Thoughts on Faith - Glenn Beck and Social Justice

I have always suspected that Glenn Beck says outrageous things just to be outrageous, so I don't generally worry about responding to what he says. His recent comments about the Church may well be more outrage for outrageousness sake, but nonetheless he makes a bold assertion that can't go unchallenged.

"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. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Beck goes onto hold up a swastika and communist hammer and sickle as he insists that a concept dear to many Christians is simply code for communism and fascism. Now I have no idea what is behind Beck's assertions. I assume that he is a Christian. And I know that "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion." But some opinions are simply wrong, and I have to assume that Beck's opinion on social justice either ignores what it says in the Bible, or doesn't know what it says there.

My colleague Steve Lindsley (click here to read his blog) says in his blog that of the nearly 8000 verses found in Bible almost 2000 of them - roughly a quarter - address issues of social and economic justice. With so many verses there are lots to choose from, but since Steve's already done the research, here are some he listed.

If there is a poor man among you....you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand...but you shall freely open your hand to them, and generously lend them sufficient for their needs in whatever they lack (Deuteronomy 15:7)

I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor (Psalm 140:12)

Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also, do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, to the orphan or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 22:3)

Jesus said, Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:42)

Beck's outrageous statements about social justice clearly are not rooted in a firm knowledge of the Bible. But aside from his theatrics, Beck is simply doing what many of us do on a regular basis. Our Bible's, at least the ones we refer to in our minds, seem conveniently to be missing all the passages that might challenge our beliefs and certainties, our biases and prejudices, our political or economic leanings. Conservatives join conservative churches and liberals join liberal churches and we both selectively read the Scriptures to claim that we are the ones who got it right.

But once the Bible becomes a resource to be used in confirming what we already believe, is ceases to reveal God to us. Instead it becomes an instrument employed in proclaiming a God created in our own image.

But I can't find much hope in a God who is patterned on me or anyone else I know. I don't think the world is going to be saved by getting everyone to agree with me or with Glenn Beck. I think it much more hopeful to encounter a God who is not at all like us, who in Jesus returns love to those who kill him, who keeps sticking with humanity despite how hopeless we seem to be, and who promises to someday turn all human hearts so that we long to trust and follow God's ways rather than our own.

Find something on your church's website, or a sermon that offends you or concerns you? Before you take Glenn Beck's advice and "run as fast as you can," you might want to see if you have just encountered the God is not like you, and who is seeking to transform you into something more than you could ever be on your own.