Glenn Beck takes on Kings, Mark, and the entire Judeo-Christian Tradition, and Loses

I could spend every waking hour of my life rebutting the b.s. that Glenn Beck airs on his show. I would rather never spend a minute responding to his trash. There are infinitely more important things in this world to dedicate ones time to than engaging an idiot. I take seriously the warning, never wrestle with a pig because you will get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. Nevertheless, after days of deliberating about whether to write this blog in opposition to yet another insane position he has taken, I conclude that on this topic there is a broader audience beyond Beck that must hear the truth of what I will share below.

Glenn Beck attacked the essence of the Christian tradition this week when he warned his listeners to avoid all churches that speak of "social justice" and "economic justice." He went on to say that such terms were code words for Nazism and Communism. Uttered from a white man who made $32 million last year. Convenient.

And this is the guy that CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) selected to be its keynote speaker for the 2010 conference. Wow. Scary.

At the core of the Judeo-Christian tradition is an ethic that calls people to serve the needs of the poor, and to speak against those "powers" that perpetuate injustice. God has a particular affinity for the impoverished and the plight they bear each and every day. His people are instructed to carry forward the same concern. The central command of loving God, and loving our neighbor is not a Hallmark Valentine card. It is a call to bear the cross, to suffer and serve among the very lowly and outcast of society. This is not an ethic of comfort, convenience, or complacency. It is an ethic of the cross.

The ancient scriptures, from Genesis down through Revelation, cannot be read in any other way. To make this point, I will show that even from a small obscure passage in the Book of Kings, there lies within one of the many derivatives of this core ethic. Call it social justice, call it economic justice, call it community development -- for the authors of Kings, they call it the act of "restoring" an economic injustice back to a sustainable and right position.

2 Kings 4, and its conclusion, 2 Kings 8:1-6 --

The Book of Kings is often perceived as a work of cut and dry history. It is much more than that. It is in fact a rich theological treatise with the ultimate purpose of revealing to the community of believers the will of God in the rough road of history. The original audience of Kings message was in exile from their homeland, displaced and suffering both from a lack of identity, and from political and economic hardship. They knew well of their great heroes and prophets of the past – they dreamed back to the days of Moses, David, and Elijah. They remembered the wealth of Solomon’s reign and wondered how this economic tragedy had befallen them. The exilic community cried aloud, asking, “Where are our heroes and great prophets”, “Where is our land and wealth?”, “Where is our God?” The author of Kings responds masterfully with a story of restoration.

In 2 Kings Chapter 4 we get a series of miraculous restorations performed by the powerful prophet Elisha. Note the following: first, by miraculously filling empty jars with oil, Elisha brings economic restoration to an impoverished woman whose husband and primary bread-earner had passed away; next, a woman whose husband was old and sexually impotent had motherhood restored to her by miraculously conceiving of a son. The restoration stories continue: the same child that was miraculously conceived, later fell ill and died, only to be restored back to life by Elisha. Following this miraculous restoration story we are told of one of Elisha’s male servants who was instructed to make dinner for a company of men. The servant went out and collected wild food – food that was in fact poisonous to eat; the whole company of men was on the verge of being poisoned to death. Elisha responds by miraculously restoring the food so that it was healthy to eat. Finally, food is brought to serve the hungry people, only that there wasn't enough food to go around. Verse 42: “Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.” Elisha once again displays God’s power by restoring the food supply for the community so that all had plenty to eat, and then some.

The importance of this series of miracle stories found in 2 Kings 4 is that this exiled community who first read the Book of Kings was rich with great "stories" of resurrection and restoration, but in their suffering present they did not have a Moses to split their “Red Sea” or an Elisha to raise their “dead.” They had a powerful Past, but lived in a painful Present. To aid this community in linking the past with the present, the obscure little passage 2 Kings 8:1-6 is used as an addendum to chapter 4, reminding them that they not only had a great Story of the past, but also had a real, living Story for the present. Ultimately, they are reminded that they didn’t need an Elisha to bring about an unlikely series of miracles, rather they needed a retelling and a reliving of the Story, accomplished by every day means and through every day people.

Note the repetition of the word "restore" starting with verse 4...

“Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” While he was telling the king how Elisha had restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land (which had been confiscated by the government during the famine). Gehazi said, “My lord king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” When the king questioned the woman, she told him the same. So the king appointed an official for her saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the revenue of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.” Seven years of wages was restored to her household.

It was customary in that day to reclaim property confiscated by the government at the end of a seven-year period of vacancy. The problem in this case is that the husband likely passed away during the famine, and he would’ve been the legal owner of the property in that day. So this woman is essentially attempting to make a claim of ownership before the king without a receipt if you will, without a deed. But here we see Gehazi speaking on her behalf, representing her interests, in order to restore back to her family what was rightfully hers in the first place.

Also note that Gehazi, speaking on the woman's behalf before the government, is the one that helps her to be restored. Elisha is not in the story. Recall, in the previous miracle stories, Gehazi had failed to raise the child back from death. Only Elisha was capable of the miracle restoration. Gehazi did not have the gift of Elisha. But he was no less effective at bringing about a different kind of restoration - one of economic justice.

The Christian tradition took the Elisha miracles a step further. The Book of Mark describes one that is infinitely more powerful in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Mark portrays the New Prophet that could outdo Elisha in every capacity. Elisha feeds 100 people with 20 pieces of bread -- Jesus feeds 40 times as many with a third less the resources – using only 7 loaves of bread. In the resurrection story of the child, note the elaborate method that Elisha has to employ - an entire ritual to raise the dead child back to life. But in Mark's account, Jesus simply takes hold of the dead daughter and tells her to get up. Mark intentionally makes these contrasts to indicate the new and more powerful kind of restorative work available to his community of faith, a community of faith that includes those who call themselves Christian today.

Glenn Beck warns his listeners to avoid churches who practice the teachings of the ancient scriptures. Beck is a damn fool.

In a south-side community of Chicago called Lawndale, Christian believers gather together not just for Sunday worship but also for everyday working of the Kingdom-building process. In this inner-city neighborhood, like many throughout the United States, white flight and racism created an economic vacuum that have taken a toll on the fabric of the community and on the building structures themselves. Many buildings in these areas are beaten up and broken down, showing a history of neglect and decay. To respond, this church in Lawndale was reminded of the powerful restoration stories of the past. They thought back to the story of how Jesus brought back to life a dead Lazarus. Instead of taking this miraculous story of the past and tucking it away into the confines of hopefulness in the “sometime in the near future,” they took this story, and integrated it and implemented it into practice – making the feel good restoration story of the past a reality in the broken present. The church bought a broken, battered, and beaten up building from the city of Chicago for $1. Over the course of several months, they began to rebuild, restore, and resurrect the formerly broken structure, so that once renewed it could provide reasonable, affordable housing for the poor people in the community. They called this building the “Lazarus Project.”

That's what economic and social justice seeks to do. That is the real working of Christ's love operating to bring a semblance of restoration to communities being destroyed by a broken system.

The authors of Kings and Mark show the importance of taking the restoration stories of the past and incorporating them for a rebuilding work in the broken present. Thus, the resurrection no longer remains merely a "feel good" story, but an active reality in the life of the community. The “good news” moves from being “pie in the sky” hopefulness, to being a renewing power in the reality of every day existence. In other words, between the stories of restorations past and the story of a future restored, we are called to bring restoration in the painful stories of our present. From Story to Reality, this is the redemptive, reconciling, and restorative power of Christ.

I guess you didn't learn that one at your Mormon church, huh Beck? Dummy.

Peace

Jeremy