about some social justice, y’all…

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. — Luke 18:22

From our friend the Field Negro who says it well:

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”~ Deuteronomy 15:11 ~

Since we are so close to Easter I am going to go ahead drop a religious post on you. And no, I am not going to blog about the Pope’s issues. I don’t want to offend my Catholic friends out there. (Not to mention a certain Catholic wife)

I come to praise religion tonight, not to trash it. Especially now that I see some religious leaders are calling for a boycott of a certain nut job who has managed to make himself relevant in the A-merry-can body politic.

“Last week, the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck called on Christians to leave their churches if they heard any preaching about social or economic justice because, he claimed, those were slogans affiliated with Nazism and Communism.
This week, the Rev. Jim Wallis, a liberal evangelical leader in Washington, D.C., called on Christians to leave Glenn Beck.

“What he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show,” Mr. Wallis, who heads the antipoverty group Sojourners, wrote on his “God’s Politics” blog. “His show should now be in the same category as Howard Stern.”
Mr. Beck, in vilifying churches that promote “social justice,” managed to insult just about every mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, African-American, Hispanic and Asian congregation in the country — not to mention plenty of evangelical ones.

Even Mormon scholars in Mr. Beck’s own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in interviews that Mr. Beck seemed ignorant of just how central social justice teaching was to Mormonism. ” [Story]

Oh my, what are all those god fearing wingnuts going to do? I think that old song, “torn between two lovers” would be appropriate right about now. Well, better late than never I guess. The thing is, if you let a crazy man loose on the radio and on television every day, at some point he will snap and the craziness will come out. But I worry about all his followers. (Including the ones who are regulars on this blog.) How can you follow a man who asks you to leave your church if it is about social and economic justice? Isn’t that what theology is all about? Wasn’t the life of a certain man who walked around with long hair and sandals back in the day about the “values of compassion mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation.”? I mean doesn’t damn near every religion teach about empathy for your fellow man and compassion for the lessor among us?

So what new kind of religion is this guy teaching? It looks like the religion of every man for himself to me.

“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.”

“Code words” for what? Oh yeah, the evil bogeyman, Barack Obama’s Socialist plot to take over A-merry-ca. What a loon. And the sad thing is that millions of people hang on to this guy’s every word.

And before you tell me that Glenn Beck and his ilk aren’t dangerous, remember what is happening in Texas right now. Trust me, that is the tip of the iceberg. There will be more of this kind of thing to come. Just remember; it’s happened before.