Monday, March 8, 2010, 1:42 PM
Joe Carter
On his radio program, Fox News’ Glenn Beck encouraged listeners to leave their church if it proclaims a concern for 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!”
Listen to the audio here.
Although many Protestant denomination express concerns about social justice, the term is most closely associated with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. A Jesuit priest, Luigi Taparelli D’Azeglio, coined the term in the 1840s and based the concept on the movie downloads teachings of Thomas Aquinas.
According to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, “a large part of the Church’s social teaching is solicited and determined by important social questions, to which social justice is the proper answer.” Social justice is even given a section in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Could Beck’s claim be construed as “anti-Catholic?” Yes and no. I think if anyone else had made the remark it would have been hard to dismiss the anti-Catholic undertones. But Beck is a special case: He is too prone to say any dumb thing that pops into his head and too ignorant about history and religion to truly understand the implications of his statement. This doesn’t excuse him, of course, but it certainly is reason not to be too shocked when a self-professed “rodeo clown” advises people to leave their churches over Catholic “code words” like social justice.
Still, I’m curious to see how Beck’s loyal defenders will excuse his latest outrageous remarks. If we’re not supposed to take him seriously when he says stuff like this, when exactly are we to take him seriously?
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