Glenn Beck: 'Leave Your Church'

Advocacy groups respond to the conservative commentator's call to leave churches that promote social justice. Plus, reactions to health care in the House and gay rights in Virginia.

By Tobin Grant

My comment:

Beck perhaps is reacting to clergy such as Jeremiah Wright and, to a lesser extent, Jim Wallis, who are reliably "progressive" in their theology, asserting that concern for the poor requires a big state, high taxes, redistribution of wealth, and so on. Those who point to the "red letters" of Jesus to support a liberal political program misuse religion.

But to say that a church's concern for social justice is wrong goes way over the line. Social justice means, at a minimum, fairness, or a level playing field, for all, something even a conservative like Beck could support.

Of course, if social justice blots out every other point of doctrine for a church, then it is probably unbalanced, and Beck's advice to run as fast as you can from it may make more sense than critics like Wallis are ready to admit.