Glenn Beck brought a lot of attention to a Christian music festival, Lifest, when he brought it up on his talk show in relation to
Jim Wallis, founder and editor of the liberal Sojourners magazine.
Q90 FM pulled its sponsorship of the Lifest Christian music festival over the fact that Jim Wallis is on the speakers' line up, citing disagreements with him over a humanistic message of social justice.
The station has a
statement on its site that says, in part:
"While we value the work of Life Promotions, proudly partnering with them for many years in our shared mission to reach youth for Christ, we became concerned with the beliefs and teachings of one of the main speakers at Lifest 2010, Jim Wallis. After researching extensively the words and published positions of Jim Wallis and his organization, Sojourners Magazine, and seeking fervently the guidance of the Holy Spirit in prayer, we believe the social justice message and agenda they promote is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government."
it continues:
"Humanism says, "It's up to us to save us, our planet, the poor", instead of "It's up to God and His power through us". Humanism says "man is inherently good--it's only the social constructs, such as too-limited a government or our free-enterprise, capitalist economy that oppress man, making him do evil", instead of "man is inherently sinful, responsible for his own choice to sin, and in need of a Savior." (Romans 1:25). The humanistic social justice message in many of Sojourners' issue FAQs points to government as the solution, instead of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And most notably, the station ends their statement with this (emphasis theirs):
"We are not calling for a boycott of Lifest. We do not view Jim Wallis as an enemy nor do we think of Life Promotions as the enemy or a bad organization. We believe Life Promotions is doing great things for the Kingdom of God . We just have a fundamental disagreement on the wisdom of bringing Mr. Wallis to Lifest. We realize many great things occur at Lifest through the music and many of the speakers. In these increasingly challenging times with growing threats to God's people, we ask every Christian to read the Bible with great discernment, look at the views of Sojourners and the opposing views, and prayerfully seek God's wisdom and guidance. If you do attend Lifest this year, our prayer is that you will be blessed and that God will bless Lifest and our friends at Life Promotions."
For months, Lifest founder Bob Lenz has been in conversations with local pastors and others who raised
concerns over featuring Wallis – who is considered a progressive Christian – at the popular Lifest.
Glenn Beck appears to place a lot of emphasis on research and prayer, and he has not called for a complete boycott of all things "social justice." What he rails against is the social justice that's tied to politics, the "I'll let the government fix my problems" mentality, which if you read the Scriptures is something we're warned to avoid.
On his March 2 radio show, Glenn Beck told listeners:
I beg you, look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words…social justice is a perversion of the Gospel.”
On-air he continued:
Progressives have done such an effective job perverting charity over the years it is stunning. There are millions of people who accept now that social justice comes from the government. It doesn't. It comes from individuals and God. But it's people like Wallis teaching us that that is the essence of the Bible.
His producer further clarified in the
Washington Post.
So, what can we
learn from all of this?
