Evangelical church clashes with FOX, Glen Beck

[Amused]

Beck said if you church preaches social and economic justice than leave your church. What does that have to do with enforcing it via the rule of law? Are there any churches in the US doing that? Of course most churches expect a tithe anyway to pay their charity work and other operations. Remind you of anything?

From the lds website:

The Bible indicates that God’s people followed the law of tithing anciently; through modern prophets, God restored this law once again to bless His children. To fulfill this commandment, Church members give one-tenth of their income to the Lord through His Church. These funds are used to build up the Church and further the work of the Lord throughout the world.

--------

“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.”

“Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If I am going to Jeremiah Wright’s church,” he said, referring to President Obama’s former pastor in Chicago. “If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop.”

The problem is that most, if not all who use the term "social/economic justice" are NOT speaking of morality or charity, but of socialism/commmunism/force/rule of law.

In fact, I have NEVER heard someone use one of those terms when speaking of charity/morality. Not once. Every single time it has been used by someone who seeks to obyain those things by rule of law.

Usually when someone speaks of charity or civil morality, they say just that, charity and morality.

 

[nonlnear]

The problem is that most, if not all who use the term "social/economic justice" are NOT speaking of morality or charity, but of socialism/commmunism/force/rule of law.

In fact, I have NEVER heard someone use one of those terms when speaking of charity/morality. Not once. Every single time it has been used by someone who seeks to obyain those things by rule of law.

Usually when someone speaks of charity or civil morality, they say just that, charity and morality.

This is especially true from a Christian pulpit. "Social justice" is a specific piece of jargon from the lexicon of liberation theology, which is unabashedly Marxist.

The article title is intentionally misleading. The only thing Evangelical about the EUCC is the name. The title is an intentionally misleading attempt to insinuate to the uninformed reader that there is an ideological rift forming between Beck and his ("conservative") listeners who might describe themselves using the term "evangelical". Many of Beck's listeners probably think of the EUCC as an ultra-liberal non-Christian cult of hell-bound devil-slaves.

 

[DanDaManJC]

I made no such argument. Actually you made the black and white argument when you use buzzwords like socialism and communism.

My point is completely contrary to your assertion, it's that instead of fighting and calling each other names, we ought to use whatever tools do the best job. My 3 examples are about that, not favoring one solution for all circumstances.

...

A bit off the topic of the church/politics discussion... but I've gotta chime in and give this a +1

 

[rockyct]

I think in discussing this it's very important to understand what the term "economic and social justice" actually means. If it's just charity, like food kitchens and building homes for the poor I don't see a problem.

But I suspect it's much more than that or there wouldn't be a controversy. Like ericlp I think that churches need be careful about getting too much into politics.

As it stands now, too many political meetings are more like church for the zealous (party) faithful, and church meetings have no business becoming political meetings.

Fern

Within churches, "social justice" is never used to describe anything political. It's more of a younger movement that emphasizes giving back to the community as more a part of your everyday life and not something you do every six months out of guilt. I think Rev. Warren from the Saddleback Church is where a lot of this started from (a megachurch in a very conservative area of Orange County) especially after his book, "The Purpose Driven Life," became a huge seller.

To be short, "social justice" is never used with anything political and became big after a pastor at a church in Orange Country started focusing on it.

 

[Tom]

There's no reason churches shouldn't be involved in politics. A church is just an assemblage of people, no different than a corporation, the chamber of commerce, a trade association. All SHOULD participate.

The "right" is determined to label and package anything they object to, into a nice little phrase that makes it easy to attack.

This thread is full of examples, I guess "social justice" is a new one, to me anyway. Social justice isn't some sort of code as used by anyone except propagandists like Beck, to set up straw men. The Bill of Rights is social justice, getting rid of slavery is social justice, the fire department is social justice, so are prisons and capital punishment.

Don't buy into these grotesque oversimplifications that are just tools used to promote a particular agenda.

 

[TheSlamma]

If a Church does anything political they should lose their tax exempt status, PERIOD.

 

[Amused]

There's no reason churches shouldn't be involved in politics.

Somebody failed history...

 

[piasabird]

If a Church does anything political they should lose their tax exempt status, PERIOD.

So what you are saying is that no one in a church has freedom of speech?

Where is this in the constitution?

Churches have protection from the government. Government does not have protection from churches.

 

[her209]

So what you are saying is that no one in a church has freedom of speech?

Where is this in the constitution?

Churches have protection from the government. Government does not have protection from churches.

Do the parishioners have protection from the church?

 

[nonlnear]

If a Church does anything political they should lose their tax exempt status, PERIOD.

If any charitable organization does anything political they should lose their tax-exempt status. The big problem is defining "does anything political". Perhaps it's better to simply scrap the notion of tax exempt status. It sounds like a bizarre idea because we are so used to thinking that certain organizations need to be tax free, but if you think about it there really is no need for a separate class of organization. There are some sensible tax code tweaks that would change the game to the point that these special filings were completely redundant.