Friday, March 19, 2010

Glenn Beck Aims To Smear Rev. Jim Wallis

From an article by Burns Strider at The Huffington Post:
By now, many people are probably familiar with Glenn Beck's statement from a couple of weeks ago that any church that talks about "social or economic justice" is not of Christ but is instead spreading Nazi or communist propaganda, and that Beck's listeners should leave those churches. (Funny, Beck's own Mormon faith uses those terms throughout its website.)

There was an immediate response from pastors around the country citing the overwhelming call for economic and social justice in Scripture ... and Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches, provided a wonderful summary of the Scriptural case on the Huffington Post. But the pastor who quickly rose to the lead of the Catholic, mainline, and evangelical rebuke of Glenn Beck was Rev. Jim Wallis, President of Sojourners.

And so with no scriptural or theological arguments to fall back upon, Glenn Beck apparently decided that his only option is to try to destroy Rev. Wallis personally. Personal attacks aren't uncommon from partisan commentators, but what is especially troubling about this most recent development is that Glenn Beck isn't just planning to throw insults; he said that he has been using his FOX staff to research everything that Rev. Wallis has ever said or done and to dig up dirt on the people who work with the pastor.

I know Rev. Wallis both professionally and as a friend. I've watched him coach my son in Little League baseball and prayed with him for the strength and success of our great nation. Beck's attacks are contextually fictitious to the point of being imaginary. It's quite sad, actually. He's about to overcook my grits. But Rev. Wallis continues to take the high road, speaking out for the power and calling of social justice, refraining from personal attacks, and reminding us that Dr. King stood down injustice and promoted social justice by confronting, not attacking.

But that is all for another time. Why is FOX funding research to discredit an American minister?

Clearly Beck knows that he doesn't stand a chance of winning this debate about the proper application of Christian principles to the public square on Scriptural or theological grounds. And he clearly has no intention of following St. Paul's command, found in Ephesians, that Christians "not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice." No, sir. Beck is on a mission to discredit and destroy the pastor who dared to question him ... and he's using FOX staff and resources to do so.
Why does Glenn Beck feel the need to try and destroy Rev. Wallis? I think that the popularity of Glenn Beck's show has corrupted his soul. He is using his influence, or the influence he thinks he has, as well as any resource at his disposal, to try and not only discredit whom he sees as an opponent, but to also destroy their lives and/or careers. His attacks are baseless and politically motivated, and with each new smear, Glenn Beck offers his audience his brand of revisionist history, hurting not only those who stand in his way, but the future of America as well.

1 comment:

  1. Argumentum ad hominem (arguing about the person rather than the subject) is a favored strategy employed by those who have no valid argument to present. It is a logical fallacy.

    ReplyDelete

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