Send Bibles to Glenn Beck
Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, writes in The Huffington Post that she is sending Bibles to Glenn Beck, with the social justice passages marked for him.
Dear Mr. Beck,Serene Jones here. I'm President of Union Theological Seminary in New York, home of James Cone, the scholar featured on your liberation theology program this week.
I write with exciting news. Bibles are en route to you, even as we speak! Kindly let me explain. On your show, you said that social justice is not in the Bible, anywhere. Oh my, Mr. Beck. At first we were so confused. We couldn't figure out how you could possibly miss this important theme. And then it hit us: maybe you don't have a Bible to read. Let me assure you, this is nothing to be ashamed of. Many people live Bible-less lives. But we want to help out. And so, as I write this, our students are collecting Bibles from across the nation, packing them in boxes, and sending them to your offices. Grandmothers, uncles, children, co-workers -- indeed, Bible-readers from all walks of life have eagerly contributed. They should be arriving early next week, hopefully just in time for your next show. Read them with zeal!
Oh, I almost forgot: we've marked a few of the social justice passages, just in case you can't find them.
Beck is also being offered a scholarship and reduced rate on housing at Union in thanks for his interest and the publicity generated by his show.
Bishop Alan Wilson, a Café must read blogger, also writes about social justice, the Bible and faith here.
One theme that has been jumping out of the psalter for me this week is “equity.” Some people talk as though justice and equality issues facing the Church were some kind of imposition from secular culture, to be treated with suspicion as a post-enlightenment racket.The insistence of the psalter that God is a God of equity and justice, whose people should strive to reflect these qualities gazumps this whole illusion. If, quoting Michael Ramsey, “The Church exists that Christ may reign,” our life should be characterised not by weird exceptionalism, but intentional striving for equity and justice.
Religion Dispatches comments on the Bible, Beck and James Cone:
In his latest attack on the Social Justice, Glenn Beck slams the work of James H. Cone and Black Liberation Theology. On the surface, what Beck says may be appealing; Cone does make people uncomfortable. With a black man in the White House and talk of a “post-racial” America, who wants to hear about lynching, of all things? Yes, it was horrible, but haven’t we put that behind us? Aren’t people who still want to bring “that” up just trying to stir up trouble? If Beck can somehow prove that Cone is wrong about the gospel—and probably a communist as well—we can dismiss him and feel a whole lot better about ourselves, our country, and our faith. The problem is, the Bible itself sounds more like Cone than Beck.
This is brilliant. Thanks for posting it.
James Holloway
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July 20, 2010 3:18 PM
Growing up in Utah, I have a great deal of insight the the LDS faith and their sacred Writting called the Book of Mormon. in Mosiah 5:15; "Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and JUSTICE, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen."
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July 21, 2010 2:10 AM
Glen Beck is LDS (Mormon). They only believe in the Bible "...as far as it is translated correctly." They even have their own version they believe in that they claim was "translated" by the religion's founder, Joseph Smith.
I suspect that's the Bible Beck refers to. Perhaps it also doesn't contain much, or any, social justice theology.
Jadvar Johnson
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July 21, 2010 1:12 PM
From Lee Shaw - a priest in Utah and former Mormon:
LDS hold to the KJV of the Bible.
Joseph Smith did begin a re-translation of the KJV but did not complete it. So they have that as the "Inspired Version" but it is not generally used since he never really finished it.
LDS do, however, have three other canons of scripture: The Book of Mormon, "translated" from gold plates about a civilization in the Western Hemisphere which fled Jerusalem around 600 BCE and records Jesus coming to the Western Hemisphere. Interestingly Jesus talks like Matthew has him talk in the Bible.
Second is the Doctrine and Covenants, which are the revelations, mostly of Joseph Smith, including about plural marriage and their dietary restrictions. Later "revelations" have been added as of 1978 as I recall when blacks were admitted to the LDS priesthood.
Then there is the Pearl of Great Price, which was "translated" from papyrus Joseph Smith bought with some mummies in a traveling road show. He said it was the story of Abraham, enlarged. There is also his story in this book. The papyrus has been shown to be a rather common "book of the dead" from Egypt and not what Smith "translated" it to be. In the 1960's the papyrus was discovered in the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I don't recall how they ended up with it. But they "dontated" it to the LDS church. The LDS church made a donation of I think $1 million to the museum. The papyrus has since been in a vault and not made available to scholars for independent verification of the Smith "translation." Even some LDS scholars acknowledge that the papyrus provided the inspiration of Smith to write the Book of Abraham.
Glen Beck would have the KJV Bible on his bookshelf, along with those other books. They call it the "triple combination" (Bible, BoM, D&Cwith PG)
As to social justice, the LDS church is getting better at it in many areas. They have also been getting better at going "green" with their buildings, more intentionally than a lot of others, including TEC.
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July 22, 2010 6:41 PM