In which Glen Beck does something good for the world

Thank God for Glenn Beck!

In the second century, a man named Marcion came to Rome. He was a avid student of Paul, and he noticed that there was a dramatic difference between the wrath-filled, eye-for-an-eye God of the Old Testament, and the merciful, forgiving Jesus Christ of the New Testament. They were, in his eyes, obviously not the same God. And so he collected the first Bible, including 11 epistles and the Gospel of Luke, and proclaimed the new, and superior, deity Jesus Christ as the replacement for the vengeful, smiting God of the Torah.

He did the church a favor. His heresy forced the church to consider carefully its relationship to the Jewish Scriptures, to put its theological house in order and to properly proclaim the amazing story of love that is the whole history of God with his peoples, from the beginning of creation to the empty tomb of Easter. Marcion made the church of Jesus Christ better by being so amazingly ,dramatically wrong.

And now Glenn Beck has done the same.

On a recent radio show, Beck urged his listeners to “run as fast as you can” from any church that preaches social justice. First of all, that’s probably correct. Social justice is a political category. Preachers of the gospel should not preach social justice. They should preach Biblical Justice. Which is a far more worthy of Beck’s fright.

Socialism (which is what he really means) is a political system that provides financial support to the poor through various taxes imposed on the working class and the wealthy. It aims to redistribute society’s wealth, causing the rich to be not-so-rich so that the poor are not-so-poor.

Weenies.

Biblical Justice demands much more. Much more. God complains against those who “rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey …” (Isaiah 10:2). The very existence of the poor is an indictment against the rich; no, against the whole of society. If even one goes without, one orphan, one widow goes uncared for, then all are condemned. Period.

Biblical justice is hard, It is not for the faint of heart.

Biblical justice does not suffer fools, it is not a part-time occupation, it is not for pretenders or do-gooders or theorists. Or radio talk-show hosts.

Biblical justice is not about charity, about generosity, even about love. Those are each good things, but pale in comparison. Even if Bill Gates gives a billion dollars to good causes, he still has four billion to live on, which I’m guessing means he can still live pretty well, much better say, than the average person living in their car. The issue is not how much rich people give to charity or how heavy their tax burden is. No, the issue is the very notion that some people should be rewarded and some should not, that some should have and some should not. In the kingdom of God, ruled by Grace and not by sin, there should be no poor people. There should be no rich people. There should only be God's people.

And God's word declares that we should aspire not to work at the problem, not to advance the cause, but to end poverty. Period. That is the only acceptable “ism” in the eyes of our God.

I don’t imagine that Glenn Beck can get his head around that idea. Then again, no one can. But let us give thanks for his willingness to allow his ignorance and pettiness to be publicly displayed, that a real conversation might be engaged, that discerning people of faith might speak the right Word of God into the darkness that passes for public discourse in America.

Beck has drawn a lot of angry reaction. Perhaps he deserves it, probably he intended it. But let’s allow the dust to settle, and see if instead we can coax some small part of the truth to arise. That is God’s purpose for heretics, after all. For blowhards, idiots, and small-minded fools, too.

May his will be done!