Folks, I’ve read with great attention Jim Wallis’ rebuttal of Glenn Beck entitled, What Glenn Beck Doesn't Understand About Biblical Social Justice, over at The Huffington Post and I have to say I’m impressed. You should read it too: there’s such a thing as “social justice”despite loud denials from conservatives like myself who see a Marxist almost every rock.
For me the clincher was Beck calling Dorothy Day “a Marxist” when everyone familiar with her life will find that she went out of her way to put distance between her and communists throughout her entire life. But you know, Dorothy was no pushover when it came to her convictions and sadly, it appears to me that Glenn doesn’t like that trait in this servant of God and has distorted her record and stance accordingly. Mr. Wallis' quotes from the Bible and from Pope Benedict XVI were also right on.
Hats off to Mr. Wallis. Glenn needs to chalk off this one from his board I'm sorry to say.
Read more in Vivificat about:
· Catholic Social Doctrine
· Dorothy Day
· Immigration Issues
· Health Care Reform
· The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
· The Gospel and Human Rights
WDTPRS: Pro seipso sacerdote – For the priest himself (1962MR)
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7 comments:
When listening to Glenn Beck or any other talking head, I keep in mind that he's paid to sensationalize things.
It's not quite acccuate to say that Dorothy went out of her way "to put distance between her and communists throughout her entire life" -- she maintained contact with several Communists she had known before her conversion -- but certainly she put distance between herself and Communism. I knew her well. If ever anyone lived a Christ-centered life, loving God and loving her neighbor, it was Dorothy Day. For Glenn Beck to describe her a Marxist is not only laughable but reveals that Beck has very little interest in doing basic research about the people whom he puts on his firing line. "Shoot first and ask questions later."
Jim Forest
author of "Love is the Measure," a biography of Dorothy Day
http://jimandnancyonpilgrimage.blogspot.com
Of course you are right, Jim. Dorothy was quite able to distinguish between the person in front of her and the ideologies circling around her, embracing the former while severely criticizing the latter. I mean, that's what it seems to me second-hand. I wrote my statement in a hurry.
Now, Jim Forest...your name is familiar to me from other sources...Thomas Merton names a "Jim Forest" in his journals, twice at least in volume seven. In fact, "Jim Forest" is also mentioned in Merton's official bio and I believe that there is also some correspondence between Forest and Merton in the volumes of collected correspondence.
Are you the "Jim Forest" Merton names?
-Theo
Having had Communist parents, I learned early in life to distinguish Communists from Communism. Our ideologies can harm us, even lead us to damnation, yet sometimes we become Christ-revealing people despite our ideologies. I often joke about having been raised by a Methodist Communist, my mother, and a Catholic Communist, my father. My mother -- partly thanks to reading Thomas Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain," a book that freed her from atheism -- returned to the Methodist Church while I was a young man serving in the Navy. My father left the Communist Party later in his life and died holding a crucifix he had borrowed from him.
You might find the autobiographical essay I once wrote, “Getting From There to Here,” worth reading:
http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2010/02/07/getting-from-there-to-here/
>> Now, Jim Forest...your name is familiar to me from other sources...Thomas Merton names a "Jim Forest" in his journals, twice at least in volume seven. In fact, "Jim Forest" is also mentioned in Merton's official bio and I believe that there is also some correspondence between Forest and Merton in the volumes of collected correspondence. Are you the "Jim Forest" Merton names?
Yes, most definitely. It was thanks to Dorothy Day, one of his correspondents, that to came know him -- many of the letters I received from him are published in “The Hidden Ground of Love.” I was twice his guest at the monastery.
One of my books (I’m a writer) is a biography of Merton: “Living With Wisdom.” I had the privilege of giving a copy of the first edition of the book to Pope John Paul II, who told me about his own appreciation of Merton’s writings and that fact that his Polish publisher also published Merton's work in translation.
Welcome, Jim! I'm honored that you have visited this humble publication and left your comments here. I'm also honored to now find myself within "one degree of separation" from Fr. M. Louis Merton, one of my favorite writers of all time.
I'll look up your books and link to your site!
Yours in Christ,
-Theo
teofilo,
what did you think of the rest of the article, outside of glenn's analysis of ms. day? i think it actually proves glenn's main point: those who ascibe to social justice have a knee-jerk inclination to seek justice through government intervention, but government can only intervene through growth and power. it may be effective if a devout catholic holds that growth and power, but what if a stalin, mao or hitler replaces him?
no one, to my knowledge, has ever effectively explained how our social ills and economic inequality have been historically addressed better through government regulation than through the free market. i think glenn's main point is that true catholic social justice ideals are desirous, and the best way to achieve these are through the free market and unfettered capitalism.
big government solutions will only be the best answer when Christ returns as king. until then, i don't see anyone qualified to build the kingdon of God on earth. all i see is the flawed human condition. limiting the power and scope of government limits the potential of the human condition to do harm!
-mfran422
Most troubling is the dangerous, popular vein of Orthodoxy in the States that is in support of Beck. If you've not seen, God help them!
http://syntheopoiesis.blogspot.com/2010/02/panheresy-is-fathers-of-all-lies.html
http://syntheopoiesis.blogspot.com/2010/02/american-orthodox-extremists-endorse.html
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