Beck against Christianity

 "On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that "social justice," the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a "code word" for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

"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!" "    Politics Daily

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The Catholic Church has many problems, but its teaching with regard to "social justice" is not one of them.  Glenn Beck has now drawn a line in the sand between the emerging proto-fascist political  forces that he seems to want to lead and a 2,000 year old religion with 1.2 billion adherents.  He urges Catholics and other Christians to leave their churches?  What does he offer in exchange?  He likes to talk about the Nazis and the Communists.  What will his movement be called?  pl 

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/08/glenn-beck-urges-listeners-to-leave-churches-that-preach-social/

Comments

[Matthew]

Answer: The Fountainhead.

Isn't that the "ethics" of selfishness he espouses anyway?

[J]

Beck and his 'little beckies' will be called NazComms or is it CommNaz's. Hmm....putzs' anyway they're spelled.

[Lee]

I suppose history is riddled with demagogues whose sanity could be called into question by the majority. But their voice and absurd conspiracy theories could only be heard within shouting distance within their small home towns and cities.

What happens now that a for profit media empire gives this "logically-impaired crackpot" the power to reach the four corners of the world, with prime time television and radio shows?

For what purpose does this company seek to profit from such insane ranting?

To what dark end do we find ourselves with such a large audience tuning in daily, hanging on every twisted illogical chalkboard conspiracy? Beck's analysis and chalk-lines are purely "non-euclidean" -his utterances follow his own unique laws of logic and association.

I'm reminded of "Rwandan Radio" and the mind-poison it spread and eventual 'trigger' it pulled.

I'm also reminded of still more distant times and voices, that an entire generation had to rise up and fight to silence.

History repeats itself, but never so precisely.
Yet, it does repeat.

But does it repeat because the good amongst us remained and continues to remain silent?

You have a voice and an audience, dear Col.
Please, keep 'fighting' and never stay silent.

[Chicagoan]

Since Beck is a Mormon it's possible he doesn't realize exactly how offensive this is and why. As a Mormon I would hope he would understand the value of religious tolerance.

[N. M. Salamon]

Lee:

Very nicely put. Colonel your posting of the problem and your comments are very greatly appreciated.

[Castellio]

The path the Nazis took: replace universalist ethics with nationalist demagoguery.

[BillWade, Nh]

I never have paid attention to this guy. There's nothing more I can say.

[frank durkee]

The irony here is simply that the Kingdom, from whence come the social Justice teachings of the Gospel and the church, is at the center of Jesus' ministry and God's clear intent as set out in Scripture.

Fr. Frank Durkee

[anna missed]

It was Karl Marx who wrote;"(religion) is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions."

So according to Glenn Beck, "social justice" (as preached by Christianity) is a code word, and by implication, an illusion created as the harbinger of communism? I guess this makes Marx and Beck in agreement about the deceptive nature of religion, for exactly opposite reasons.

I bet Joe Stalin could straighten all this out.

[rjj]

Beck's audience knows Hayek's warnings about demagogues, crackpots, crusaders, and the Doers of Good flying the banner of Social/Economic Justice. The anti- message establishes he is none of those things (demagogue, crackpot, etc.)

Apparently The Doing of Good has a lot in common with fragrans flatorum suorum.

From Father Coughlin's 1934 "NATIONAL UNION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE" recruitment brochure:

God wills it !

This is the new call to arms —not to become cannon fodder for the greedy system of an outworn capitalism nor factory fodder for the slave whip of communism.

This is the new call to arms for the establishment of social justice !

God wills it! Do you?

Link to Father Coughlin's broadcasts.

[rjj]

In case it is not clear, I mean Beck is merely flying the banner upside down.

[SubKommander Dred]

Pat;
I think that wanker (Beck) is so tweaked on cheap methamphetamine (badly cut with drain cleaner) that it's become a total freak show from his side of the screen. I don't understand how he's been able to go on this long...a guy like that, you know sooner or later, something is gonna pop. Beck is the kind of guy who eventually is found face down dead in a hotel swimming pool early one morning, wearing only a garter belt, stockings and heels. He's a total freakout manic crazy clown juggling hand grenades and pulling the pins with his teeth. It's a preposterous show on a ridiculous network, viewed by and adviser to millions of my fellow Americans, who don't want any of that intellectual learnin' stuff and other mumbo jumbo; you just keep that Commie Socialist hippie crap away from me, boy!
Yes, it's back to future for our boy, Beck. The Militia Movement and the anti-government paranioa of the New World Order of the 1990s have arisen, like Dr Phibes after a lengthy sleep, and it's got that mutant, John Birch Society mojo going for it now. Tie that up with a cockroach like Beck and you get something really ugly brewing in this country.

Pete Deer

[s nadh]

They should call it: Myra Breckinridge. As in obtuse, rounded at the pointy ends. Civilization is crumbling.

[Paul Escobar]

I don't agree with Pat's sentiment: "What does he offer in exchange?...

Beck aims his M16 at the equilvalent of sloths. The weaker & more gentile the game, the better (Catholics, aging hippies, 3rd world relics, etc.).

Meanwhile, his political opponents are busy aiming wobbly bows & arrows at the equivalent of pumas & cheetahs (the banking system, housing crisis, empire, etc.).

For a raging population yearning to hunt, Beck offers easy game.

[different clue]

From what I have read, Beck has caused enough sponsors to de-sponsor his show that his show is now costing Fox News a little bit of money. Since Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News, that means that Beck is costing Murdoch a little bit of money.

But Murdoch supports the vision of society and human relations which Beck is advancing. Rupert is willing to spend many millions of dollars to keep Beck on the air in hopes of making America Beckist. If people of other countries fear a Beckist America, perhaps they could organize a world wide boycott against
all bussinesses which buy any ads in any Murdoch properties. Perhaps such a movement could cost Murdoch so much money worldwide that Murdoch would cancel the Beck show to make the economic pain stop. But without such a movement, we will never know.

[johnf]

There's a reason why the Catholic Church has been opened to so much vilification in recent years, and why paedophilia amongst a few of its priests has been given so much prominence.

The Catholic Church is the last major institution in the West which stands up, unremittingly, for the poor, and which opposed, absolutely, the Iraq War.

(The BBC can't decide which side of the divide it stands on).

I take pride in that.

[Trent]

Whenever somebody posits the Nazis without discussing German policy towards the Jews from '33 to '45 they mark themselves as assholes. Technically the term "asshole" could include the naive, ignorant, stupid or disingenuous. My Jewish classmates at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem called the non-contextual invocation of Nazis, "manipulative" and "wanky."

[Clifford Kiracofe]

He and his ilk of televangelists and assorted oddballs are neo-Fascists.

I explain in some detail the 19th century historical roots of Fundamentalist Christian Zionism, its relationship to 19th and 20th century Fascist and Imperialist currents, and its penetration of the Republican (and Democratic) parties in the US. "Dark Crusade: Christian Zionism and US Foreign Policy" (London: Tauris, 2009).

Of course, we can put aside the issue of whether or not Mormans are Christians. I do not cover Mormanism in my book as it needs separate treatment.

We do note that the Pentecostalist Fundamentalist Sarah Palin sports an Israel flag pin...having been duly "discovered" by the Neocons.

A number of authors (scholars, journalists, writers) have explored the issue of US fundamentalism and neo-Fascism including:

Chris Hedges, American Fascists. The Christian Right and the War on America (New York: Free Press, 2006)

Sarah Posner, God's Profits. Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (Sausalito: PoliPoint Press, 2008)

What we are seeing on the political stage today in the US is in effect a replay of the 1930s activity of the "American Liberty League" a Wall Street led Fascist lobby railing against the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt. The League backed all manner of "conservative" groups and spokespersons across the US. The Landon Campaign in 1936 and the Republican Party itself disavowed the Liberty League.

The post World War II so-called "Conservative Movement" picked up where the prewar American Liberty League left off.

Significant elements of the "Conservative Movement" had the goal of penetrating the Republican Party and taking it over. Mission about accomplished these days. Thus the Republican Party today is NOT the party of Ike or even Bob Taft...it is something quite different.

The "Conservative Movement" also penetrates the Democratic Party via the Liebermans etal....

From an analytical perspective (and counterintelligence) just where did/does the Australian Murdoch get his financing and powerful backing? Whose (foreign and transnational) interests is he serving?

"Ayn Rand" that is Alissa Rosenbaum was a Nietzschean IMO...supermen beyond good and evil should be super greedy now shouldn't they? Real "American Values"...right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand

[Dan M]

There's a bank of TVs in front of my desk at work. Every day at 4, (or 5?) when Mr. Beck comes on we take a coffee break to watch the mad scribbling, the flailing and the facial contortions. We ponder why seemingly innocuous words like "justice" are triple underlined on his blackboard. Then we go back to work refreshed (we always leave the sound off).

Any rate, here's a link to Hofstadter's "Paranoid Style in American Politics."

It even has a bit about the 19th century "Jesuit scare."
http://tinyurl.com/ykwa4wx

[Fnord]

Hey, its pure Satanism. Read LaVey or any of the other satanists. All requirements of a individual by his/hers community is a sin against the ubermensch ability to act freely. Compassion is sin. Ayn Rand with a active evil twist.

[505thPIR]

No statistic is more damning of our public education system than the numbers of people who actually take Beck seriously and follow his lead. None.

[jamzo]

bishop fulton j sheen had a tv show in the fifties where he talked about christianity, catholiicism and anti-communism

he had no guests and he wrote on a blackboard to highlight ideas he expressed during his lecture

i was reminded of this when i saw that glen beck used a blackboard in the same way

i wondered if it was coincidence or if he was imitating the bishop

[Cieran]

Johnf:

There's a reason why the Catholic Church has been opened to so much vilification in recent years, and why paedophilia amongst a few of its priests has been given so much prominence.

Well, since the so-called "conservatives" decided to declare war on Islam (with something like 1.5 billion adherents), apparently their great success on that front has inspired them to declare war on Catholicism (with something like another 1.2 billion adherents).

The silver lining in all this wingnut nonsense is that these idiots will soon run out of major world religions to pick fights with.

[Clifford Kiracofe]

In my book, I explain how a certain young Fundamentalist Christian Zionist preacher, Billy Graham, was picked up and promoted by the powerful Hearst and Luce press in the post WWII era of the 1940s and 1950s.

Graham, who became a co-called "spiritual advisor" to US presidents, was a useful tool for the liberty League elements of the Wall Street crowd who regrouped after WWII. His "antiCommunist" 1957 "Crusade" in New York City was underwritten by Wall Streeters.

The role model for "Billy" Graham in some ways was "Billy" Sunday, whom Wall Street also backed against the "Socialist" agitators of his day.

Some would have us believe that the doctrines of Graham and his ilk represent a sort of an "American" national religion.

Beck and Hagee and the late Falwell and such fall into this category of promoting some supposed "American" religion.

What we are looking at the the phenomenon of certain elites manipulating mass politics through various "bases." Julius Caesar and the Mob(s) etc.

The cult of Caesar, the Imperial Cult, becomes transformed in the USA to the Fundamentalist Cult asserting itself as the Imperial Cult in League with its pro-Israel Zionist brethren.

Instead of post WWII "antiCommunist" Crusades, we now have anti-Muslim crusades...

The overall technique of using Christian Zionist mass movements for domestic and foreign policy purposes was of course developed and implemented by Lord Palermerston in England circa 1839-1840....

For Graham see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham

[Scolomin]

This is the same man (Beck) who called the wife of a competing dj and made fun of her recent miscarriage during his radio show. He's much more careful now.