Colbert on Beck on Social Justice

Published on March 22, 2010 in David Opderbeck. 2 Comments Tags: Stephen Colbert.

Here is a great riff by that consummate theologian, Stephen Colbert, on Glenn Beck’s admonition that Christians should avoid churches that emphasize “social justice.”

2 Responses to “Colbert on Beck on Social Justice”

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David
March 22, 2010 at 11:44 am

Clearly there are plenty of those LDS who disagree with Beck on this matter http://www.mesj.org

I wonder what his take on that is.
Steve Smith
March 24, 2010 at 8:57 am

Colbert is in good form here. And Beck’s remarks do seem unusually ill-considered.

Even so, something in me balks at what strikes me as the rather indulgent, risk-free practice so apparent in more high-brow circles of routinely dumping on Beck. I myself have never read any of Beck’s books, and the sum total of snippets I’ve seen of his TV program probably adds up to about a half-hour. So I’m hardly qualified to come to his defense. But even this much exposure is enough to conclude that Beck is working in a journalistic genre that is clearly meant to be free-wheeling and provocative, not nuanced. I think there is a place for that genre (just as there is a place for the genre represented by Colbert, and Jon Stewart, who are also typically not especially careful or nuanced, but who nonetheless perform a valuable service). Much of the sniping against Beck strikes me as analogous to criticizing comic strips for their lack of artistic subtlety. So I can’t help wondering, who’s really being obtuse?

If Beck truly thinks that Christianity is unconcerned about social justice, then of course his position is indefensible. But given the genre, is it fair to take him as asserting that? Isn’t it more likely that he is criticizing churches or religious movements that in their pursuit of social and political ends largely forget the prior commitment to the Christian Gospel? And in this respect, might there not be some similarities between Beck’s unnuanced comments and the current Pope’s much more careful and scholarly criticisms of libeeration theology?