American rightwingers have long been hostile to the “we should help the poor” parts of the Gospels – this week they’ve taken that attack to extremes:
Yesterday, [Glenn] Beck told his radio listeners to “look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. … If you find [them], run as fast as you can. … They are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”
That includes the Roman Catholic Church.
And more:
Glenn Beck continued his attack on “social justice” today, arguing that it entails “a perversion of the gospel” and is “not what Jesus would say”
I would love to see what’s in Glenn’s copy of, say, Mathew 25.
Now, it’s hardly breaking news to suggest that Beck is a loon – but what makes this disturbing is that he’s not alone. There really are people who genuinely think “social justice” is a codeword for villainy, something to oppose. That trying to improve conditions for the poor is not just difficult, but evil. Something to be avoided. That the real issues for a Christian are those Jesus never mentioned – abortion, homosexuality – and not anything to do with the “poor” or any of that nonsense.
And look at how they justify it. The following is a comment on the second link above:
Jesus was not a socialist, he was not a politician, he was the Son of God and preached how we should be good to each other. Yet even Jesus hated and fought evil, and corruption. Concern for your fellow man (and woman) is an important part of being human. Here is the trick, when that concern is mandated by someone else (IE the Government) then it is no longer a personal choice (God did grant us with free will) and thus not part of what God granted us.
Social Justice is a ‘key-word’ for socialism meaning that it is the job of the government to ensure equality of men from cradle to grave. It is not about uplifting individuals but suppressing the masses. WAKE UP! Stop drinking the cool aid.
As a christian I weep for my country and the world. When freedom dies here Satan has won the world.
“Rich” thinks that Jesus wanted his people to advocate for the freedom of poor people to suffer and die in poverty. That the government that represents them and acts on their behalf should NEVER do the things he asked them to do directly. I want you to help the poor – but not collectively! You must not join together to effectively help them! That would be socialism, which I ABHOR!
Somehow, providing decent education or healthcare for poor children becomes “suppressing the masses”. It’s a bizarre, sociopathic worldview. And one that hurts real people.
Remember, these people are a voting block that American politicians – and Australian politicians – amend public policy in order to court.
Moved On 
Here’s some more about this …
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/christians-urged-to-boycott-glenn-beck/
A certain Jim Wallis (not that one) has weighed into the matter. The comments (so far) are not very supportive of Beck’s halfwittery.
And lets not forget that Beck is a Mormon, and the Mormon church has plenty of its own charities who are set up with exactly the same remit he’s railing against.
Or maybe I was right a while ago when I misread it and he really is a member of the Moron church. It would explain a lot.
did beck sign off his radio show by apologising for wasting an hour of his listener’s time? people should be taking advantage of the daily show and colbert now being on free to air here, to really see this nutcase in action.
thanks to abc2, i was able to watch both daily show and colbert last night by 8… and in widescreen (um, foxtel, why no widescreen?)
Glenn Beck is a voting block that Australian politicians amend public policy in order to court?
I’m pretty sure Jesus was something of a socialist — many of his teachings include references to things like sharing wealth, food, shelter etc…
Perhaps some of these evangelical types need to read the bible for themselves rather than just relying on the interpretations fed to them by some looney church representative.
Glenn Beck is living proof that we are yet to reach Peak Stupid.
Beck is right as usual. When the virtue of charity is not hip enough and tools and miscreants flatulate on about ‘social justice’ you just know something is amiss, and you should scrutinise the motives of the proponents of this newspeak justice. Often it will be good old fashioned charity, but many times you will find a leftist agenda behind it.
The best form of justice is to run an efficient and profitable business, providing stable employment to your fellow citizens.
The worst form of social justice is socialism, which has been responsible for more poverty misery and death than anything else in history.
Christianity is a personal religion. Its role is not to take over the sate and bend it to its will. If a country is to become a Christian country it should be because each individual chooses to be Christian. Charity is what individuals choose do do in their lives. Having the state deliver welfare is not something an individual could or should feel virtuous about. In fact most state actions aimed at producing ‘social justice’ have negative effects which the benighted leftists who promote them are incapable of even contemplating in their rush to spend other peoples’ money.
“Christianity is a personal religion. Its role is not to take over the sate and bend it to its will.”
And yet these people will vote against a government for considering gay marriage.
“The best form of justice is to run an efficient and profitable business, providing stable employment to your fellow citizens.”
That provides health care and schooling to poor children how?
I’ve said it before elsewhere, but it deserves another airing in response to this:
http://www.plognark.com/?q=node/1129
a shock jock putting his spin on biblical fairy tales…
Beck is a dick expressing a narrowly held view of the world. If you’re al all familiar with any traditional Christian church then you’ll be aware that they all work cooperatively with governments and have extensive programs to assist the poor. Both within and outside their own flocks.
No organisation anywhere in the world does more for the benefit of the poor than the christian churches do.
Jeremy, on the first point, you are right. On the second, we still need public schools and hospitals. That doesn’t mean that society would not be better off when people earn enough to decide for themselves whether to allocate more of their resources to health or education or anything else.
“The worst form of social justice is socialism, which has been responsible for more poverty misery and death than anything else in history.”
And roads, schools and hospitals etc etc.
I’m not a fan of charity but someone has to make up for the shortfall that the wingnuts are oblivious to.
“we still need public schools and hospitals.”
And roads and police and a fire brigades etc etc.
No confessions, I think SB just made the summit of Peak Stupid with his comment above.
I mean, his FIRST comment …
And yet these people will vote against a government for considering gay marriage.
And don’t forget it’s religion which is motivating Conroy’s Great Big Censor on Everything.
‘Peak Stupid’ could only occur if stupid was finite.
All the evidence would tend to prove that stupid is actually infinite, renewable and capable of reproducing exponentially.
Beck runs like a perpetual stupid machine. A mobius strip of stupid.
When Jesus threw out the money lenders, it should have said that he created a competing credit card with better bonuses and a lower interest rate for the first 5 months.
Duh.
“When Jesus threw out the money lenders, it should have said that he created a competing credit card with better bonuses and a lower interest rate for the first 5 months.
Duh.”
hehe.
actually if you put a microscope on the letter “i” in the book of galatians, you’ll find a secret message from jesus ranting against socialised medicine
“Often it will be good old fashioned charity, but many times you will find a leftist agenda behind it.”
I’m fairly sure the Catholic church doesn’t have a “leftist agenda”, SB. You can look for Teh Leftist to bash in most places, but you might struggle there.
@Northern Exposure…hilarious! 🙂
I am sure the fundies will re-write the bible in their own image, if this hasn’t been done already.
It’s in progress.
A friend of mine has had his IP address barred from Conservapedia for 5 years for constantly re-writing articles, to be more accurate. 😀
I never use the word ‘sez’. If your going to impersonate me you can at least try and make it look legit. LOL.
Good post. I reckon you should cover Beck and his pals over at Pure Poison. Less people would be influenced by the likes of Bolt and Blair here if it was more widely known just how crazy and dangerous the Murdoch Militia is in the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/us-surge-rightwing-extremist-groups
That’s interesting; if they hate people that believe Jesus did not advocate for the poor and downtrodden, it is not a wonder they HATE a book that says “oppression is worse than slaughter”
John D, there is a difference between charity and socialism. Socialism doesn’t help people. It degrades the recipients of its munificence and it makes every body worse off.
On the other hand affording people the opportunity to provide for themselves empowers them. There is nothing the world needs more than dead socialists. The craven socialist desire to invictimise people, to degrade and dis-empower them must be killed off. The socialist must be reborn as a new person.
Christianity is about empowering individuals to live a virtuous life and avoid the deadly sins. The deadliest sin of all is pride, which is the basal impulse of every socialist. Christianity is not about directly remaking society or about social revolution. It is about personal revolution for each individual. Only when that happens will society be made anew.
Keri, reds are everywhere. Take Polly for example. No sooner does a cat learn that it gets free food then it gives up hunting and killing its own food. It is a domesticated dependent of some sad human who derives pleasure from the abject status it has inflicted on the poor animal. The only further possible degradation of the poor animal is if its human overlords turn the creature into vegetarian.
SB you have never had a cat have you…
Here’s Becks Beatitudes (according to Greg Uchrin of Intravenous Caffeine):
“Blessed are the poor in mental capacity, for they shall cast votes…
“Blessed are the mean, for they shall possess everything…
“Blessed are they who mourn, for the inheritance tax shall be abolished…
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for theirs is the hand on the switch…
“Blessed are the merciless interrogators, for they shall be called patriots and let off scot free…
“Blessed are the pure of blood, for they shall be called white folks…
“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall shoot six…
“Blessed are those who reap incredible profits from astute political contributions, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
And this is the real Gospel, thanks t Al Franken.
(I have posted it before but you can’t have too much of a good thing.)
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/17_franken.html
SB sounds like a 1950s McCarthyite. If socialism scares you so much you should be campaigning against Abbott who is shaping up to be an even bigger socialist than Howard was!
SB sounds crazier every time i visit this site, Confessions. I used to quite enjoy his (somewhat twisted) perspective, but he really has gone off the deep end recently.
“There is nothing the world needs more than DEAD SOCIALISTS. The craven socialist…must be killed off”
Yep, you sure are a centrist SB! I reckon watching Fox News and Glenn Beck has rotted your brain.
What a shame…
many “crazy” bloggers are not what they seem
Jules, I have two cats, a ginger and a black and white lazybones who lies about on the footpath waiting to be petted. Their dependent condition worries me, but sadly we all have a bit of the socialist in us. I am working to expunge this cancer from my life. And I thought you could do better than to link to Wankin’ Franken.
True confessions, Abbott is a bit of a worry. Still Bob Brown seems to be a new fan of his.
Duncan, just so you understand, I am a creature of balance. I don’t want to close schools and hospitals or end all welfare. I would like to provide what is necessary, and to do it in the least degrading way possible. I would also like to balance the generation of wealth with its expenditure on social programs. Iam definitely not out there with fools who argue for an unregulated free market and a tiny government. I seek a balance between these two approaches.
Socialiststs seem to have no clue about how wealth is generated, and no idea how badly the development of a culture welfare entitlement affects society. Whole suburbs and generations of families are blighted by it.
Still Bob Brown seems to be a new fan of his.
The Australian’s Paul Kelly thinks that’s even more reason to be alarmed!
Socialiststs seem to have no clue about how wealth is generated, and no idea how badly the development of a culture welfare entitlement affects society. Whole suburbs and generations of families are blighted by it.
Precisely why Howard’s middle class welfarism needs to be wound back. And why the media needs to press Abbott on how exactly he intends funding all his recent billion-dollar promises, while refusing to pass legislation designed to strengthen the budget position.
Abbott’s strategy is clear. He secured the base with his stand on the ETS. Now he is running to the middle, and on this particular issue, outflanking the ALP.
Rudd did a similar thing prior to the last election, using an attack on Work Choices to secure the base and getting the word out to the business community that he was an economic rationalist at heart.
The middle? You must be joking! Climate change is still a mainstream view, with something like 70+% of voters accepting so. As for the ETS the most recednt polling shows 57% of voters support the CPRS – amazing when you consider how voters usually respond to the proposition of major economic reform. Abbott is not outflanking the government on this issue at all, but has simply wooed a small coterie of very vocal polemics to his cause.
Confessions, what I meant was that Abbott first does something to appease the base 1.e. blocking the ETS. Then heads back towards the middle. By “this particular issue” I meant (but did not sufficiently identify) the paid parental leave issue.
“Keri, reds are everywhere. Take Polly for example. No sooner does a cat learn that it gets free food then it gives up hunting and killing its own food. It is a domesticated dependent of some sad human who derives pleasure from the abject status it has inflicted on the poor animal. The only further possible degradation of the poor animal is if its human overlords turn the creature into vegetarian.”
SB, if we don’t feed her at the appointed hour she starts licking the wall above our head. If we leave it for an hour and a half, she starts verbally telling us off, and kneading us – presumably tenderizing us just in case we fail to feed her at all . I’m fairly sure between the two of them they’d find a way to feed themselves if we stopped feeding them. They both know how to open doors, and the other day I found Max in the pantry where he was chewing a hole in the cat biscuit box and negating the need for me to get involved in his feeding at all. Polly will bitch at us for food, Max goes and find his own. Or takes Polly’s. You’d like Max. I’m fairly sure he’s spending most of the night working out ways to get into my aquarium, as well.
I’d be interested to see what leftist influences you’ve been able to dig up throughout the Catholic Church.
“No sooner does a cat learn that it gets free food then it gives up hunting and killing its own food. ”
Somebody forgot to tell my cats this.
Abbot has indeed outflanked the ALP on this issue.
First he’s gone way further than they have on parental leave.
Second he’s proposed that we tax rich corporations (the ones you lefties were saying were not taxed enough just last week) in order to pay for it.
Third he’s opposed the government so often the past couple of months that they are whining about how he’s “against everything” and obstructionist.
When the ALP are
-against being generous to families
-against taxing big business to do it
-obstructionist in doing the above
then Abbott has them by the very very short and curley ones.
Good to see not all cats are seduced by the leftist tendencies of their owners.
The catholic church has over a couple of thousand years had to deal with all types of human perversity. Leftist tendencies were commonplace in the 20th century as Marxist notions conquered the hearts and minds of the so-called intelligentsia. Sadly these notions also afflicted the catholic church.
The Liberation Theology movement flourished for a time, particularly in South America. Cardinal Ratzinger (now the Pope) set them straight, but the tendency still lingers.
There have been lots of catholic leftists over the years. They are probably just cases of misplaced idealism. Fr Pfleger of Chicago is a case in point. This type usually gets off on setting up their own community and doing things their way. The Catholic Worker Movement in the US were essentially a species of Wobbly. The French had the Worker-Priest movement going for a while, but the hierarchy moved against them.
The catholic church allows individuals latitude in their political beliefs. The problem usually arises when they want to form a group and claim some endorsement or identification with the church.
“The catholic church allows individuals latitude in their political beliefs. The problem usually arises when they want to form a group and claim some endorsement or identification with the church.”
Actually, the problem comes when you talk about having a different believe, not just having a different belief.
Then heads back towards the middle. By “this particular issue” I meant (but did not sufficiently identify) the paid parental leave issue.
And he’s over reached there as well. 40% of voters prefer the government’s scheme, only 26% favour Abbott’s. Face it SB, the man’s a socialist and a threat to our economic recovery.
Second he’s proposed that we tax rich corporations (the ones you lefties were saying were not taxed enough just last week) in order to pay for it.
With a scheme that benefits the high income earners. No self-respecting lefty would back Abbott’s scheme.
So in fact Abbott hasn’t outflanked Labor on the PPL issue at all. He’s outflanked himself, and is likely to get worse with these voter impression figures from the latest Essential poll:
Opportunistic, divided and out of touch is how voters see Abbott.
Keri, the catholic church has a role in the spiritual life of individual catholics. Getting involved in politics as a church always creates problems. On the other hand, individual catholics should be free to follow their own political beliefs and to take a role in politics or public life as individuals.
Confessions, stop playing the party hack and sit back and enjoy the show. Politics is interesting again!
SB: I won’t enjoy the show until Abbott and the Liberals have been thoroughly smashed at the election. And hopefully we will have a DD election and get rid of Fielding into the bargain. Now *there’s* another religious person who is incapable of showing tolerance and compassion to disadvantaged, namely asylum seekers.
SB my cat is independent. It hunts, sometimes it even hunts native wildlife. Cos we feed it it hunts less.
One thing it did, for years, and still sometimes does, is leave us presents. Animals for us to eat.
See thats actually socialism. It sees itself as part of our family, it tries to contribute to the best of its ability. It even tries to speak in english using its cat shaped vocal apparatus. It has a tiny vocabulary, but consistent one.
It knows its a cat and we are people, but we share our lives, the same home (it was born in this place) and all of that. It sat there and watched me bury its mother many years ago.
If you are an amoeba how self aware do you need to be?
If you are a cat in a house with modern humans … thats kind of different. We live on a big farm tho. (My cat is a he btw, I was trying not to be self indulgent by calling him it.) There not a lot of people near by, and only a few cats…
Sorry back to topic.
SB Al Franken’s cartoon makes the point. I used to work in a nightclub in melbourne – for a while it was huge, full on. After work we’d often get together for a couple of beers and a smoke to wind down from the craziness of work.
usually Kenneth Copeland would be on, and often we’d watch in stitches. We were a mixture of atheists from religious and sceptical families, (at the time, tho it was the late 80s early 90s, and the rave movement was at its best. That actually reignited some sort of spiritual feeling in people who were disillusioned with religion at the time.)
Its so obviously ridiculous … Kenneth Copeland… We spent most of the time in hysterics. Those of us who were familiar with what jesus actually said … we saw him asking for people to send money cos god told him to, and that if they didn’t send him enough money they were god was gonna call him back to heaven.
This sort of greed is the origin of the deviant prosperity theology Beck is peddling, and even one of its worst preachers in the 80s repudiated it years ago. (Jimmy Bakker if you’re interested.)
I have a second cousin who was a practising liberation theologist priest in El Salvador…
You have no clue do you SB.
thats not what liberation theology was about… the eucharist as a purely political thing. Thats bollocks. The context of providing a sacrament to the poor and oppressed during the hardcore right wing oppression in South and Central America in the 80’s .. it was impossible to minister to those populations and not get political cos they were under siege from fascists.
The Vatican Hierarchy has always worked with the extreme bastard right, and it couldn’t hack people working with their natural enemies. It has never liked it – this is one of the major tensions in the Catholic Church the tension between power and the poor people who make up the congregations throughout so many working class societies over the last 150 years.
i dunno how willingly Ratzinger actually engaged with his time in the Hitler Youth, but once he had power he showed his true colours.
You don’t end up looking like palpatine cos you are a nice guy. Its a universal law or something.
Liberation theology was actually connected to people suffering terrible oppression – as a priest its impossible to minister to populations under the duress those ones were under without developing some understanding that Jesus wouldn’t be real happy with the situation either, based on the Gospels.
I’ve repeatedly said that I’m no longer a Catholic, but I still have its influence on my upbringing, and a big part of that was the notion of social justice.
Of the understanding that jesus said to his apostles give up your stuff and follow me.
Accept poverty (for yourself) – priests take vows of poverty in honour of that despite the wealth of their church, and at their disposal if they are in the right spot.
Now no one with a family will do that – but most of them understand that its an example to aspire to even tho he was the perfect son of god and we (supposedly) aren’t.
And so for many catholics its a matter of accepting that they are responsible for other people’s poverty, cos whatever they do to and for the least of his brothers they do to and for him.
I mean anyone can quote scripture till the sky falls but there is actually a narrative to Jesus’ life that actually has a lot to do with challenging power in the world and supporting the poor, the oppressed, the underdog or whatever.
And doing it in the context that actually the best way to honour whatever’s divine about life is to live up to that example. Well try to.
SB’s trying to portray it as some sort of external “perversity”, but its the real origin’s of the left in the catholic church (which is by definition the people, the congregation, thats what I was told all my time in the church, the religious hierarchy gave direction/controlled our identity, but ultimately we made it up,) – those things originated with a genuine respect for what jesus was on about.
Its ironic that the church became an earthly power, when in fact Jesus was tempted by Satan with earthly power and rejected it.
Its always worth keeping that in mind when any religious institution (especially a Christian one) starts becoming an earthly power. Liberation theology was a resistance to earthly power in its ugliest manifestations, as brutal as Mao or Stalin tho on a smaller scale.
When people start calling it or other grass roots movements among congregations whose religion is a fundamental part of their lives “perversions” when the context of those movements was death squads, drug and arm trafficking and the oppression of ordinary people by rich turds … its obvious they are simply stirring the pot or genuinely cognitively challenged.
Speaking of torture and liberation theology…
Beck promotes the ideology that founded the School of the America’s.
No wonder he objects to “social justice” being associated with his target market’s religion. The religious cry for “social justice” was one of the few things the targets of that evil institution had on their side.
Thanks Jules. That is certainly a good exposition of leftist tendencies in the Catholic Church, and a good answer to Keri’s inquiry about that.
Our previous cat, also now buried in our yard had enough self-respect to hunt. Trouble is he once brought a blue tongue lizard to our doorstep. The new cats seem to be happy enough bludging.
I live in a house overrun by big skinks. Its a farmhouse on a big farm, our nearest neighbours are 500m away.
They come into the house and eat the cats food. They have him bluffed. They are wild critters tho, they hunt mice. I saw one catch a mouse by the tail once, in its mouth. It swung its head smashing the mouse’s skull into the corner of the fridge. Several times. It was pretty brutal. very quick tho.
Then it ate it…
Our cat is a strange one, but it comes from a long line of strange cats. It used to hunt birds, and we’d go off at it. It stopped, (well it stopped doing it in front of us) when it was about 2, its 11 soon. There’s heaps of birds round the house tho. It doesn’t seem to hurt them, and they give it heaps of shit.
I’m really busy at the moment, but when I get some time I’ll update my blog and stick some pictures of the skinks up. I’ll let you know if you want to see them.
They are big, the biggest one, which i haven’t seen this year, was nearly 2 feet long. Could have been more than 2 feet, possibly, I never measured it. It somehow got under the lino one year and I accidently stepped on it.
But it was fine. It crawled out, gave me a look and run off.
Not that it has anything to do with the topic at hand.
Honestly I don’t see much difference between charity and socialism. If both are practised the same way .. by that I mean with the focus on the outsome, not the ideology, and with a genuie desire to achieve the outsome.
Ultimately in our society its like a bird (politics), if the left and right wing are in synch and actually work together the bird can fly, if they work against each other its a mess and the bird crashes to the ground.
Obviously there is gonna be tension between them, but if its balanced, and neither side dominates I think the process works. The same thing probably applies to the church, or any institution big enough to divide along those political lines.
I think in the next few years its going to become apparent that resource distribution, power and wealth in human societies, and their equivalents in all other natural systems follow a power law distribution.
One that could be mapped as an exponential graph.
If thats the natural tendency in natural systems its going to raise some serious issues as far as democracy and wealth redistribution goes.
And if thats the tendency it seems fair enough to me that socialist measures should be employed to moderate that tendency. It may be impossible to eliminate, but it should be possible to moderate it significantly.
And I guess the freedom that a free market and an open individualistic society provides (the traditional virtues of the right) can really drive a culture of innovation. But it also speeds the unequal distribution of resources, which then stifles innovation
Tho … I dunno if thats true of all capitalist systems or just the corpratocracy that dominates the world now. Ultimately that situation has come about because of an imbalance between the right and the left.
I’m sure the same problems would occur if the imbalance went the other way.
Ultimately in a market economy there is a natural trend to the right, and it probably needs to be balanced by an effort to apply lefty/socialist principles. Too far in either direction is a bad thing.
Right now we are too far to the right.
far too far.