Social Programs vs. Charitable Giving

Well, Glenn Beck is in hot water again. This time, it's evangelical Christians who are angry. Oh, sorry, correction: it's evangelical Christians who aren't paying attention who are angry.

Last week on his show, Beck described the differences between himself and Fr. Charles Coughlin, who was a Roman Catholic priest and a wildly popular radio commentator during the Great Depression. Apparently Beck is called a modern-day Fr. Coughlin by detractors (I have never heard this until Beck said so himself; but then, I don't keep up on the rantings of the left. If you listen to liars, you're going to be lied to).

Fr. Coughlin was a well-documented fascist-sympathizer and anti-Semitic. He was an early supporter of FDR's, until he became involved himself with the National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ). Proponents of social justice thought that FDR's policies were a waste of time (true) and they didn't do enough to bring about redistribution of wealth to the nation's poor (false).

Beck went on to exhort people who belong to churches who teach social justice to find new churches, which has prompted a firestorm of controversy.

But I'll say it again: the people who are up in arms are NOT PAYING ATTENTION.

Glenn Beck was not denouncing charity. He wasn't advocating the foreclosure of widows and orphans. He was merely making the point that charity should be voluntary, never compulsory. Social justice churches which get involved in the political giving of charity and social programs were Beck's target.

Don't let yourselves be fooled: if your church campaigns for government-subsidized social programs (i.e. welfare programs that actively incentivize unwed mothers to have more and more children, subsidized abortions for underprivileged women who can't afford another child and can't afford to murder the one inside them without financial help from the government, etc., etc., etc.) then you should find a new church. Find a church that provides an emphasis on charity rather than higher taxes for federal programs that are easily scammed and promote waste.

And if you're one of those people who heard, secondhand, that Glenn Beck is opposed to your church's agenda of socialist giving and are offended, you go right ahead and boycott Mr. Beck. Your boycott will do exactly no damage to Mr. Beck's show, because you were clearly not listening to him in the first place.