Glenn Beck Attacks Christian Core Value

A few weeks ago the conservative, fireball Glenn Beck urged his listeners to leave churches that use the words "social justice" or "economic justice". He said,

"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! . . . Social justice and economic justice. . . believes man can be perfected. That is what the Marxists believe." (to hear excerpt go to

I know that Glenn Beck is an entertainer and not a theologian, but his rant linking social justice, churches, and Marxism has me feeling the need to be a Sunday school teacher.

The PCUSA has a strong belief in social and economic justice, but not because we are Marxists. Social and economic justice had its beginnings in the bible. God tells us to care for widows and orphans in over 60 verses, and the poor and oppressed in over 40 verses. God does not just ask us to offer personal charity, but rather, to create systemic justice on a national scale. The book of Amos is God telling the people of Israel to eliminate the gross divide between rich and poor and seek justice on a national level. God called Israel to redistribute its wealth long before Karl Marx was born. Glenn Beck calls that communism, God calls it justice.

Recent Christian leaders who fought for social justice because it was a biblical mandate include:

• Isaac Watts – writer of "Amazing Grace" fought to end the slave trade
  
• Evangelical Protestants (that's us) – created free public high schools paid for by tax dollars and churches in the 1870's
  
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Lutheran pastor and theologian opposed Nazism and was killed after writing theology that required Christians to live out social justice
  
• Martin Luther King – Forced our country to change laws that denied equality for minorities in the 1950's and 1960's
  
• Oscar Romero – Archbishop of El Salvador who was assassinated when he kept asking the dictator and army to read the bible and seek justice rather than seek power and wealth. (Romero is one of my greatest heroes. Even though he was Catholic, his theology is similar to our reformed theology).
  

Glenn Beck and other shock jocks on the right and left often speak without understanding issues. However, churches will continue to prayerfully and intellectually use scripture to bring social justice into our world today. But beware of Glenn Beck and others who allow their political ideologies to take precedence over God's word.