I originally wrote the following several weeks ago. Glenn Beck GB had just done a radio show disparaging all things that call themselves interested in "social justice," and encouraged his listeners to divorce themselves from their church if they could find those 2 words on it's webpage.
Seeing as how my father-in-law is a devoted Beckentologist, and encourages me at every turn to please consider his fact-filled, reality-based, lucid, and intelligent commentary and turn away from the dark side that is liberalism before it is too late for my eternal soul, I had to write the following. Mrs. C. convinced me to sit on it for a while, and by now, the whole GB smears social justice thing is just another forgotten burned up log in the GB fireplace.
But, for me, with the in-laws in town this week and next, and the Rand Paul RP dust up, I've decided to blow the dust off of the cover and unveil this...
Tuesday
I double checked!
Being Tuesday...
If you haven't seen the series finales of Lost or 24, don't read the TWLTW section below! Don't say I didn't spoil ya warn you!
First
I'm leaving for a 10th wedding anniversary (yes, my own!) vacation drive through New England later today, for the next week. Therefore, I won't be able to post next Tuesday morning. I'd be much obliged if anyone out there would be so gracious as to stand-in for my anniversary celebrating personhood. I'll be able to check in as we get internet connections, but that will probably be at night in the B&B's, and who knows, if all goes well, there may not be much time for that after all. (Is anyone using an iPod touch to read/comment on diaries on DKos other than frontpagers?)
The Main Event
Introduction
Glenn Beck has infected my father-in-law's thinking like a distortion-virus. I'm beginning to think that the cult of Beck is in full swing, as his most rabid followers defend him like "public" Scientologists do Saint Hubbard himself. The cult mentality in both cases seems very similar to me.
So, just to make sure I wasn't losing it myself, after the 5 millionth invitation to "watch the truth" that is Glenn Beck I wrote this humble response to the most recent invitation. You see, my FIL knows I'm a person interested in "facts" and "supporting evidence," and since that's all that Glenn Beck deals in, he's shocked that I haven't set the DVR to Beck-a-vision as he has.
I know these diaries are hit-or-miss. I know they almost always engender a rash of "don't bother with it" comments. I know there is no real solution to be had by simply posting this.
But, just to check-swing my own sanity, here goes...
Body
Why Glenn Beck Confuses Me
The Jesuit organization in the United States has a great website. One of its website pages is titled, "Social Justice" and includes this quote:
"We cannot separate action for justice from the proclamation of the Word of God."
Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ -- Jesuit Superior General 1965-1983
That same page has links to more than 8 international and domestic social justice programs supported by American Jesuits. There are options for those who support the Jesuits in America to contribute or donate time and resources to these efforts. The same page states that, "promotion of justice is the mission of the Society of Jesus today."
By comparing it to the Jesuit promoted and supported programs, I believe the medical missions you, Natalie, and Maribel have organized and participated in are first-rate examples of the kinds of social justice initiatives the Jesuits support. They are one of the many, many things I admire about you both. You live your faith. You act on your beliefs.
I listened to Glenn Beck's radio program a short while ago. I don't always watch his show, nor do I always listen to the radio program, but I did watch the full CPAC presentation, and when I heard he had something to say about social justice (because I remembered it to be a bedrock principle of the Jesuit Order, and thought of your admiration of, association with, and participation in Jesuit education and Jesuit-like programs such as the social justice-inspired medical missions) I looked up the show and listened to most of it. This is part of what I heard Mr. Beck say to his national radio audience (transcript source):
“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. 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!"
In today's (March 11) radio show, he was angry at the federal government for attacking Christian churches. He claimed that in CT a law suit had been dismissed that would have placed lay councils in charge of church real estate holdings, and that this suit was evidence of the government's attempt to destroy Christianity in the United States.
9 days ago he was advocating that believers leave their churches. That seems contradictory to me. How can he complain about the government attacking churches when 9 days ago he encouraged his listeners to leave theirs? Is that not an attack on Christian churches?
I wondered what "social justice" were code words for, and Glenn explained that they really mean "fascist" and "communist" progressivism. At CPAC he told an applauding crowd that progressivism is a disease destroying the country. Now, on March 2nd, he said that progressivism is social justice and will bring the churches which preach it "under the ropes in the next year." Jesuits have been social justice activists and educators since their founding in 1534. What evidence does Mr. Beck have that this bedrock principle of the Jesuit way of life will endanger it's existence next year? He didn't offer any I could hear in the broadcast.
And, I've never read any textbook or heard any credible source make the case that Nazis pursued policies of social justice. And I have read a lot of textbooks and spent a lot of time studying history. Their entire program was exactly the opposite. They exterminated the weak and different, and that's definitely not social justice. Social justice extends a helping hand to those who need it, especially those who are weak and different. That's how it is enacted by the Jesuits, anyway. Mr. Beck does not build arguments based on fact. He lies, distorts what few facts he offers, and paints in very broad generalities that are completely unsupported when critically assessed.
So, I'm confused. If I'm to take Mr. Beck, his shows, and his political ideology seriously, then I should leave the Catholic church. It has pursued social justice for over 2,000 years. It's very founder promoted social justice by elevating humble fishermen to be his lieutenants rather than established, wealthy, widely respected men who would have been more likely to persuade the masses on his behalf than unknown laborers.
But, then, so should Glenn Beck, as his own church, the Mormons, include social justice as one of its guiding principles. Several leaders of that church have actually condemned his comments made during this broadcast.
Which leads me to think he's not being serious. That he knows the internal conflict (hypocrisy) of his own argument and rhetoric and that he's just doing all this to manipulate people, drive ratings and make advertising money. He's being entertaining. But, smearing the Jesuits, and implying they are a social disease because they have the words "social justice" on their website does not entertain me. His conclusion is that Jesuits, Mormons, and nearly all Christian denominations are diseases destroying America. I don't find that entertaining in the least. I find it deeply offensive. The only way this could be true is if in the past few years these organizations had been infiltrated and changed in some way by these invisible, unnameable, disease-ridden progressives.
So, he's either serious, and wants me to leave my church, in which case I'm not interested in listening to him anymore because that is offensive to me. I'm not going to leave the church because Glenn Beck told me to in a 3 hour radio show.
Or, he's not being serious, but being entertaining. In which case I have to ask, who in their right mind would find this kind of talk entertaining in any kind of way? Why would someone hear that and think, "Yes. I want to hear more of that."
Especially a person of faith, a person who believes in the same Christian call to service and social justice as have the Jesuits since their founding in 1534?
If he's joking, it's not funny. It's not funny because people believe him. Just like there were believers in the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism. If he's driving ratings through entertainment, what kind of entertainment is that? I don't get the joke.
If he's being serious, then he's misleading millions with a distorted and lie-filled version of history, and the present meaning of social justice. If he's serious, then he's anti-Catholic, anti-American, and dangerous, because people believe him.
Either way, this is why I can't take him seriously. He just doesn't make any sense that I can understand. Every time I watch or hear him I come away more confused by what he's trying to do and how he manages to get away with deluding so many people who take him seriously.
Peace,
-C.
TWLTW
- Legendary stories of mythology and mystery can be reduced to a stone cork in the drain of a skylit cave. Even though I did enjoy the acting, and emotional closure many characters achieved.
- Jack Bauer. I admit it. I watched. But, a show based on lies and deception and the false drama of trumped up and veiled threats of violence that actually then, occasionally, become violent? That's also what I just published a diary on, so I'm not unhappy to see one less of that genre loose in the world.
- The World Trade Center Site:
- Once completed, will have the interior space of a 25 story building beneath the surface it sits on. Much of the slow pace of the work has been in preparing the 10 story deep foundation.
- The PATH train that serves as a regional hub (underground) in the site is exposed on three sides during construction. "Movement meters" have been placed all over it, for if the train's track shift an inch during construction, the trains can be derailed as the tracks may not align as a result.
- Construction is complicated by the lack of a staging ground. Supplies arrive as needed, with a complicated ballet of trucks entering and leaving the site, managed by a full time staff of 20 logistics experts.
- When errors are made, as they inevitably are on projects this size, holes can't be drilled into the set concrete because it is of a special density to resist future terrorist attacks. The whole piece has to be torn out and replaced.
- The current projected opening date is 2013, and the framework of the first 26 stories is nearly complete
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- SuperDrives on iMacs notoriously are the first major part of those computers to experience physical malfunction. If you own an iMac, and have not purchased the extended AppleCare warranty, you may want to consider doing so. That replacement costs $450. With the $180 Apple Care, it's covered along with phone support, etc... for 2 additional years after the 1st year following purchase. Just sayin'.
- Sleep deprivation can lead to some serious day of the week related delusional thinking.