Mormons, other Christians decry Glenn Beck comments on social justice

I've been sitting here for the past couple of hours listening to Glenn Beck defend himself from attacks by Christian groups who are criticizing him for telling listeners to leave their faith if their church is linked to social justice groups. I also read one of the articles on the topic. I happened to also have listened to the show the day he made those comments and I can tell you that this is a pretty obvious mis-construction of what Glenn Beck was trying to tell listeners. I have a number of problems with the article.

First of all, I will mention how annoying it can be at times to get the news in Utah. "Our top story tonight: some dude's cousin who used to live in Utah was in New York two days before 9/11!" Gasp! Who cares!? The story is not the dude from Utah. The story is 9/11! So I have a problem when the headline of the article is "Mormons, other Christians decry Glenn Beck comments". The main antagonist of this whole thing is a man named Jim Wallis. Who is Jim Wallis? We'll talk about that in a minute, but for now we should know that he is NOT a MORMON. So the first problem is how the Utah media always tries to make EVERYTHING about MORMONS! I am a Mormon, but I don't think that everything that happens is about me. Page two of the article focuses on the Mormon reaction.

"Public figures who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints represent their own views and do not speak for the church," Scott Trotter said.

Meaning the person who wrote the article or originally got the comment, and who had an obvious agenda, asked The Church for a statement and they gave the typical, "We don't really know about this, its not a part of our teachings, just because someone is a Mormon doesn't mean they speak for the Church, you really can't figure that out after years and years of us telling you that?" Next are comments from Philip Barlow, professor of Mormon history at Utah State.

"I'd have to let him speak for himself," Barlow said of Beck's intentions.

However, he stressed that it's possible to confuse a general principle with a specific strategy and that the terms social justice and economic justice can be loaded phrases, as are "right to choose" or "right to life."

"A phrase like 'social justice' can be hijacked," Barlow said.

Barlow said after the New York Times quoted him Friday in a story on Beck's comments about social justice, he received a lot of responses, pro and con.

"One way to read the Book of Mormon," Barlow told the Times, "is that it's a vast tract on social justice. It's ubiquitous in the Book of Mormon to have the prophetic figures, much like in the Hebrew Bible, calling out those who are insensitive to injustices."

He said some comments he received do suggest that Beck is asking even LDS Church members to leave their faith.

So first he defends Beck saying people are allowed to think what they want, Beck has a point in that all these terms have ambiguous meanings, things always come down to selective perception and individual interpretation of meaning. The fact that people are saying they felt encouraged by Beck to leave the LDS faith says to me that they obviously didn't get it either. Beck doesn't encourage people to blindly leave their church because he said so. He encourages them to ask questions and not blindly accept everything that is said to them. You have to find out for yourself if God exists. The same principle applies here. If someone teaches you something at church, you need to find out for yourself if you believe in it. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." (James 1:5) Elder Glenn L. Pace put it nicely in a devotional address:

[Elder Pace said,] “The Lord has provided a way for you to be anchored, to put every principle and doctrine of the Church to the test. You’ve received the gift of the Holy Ghost,” he said. He quoted Moroni 10:4: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Elder Pace then emphasized the fifth verse of that same chapter, “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” He explained that although those verses are generally used to encourage the pursuit of a testimony, they apply to all doctrines of the Church. “Every principle and doctrine carries the promise that you can have a testimony of that doctrine,” he said.

And finally we have the thrilling conclusion to the article.

The Times also interviewed Kent P. Jackson, associate dean of religion at BYU. "My own experience as a believing Latter-day Saint over the course of 60 years is that I have seen social justice in practice in every LDS congregation I've been in," Jackson said. "People endeavor with all of our frailties and shortcomings to love one another and to lift up other people. So if that's Beck's definition of social justice, he and I are definitely not on the same team."

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson encouraged members during the church's last General Conference to reach out and help others every day.

"We are the Lord's hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift his children," President Monson said. "He is dependent upon each of us."

So basically, Kent Jackson's comments say that he was presented with some adulterated version of Beck's comments without any context. He clarifies that if Beck's definition of social justice is: "People endeavor[ing] with all of our frailties and shortcomings to love one another and to lift up other people", then he disagrees with him. Anyone who listens to Glenn Beck knows that that is NOT Glenn Beck's definition of social justice! Finally, the quote from President Monson simply verifies the fact that the Church does indeed believe in charity and loving eachother. Ok yeah. And? I don't understand why they are trying to make it sound like Mr. Beck is telling people to stop believing in charity and love for fellowmen. There is a difference between charity and love for fellowmen, and social and economic justice as defined by Glenn Beck. Charity and love is a choice of freewill. Social and economic justice are goals of Marxism where you are forced to share your possessions. You don't have a choice to give to the poor. You are forced to give to the poor by the government.

Now moving on, who is Jim Wallis? "Wallis actively eschews political labels, but his advocacy tends to focus on issues of peace and social justice, earning him his primary support from the religious left." So... a minister who is known for his efforts in social justice is upset that Glenn Beck said get out of churches that preach social justice? No really!? What else do we know about Jim Wallis? Jim Wallis is Obama's newest spiritual advisor. What? So Wallis is a believer in the bringing about of social and economic justice through efforts of government (= communism), and he is a spiritual advisor for Obama. Then get this quote from Wallis about Beck:

Wallis also stated on his blog: "What he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith and Christians should no longer watch his show."

So a progressive advisor to Obama urges people to boycott Glenn Beck's show? That's never happened before.

Please people, get the facts before you decide what someone actually meant. Don't take quotes from a media source (especially the New York Times which originally published the story we've been discussing) as completely pure. If a story comes out making an accusation like this, go to the source. Find out the context and content of the full discussion and then decide for yourself what you think the person meant. That is all.