That crazy Glenn Beck told his conservative viewers last week that Christians need to leave their churches if their churches preach about social or economic justice. He said those words are just code words for Communism and Nazism. He said on his radio show, "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. 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 you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop."
Understandably, this has created a lot of outrage among Christians. One reverend called on Christians to leave Glenn Beck (oh snap!). I don't know what Beck was thinking. Attacking churches that preach about social justice is pretty much attacking every church. Pretty much every church preaches about social justice (though, for some churches, practicing what they preach can be a different story...). Social and economic justice was Jesus's whole modus operandi. "Religion scholars say the term 'social justice' was probably coined in the 1800s, codified in encyclicals by successive popes and adopted widely by Protestant churches in the 1900s. The concept is that Christians should not merely give to the poor, but also work to correct unjust conditions that keep people poor. Many Christians consider it a recurring theme in Scripture."
Glenn Beck is Mormon (the article says Mormonism is "a faith that identifies itself as part of the Christian family, but is nevertheless rejected by many Christians." Burned by the NYT!), and even the LDS church preaches social justice. Philip Barlow, a professor of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, said, "One way to read the Book of Mormon is that it's a vast tract on social justice." He added that the church's highest authority, The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, issued a new "Handbook of Instructions" this year and they revised the church's "threefold mission" and added a fourth: Care for the poor. Mr. Barlow said, "A lot of Latter-Day Saints would think that Beck was asking them to leave their own church." (Full Story)
I seriously don't understand how people can listen to Glenn Beck and think he makes any sense.
What, unfortunately, doesn't come as a shock is that the military government of Myanmar has passed new election laws that prohibits anyone that was convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party or voting. Oh and would you look at that, Aung San Suu Kyi (the detained opposition leader) was convicted in August of violating the terms of her house arrest (when an American swam to her house) -- and thus she's not able to run for office or vote in the elections this year. What a coincidence. Aung San Suu Kyi said the laws were "repressive" and "unjust", and she called for a strong response from supporters of her democracy movement. (Full Story)
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