Correct DiGriz and eman:

The "golden rule" exists outside of christianity and even pre-dates christianity.

The golden rule is a phenomenon of biological and cultural evolution.

Thanks for your blog Mr. Eyster.
Social justice is certainly a big part of the Gospel. It is an important part of faith for many of us. We need people like you to keep challenging hate and greed.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ELCA lobbying, activity, editorializing. Should your offering go to pay for this?

·Supports mandate that Wisconsin schools teach the history of organized labor
·Supports legislation to make Cesar Chavez’s birthday a holiday for state workers
·Opposed medical care for an infant that survived a botched late term abortion
·Advocated a boycott of Woodman’s Super Market to support the union
·Supports Employee Free Choice Act
·Supports Driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants
·Supports Employment of ex-offenders in public schools
·Advocates the removal of Israel’s wall to keep out suicide bombers
·Opposed Wisconsin marriage amendment
·ELCA official was board member of Citizen Action of Wisconsin (leftist political group)
·Supported legislation to allow illegal aliens to pay in state tuition at UW
·Supports full public financing of elections
·Opposed to School choice program in Milwaukee
·Opposed to legislation classifying possession of ecstasy (date rape drug) as a felony
·Opposed conscience clause legislation (conscientious objector) to allow medical professionals to refuse to participate in abortion related activities
·Opposed a tax credit for medical insurance premiums
·Opposed penalties for patronizing prostitutes
·Opposed conceal & carry
·Opposed licensing of nuclear power plants
·Opposed property tax freeze
·Opposed to parental notification of abortions
·Supports public financing of abortion
·Opposed to a ban on partial birth abortion
·Covers late term abortion in its insurance program
·Supports providing mortgages for people without social security cards
·Organized joint Community/Political Organizing effort with Gamaliel Foundation – an ACORN affiliate
·Editorialized that United States foreign policy brought about 9/11
·Editorialized that the War on Terror is used to justify human rights abuses
·Editorialized that U.S. affluence leads to moral hypocrisy
·Editorial advise to President Bush – Jesus changed your heart? – Now let him change your mind
·Editorialized Bush is dangerous and faithless
·Editorialized that Christian Fundamentalists are the same as Muslim Fundamentalists
·Considered advocating an Anti-Israel Boycott
·Supports political solutions to “global warming”
·Approved ordination of active homosexual pastors
·Approved same sex blessings
·Approve heterosexual blessings outside of marriage
·Does not hold to a belief in the virgin birth. ELCA website states, “we are not making a gynecological assertion” in the creeds.
·Editorialized that the United States flag should be removed from the sanctuary
·South Central Wisconsin Bishop told the Wisconsin State Journal he was on the side of the Palestinians in the Hamas war against Israel
·Supports “The Clergy Letter Project” which seeks to deny public schools from any mention of a possible creator in science discussions of evolution.

Beck 1 Eyster 0

To a poster below: The great majority of the people who hate christians ARE christians. Even billnewbie, like the majority of all christians, can't stand going to church.

billnewbie, yes, Jesus did preach that people should help each other as well as the disadvantaged. But it is laughable to bring the schism between the government and the people into this discussion. Jesus taught that there'd be a new kingdom established in the lifetime of the generation he preached to. He made no distinction between the people and whatever bureaucratic hierarchy would be attendant to that kingdom. As a matter of fact, he failed to point out whether that kingdom would or would not be burdened with a bureaucratic hierarchy.

It is interesting that the son of god, or god, or the holy ghost, or whatever he was supposed to be (which he really wasn't) didn't discuss the topic of the above story in terms of the scenario that confronts us today. Some prophet.

Billie, you are absolutely correct, the lack of social injustice perpetrated by the country club republicans manifest itself in the "the personal selfishness that it tends to breed".

Beck is an idiot.

Mr. Eyster PERSISTS IN SHOUTING AT US AND NOW IT'S EVEN IN THE HEADLINE. I don't know how anyone gets through one of these columns, I certainly can't read them.

Church sign:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/12...

Mr. E:
As an ordained minister of The Church of Christ, you must have thoughts on homosexuality and abortion. Curious what those might be?
You won't answer -- you never do.

Glenn Beck is an idiot. Possibly the biggest idiot alive. Can't believe anyone really watches him and believes anything he has to say.

God helps them that help themselves. Opportunity is missed by most individuals because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. It is very easy to expect someone else to care for you but more rewarding to care for your own needs, As long as the government works to expand the costituency of the entitlement class everyone that works for a living is their enemy.

Bond ---- Nice job with the initial name calling! So typical! The heartlessness of the right-wingers on this site is also quite typical. Especially when most of these folks claim to be Christians. What a joke!

I don't think we are becoming a government controlled county, I think we are becoming a corporation controlled country. The corporations are using their money to influence the government to help make the corporations more powerful over us. We really need some good old fashioned trust-busting...too big to fail is plain old TOO BIG! Beck is too blinded by his anti-government blinders to see where the real threat is coming from. Food, Inc is a good documentary that explains how the food we eat is totally controlled by corporations, down to what seeds are legal to plant. That is just one area of corporate control, but it has really crept into almost every aspect of our lives.

Only one way to tell the difference between the real deal christian, is the love in their hearts to all people. Even the nasty ones that hate Christians.

It's funny that those who rip Beck for apparently denouncing their view of what social justice, or just politics, is reduce their argument to little more than casting invectives Beck's way as if all one has to do is call him a few really clever names to defeat his assertions. Such seems to be the state of political discourse nowadays. Both sides do it and neither are justified now matter what the other side does.

That said, what is social justice? Jesus did indeed preach about helping the poor, the sick and the aged. But did he demand that government take on these laudable goals? It seems to me that when government takes on these responsibilities, individuals feel justified in shirking them. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for "gifting" their worldly goods to the temple while retaining possession of them until death so that they could avoid supporting their aging parents since they had no resources that belonged exclusively to them, a clever economic dodge that Christ correctly saw through. Yet government sponsored social programs have a very similar effect on people today. There's no need to help support our aging parents now since they have social security and medicare. No need to take a meal to the needy family down the street since they have food stamps. There's no reason to help our unemployed neighbor since he gets unemployment compensation. All of these programs have great value but they also have a corrosive effect upon us individually. We no longer have much reason to be considerate of our fellows in need, there's a government program for that. I don't know anything about Beck and his program since I don't watch it, but I can see a point in being opposed to the kind of excessive government largess that is becoming so common in our world and the personal selfishness that it tends to breed.

Do any of you Lib/Dem-wits actuall watch Beck? He is try to wake people up to what is happening in our government, from all sides, We are slowly being led to a government controlled country, in small steps so it is not to noticeable, Finiancial bailouts, Auto bailouts, A possible take over of our health care, trying to tell us what to eat (no transfats) buy green (electric) vehicles,etc. Are you getting the picture? Call it what ever you want.Socialist? Communist? Progressive? Are they different? Yes. But they have the SAME objective, and that is to CONTROL every aspect of your life, and they ARE doing it right now! WAKE UP...

Jesus also preached reliance on God instead of your government....

What more could I say? The previous posts have hit the nail on the head. Well done, posters!

It always saddens me to see a "Child Left Behind" - all grown up. Glenn Beck would be a text book case. A year ago on his unintentionally uproarious FOX Noise program, Beck told his television audience:

"First they came for the bankers, and I did not speak up because I was not a banker. Then they came for the A.I.G. executives, and I did not speak up because I was not an A.I.G executive."

He then looked the camera dead in the eye and ominously told his clueless viewers that eventually "they" (He never specified exactly who "they" were) would be coming for them. It was a gross perversion of the famous Martin Niemoller poem. It was a none-too-subtle effort to compare the Obama Justice Department's prosecution of corporate criminals to Hitler's persecution of the Jews seventy years ago. Nice.

Glenn Beck is an idiot. The fact that he has such a huge audience is all the proof you need to make a case for the jaw-dropping stupidity of so many Americans. It's kind of funny, really.

http:www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Sounds like CNN vs FOX (again, still) with some "Jesus" tossed in.....if you don't like Beck don't watch him...if you like your church go there....What's the big deal????

Beck is the Clown Prince of the far (as in Mars) Right. He has become and individual who is now even mocked and scorned by my Republican friends. With all of his past mental health issues, I believe that his family should seriously worry about his well being.

OVER-emphasis OUGHTA be ILLEGAL.

Over-emphasis oughta be illegal.

Beck's demonizing the term "social justice" comes on the heels of his attempts to portray anything "progressive" as wicked; "liberal" as dishonorable "Marxists" or "Communists"; and "feminist" as a joke. Hopefully, he'll keep up his deranged and mad ranting so he'll be exposed for exactly what he is - a political profiteer showman - and absolutely NOT a patriot working for the nations common best interests.