Beck Goes on Bizarre Jesus Rant

Glenn Beck devoted his show last night to a bizarre theology rant, in his ongoing attempt to discredit the idea that social justice is compatible with Christianity. Beck called liberation theology a “perversion” that “is extraordinarily dangerous,” because it suggests that Christians owe something to the poor or oppressed. “Jesus was not a victim, he was a conqueror,” Beck argues. “If Jesus was a victim and this theology was true, he would have come back from the dead and made the Jews pay for what they did. That would be an abomination.”

There’re just a couple problems here, writes Elizabeth Dias of Time. “The Jews did not kill Jesus, the Romans did,” she points out, “and revenge does not exactly sound like Jesus’ command to love one’s neighbor.” Beck’s conveniently ignoring the mountain of biblical passages that deal with helping the poor, and with following Jesus’ example of humility. He’s pretending that “Christianity is nothing but a pull-yourself-up-from-your-bootstraps spirituality.” Even Beck must have known he was a bit out on a limb: "If you just tuned in," he said at one point, "boy, this has got to be the weirdest damn episode you've ever heard on the Glenn Beck program." Listen to it here.
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