# Christians Agasinst Beck. Will it help? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258 "2010-07-19T19:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/1 "2010-07-19T19:20:40Z")
I got an Email from a group called Faithful America about their add claiming Glen Beck is distorting the gospel by denouncing social justice. [Here’s the highlights](http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/07/christian-faith-group-hits-back-at-beck-in-radio-ad-campaign-13025) Another Christian group called the Sojourners is objecticing to Beck and [being vocal about it.](http://go.sojo.net/campaign/glennbeck_socialjustice) Jim Wallis author and founder of the Sojourners has offered to go on Becks show to debate him about what the Bible says about social justice. Although I don’t accept the dogma I appreciate Wallis’s work and the balance it brings. It amuses me to see Christian groups going after Beck who likes to wave the flag and parade his beliefs out in defense of his stinking advocations. Do you think this will gain any significant national traction and serve as an embaressment to Beck? I sure hope so. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/2 "2010-07-19T19:35:21Z")
One interesting point is that Beck is Mormon and some Christians say Mormons are not Christian because they believe in stuff like the Book of Mormon. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/3 "2010-07-19T19:37:57Z")
Nah, he’s not exactly Mormon. He’s from the Church of More Money. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/4 "2010-07-19T19:40:48Z")
“Church of Mammon” Do most people think of Beck as a Christian pundit as opposed to a political one? Good grief I hope not. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/5 "2010-07-19T19:42:53Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > One interesting point is that Beck is Mormon and some Christians say Mormons are not Christian because they believe in stuff like the Book of Mormon. Well hopefully none of them will be dumb enough to say “He can’t talk about Jesus cause he’s a Mormon” I think the problem is that he has included rants against social justice so much that they just got tired of him preaching a “gospel” they didn’t agree with. Wallis founded the Sojourners because he wanted people to know that not all Christians agreed with the fundamentalists and thought gay marriage and abortion were the only important issues. I doin’t know if Beck made comments directed at them first but now he talks about these bad Christians attacking him. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/6 "2010-07-19T21:26:11Z")
He says what he says on Fox because _it’s his job_. Christianity could be proven wrong tomorrow and he would still get on and sing it’s praises cuz that’s what he gets paid to do. Same with Limbaugh, and O’Reilly, etc. They aren’t worried about truth or logic or reality, they’re worried about about not losing their listeners. Or sponsors. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/7 "2010-07-19T22:53:28Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > He says what he says on Fox because _it’s his job_. Christianity could be proven wrong tomorrow and he would still get on and sing it’s praises cuz that’s what he gets paid to do. Same with Limbaugh, and O’Reilly, etc. They aren’t worried about truth or logic or reality, they’re worried about about not losing their listeners. Or sponsors. I think that’s true but he makes it a point to be all about loving America, truth justice, and Jesus. I like the idea that other Jesus lovers call him into question. Media matters can handle the truth part. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/8 "2010-07-20T02:48:12Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > I think that’s true but he makes it a point to be all about loving America, truth justice, and Jesus. I like the idea that other Jesus lovers call him into question. > > Media matters can handle the truth part. And, to many Christians, it’s far more important. I still say he admitted it was all a ruse in that _USA Today_ article. I wonder if he’s just laughing about how gullible his audience is. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/9 "2010-07-20T03:05:03Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I still say he admitted it was all a ruse in that _USA Today_ article. I wonder if he’s just laughing about how gullible his audience is. I’m not familiar with this article. Link? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/10 "2010-07-20T03:58:23Z")
It was Forbes. > **[Glenn Beck Inc](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/entertainment-fox-news-simon-schuster-glenn-beck-inc.html)** > > In his empire there's the ideology--and then there's the money machine. Relevant passage > [@](#): > > With a deadpan, Beck insists that he is not political: “I could give a flying crap about the political process.” Making money, on the other hand, is to be taken very seriously, and controversy is its own coinage. “We’re an entertainment company,” Beck says. He has managed to monetize virtually everything that comes out of his mouth. He gets $13 million a year from print (books plus the ten-issue-a-year magazine Fusion). Radio brings in $10 million. Digital (including a newsletter, the ad-supported [Glennbeck.com](http://Glennbeck.com) and merchandise) pulls in $4 million. Speaking and events are good for $3 million and television for $2 million. Over several days in mid-March Beck allowed a reporter to follow him through his multimedia incarnations, with one exception, his 5 p.m. daily show on Fox News, which attracts just under 3 million viewers. (FORBES has a relationship with that channel via Forbes on Fox.) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/11 "2010-07-20T04:41:00Z")
It won’t make any difference because Beck’s listeners are stone-cold morons. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/12 "2010-07-20T13:13:31Z")
Sojourners & Jim Wallis were Evangelical Christians who were liberal on economic, defense, racial, etc. issues but conservative on abortion & sexuality issues. Over the years, there is a perception that their Evangelicalism & moral conservatism has somewhat faded to the point that fewer rank & file Evangelicals see them as anything but part of the liberal Protestant establishment. So nope- no help whatsoever. Btw, Southern Baptist and Latter-Day Saints spokesmen, hardly bastions of liberalism, have chastised Beck for his denunciation of “social justice” & have upheld it as a valid concern for conservative believers. However, I will say that while Beck did indeed vastly overstate the case (surprise!)- his core point was correct in that the term “social justice” has often been code words for both socialism & fascism (Father Charles Coughlin’s periodical was titled “Social Justice”). He neglected to differentiate between legitimate use of the term & propagandistic use. (Surprise again, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/13 "2010-07-20T13:14:36Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > It was Forbes. > > [Glenn Beck Inc](http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/entertainment-fox-news-simon-schuster-glenn-beck-inc.html) > > Relevant passage I did read a similar statement in the USA Today Sunday magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/14 "2010-07-20T13:16:55Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > “Church of Mammon” > > Do most people think of Beck as a Christian pundit as opposed to a political one? Good grief I hope not. He even references god in those stupid Goldline commercials, so though he might not be a Christian pundit, _per se_, he’s still a very vocal Christian. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/15 "2010-07-20T14:27:53Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > One interesting point is that Beck is Mormon and some Christians say Mormons are not Christian because they believe in stuff like the Book of Mormon. Interestingly, there is nothing in the BoM that really violates any historic Christian doctrine. The real matters of contention are- that God the Father was an exalted man and that humans can be exalted to Godhood, that all other churches were apostate until Christ restored the true Church thru Joseph Smith, and that exaltation requires such things as quasi-Masonic rituals. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/16 "2010-07-20T16:52:59Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I did read a similar statement in the USA Today Sunday magazine. Here’s another similar quote from an article the New York Times did on him last year: [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/media/30beck.html?scp=1&sq=glenn%20beck%20and%20rodeo%20clown&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/media/30beck.html?scp=1&sq=glenn%20beck%20and%20rodeo%20clown&st=cse) > [@](#): > > When it was suggested in an interview that he sometimes sounds like a preacher, he responded, “No. You’ve never met a more flawed guy than me.” > > He added later: “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’ ” As I’ve said many times on this message board, the guy’s a charlatan. If he thought he could make a buck taking a dump on the American flag, you’d see his pants flying down at warp speed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/17 "2010-07-21T02:04:23Z")
Well, [Beck is going blind.](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/20/2010-07-20_fox_news_personality_glenn_beck_i_could_go_blind_within_the_next_year.html) Though I doubt that is something Christians Against Beck actually prayed for. ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/18 "2010-07-21T05:07:20Z")
Wallis is currently an advisor to President Obama. Are you shocked that he’s criticizing Beck? His [intentional distortion of what Beck has said about Social Justice](http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/04/what_glenn_beck_meant_about_social_justice.html) is reprehensible. Seriously, read that link. It’s the whole issue in a nutshell. Father Charles Coughlin used it when naming his National Union For Social Justice and his publication Social Justice Weekly Faithful America was put together by [Faith in Public Life](http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/about/), which is a collection of Progressives masquerading as preachers. Jim Wallis: progressive advisor to President Obama, founder of Sojourners, says [voluntary charity isn’t enough (1:27 here)](http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-advisor-jim-wallis-explores-wealth-marxism-social-justice/comment-page-1/) and redistribution of wealth is “what the gospel is all about” (same link, 2:09) [Rabbi David Saperstein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Saperstein_(rabbi)): He has served as the director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center for more than 30 years.[2] Saperstein succeeded Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch as leader of the Washington D.C.-based political lobbying arm of the North American Reform movement. There, he advocates on a **broad range of social justice issues**. He currently co-chairs the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, and serves on the boards of the NAACP and **People For the American Way**. Melissa Rogers: [Served as chair of the President’s Advisory Council](http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/4972/97/) on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Ricken Patel: founder of [avaaz.org](http://avaaz.org), leftist activist organization (current headline on the site as I read it now: NO MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING! [Really guys? No more offshore drilling?] Rev. [James A. Forbes, Jr.](http://www.rollingout.com/insidebusiness/entrepreneur-a-business-leader/8112-james-forbes-wants-to-know-whose-gospel.html): Forbes’ new book, _Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism_, provides insight into the views espoused by the **progressive movement and how it aligns with the Bible**. Forbes took a moment to discuss what, in a nutshell, the movement means, and to touch on a couple of its hot-button views. –christian johnson He also hosts a show in Air America. Sister Catherine Pinkerton: [A lobbiest for NETWORK](http://anunslife.org/2008/09/03/sister-catherine-pinkertons-prayer-at-the-dnc/), a national catholic **social-justice lobby** in Washington, DC. The link includes her prayer at the DNC in 2008. Yes, that’s a broad array of social-justice progressive people. Not exactly a cross-section of religious America. It’s basically a blend of religion and politics and an extension of the White House. Why you would care what this group says is beyond me. Oh, and before you respond, you did read the first link, right? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/19 "2010-07-21T05:22:58Z")
> [@emarkp](#): > > Oh, and before you respond, you did read the first link, right? You mean the one defending Glenn Beck written by…Glenn Beck’s executive producer? Yeah, that’s an unbiased assessment of the Beck/Wallis situation. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258/20 "2010-07-21T06:34:31Z")
> [@emarkp](#): > > Faithful America was put together by [Faith in Public Life](http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/about/), which is a collection of Progressives masquerading as preachers. You can’t be progressive and a preacher at the same time? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-agasinst-beck-will-it-help/547258.md?page=2)