the rix mix

Glenn Beck really went over the line last week. This is going viral:

I'm begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. 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.

He equated the terms "social justice" & "economic justice" with Nazis & Communists. The problem is that many, many Christians - not just "liberals" - consider those "missions" integral to the practice of their faith, & define them in various ways. Even conservative evangelicals like Joe Carter are angry. Catholics are outraged. (Mr. Beck was raised Catholic. He is now a Latter Day Saint. Are Mormons embarrassed, too?)

Most of my beliefs & attitudes regarding social & economic justice come straight out of American mainstream political history & traditions, not religion. Old Republicanism, New Deal Democrats; many in my parents' & grandparents' generations were still waving those banners. In the past, nutballs like Beck were claiming big bands, then Elvis, then The Beatles, then disco & punk rock, were a Communist conspiracy to undermine the morals of America's teenagers. Before then, they attacked farmer's movements like The Grange. Even Billy Graham drew their ire for integrating audiences at his Crusades.

Beck's not just blabbing & blustering, as Limbaugh is inclined to do. Beck thinks about this stuff. He considers himself a rational teacher, a moral instructor. His program is a bizarre Sunday School. What does the guy have to say before he's deservedly yanked from the air & marginalized to the whacko fringes of small market radio?

Labels: in the news, media madness, religion