If you actually listened to Beck you would know that he does not stand for any type of violence.  Also, I like how all of the posts i’ve read from your seminary criticize Beck without referencing any scripture to contradict him.  The simple fact of the mater is that Black Liberation Theology is dangerous and that he bible does not advocate government redistribution of wealth but places the responsibility with individuals.  Perhaps your seminary should stop spending so much time demonizing a good person and actually reading the bible.

And here is my response:

Ashby,

Thank you for your defense of Glenn Beck’s statements about Liberation/Black/Theology and this engaging conversation.  Once again I lump them together because that is how they were discussed in Mr. Beck’s the initial presentation.  I don’t think you quite understand my point; it is not necessary for Mr. Beck to advocate any type of violence.  By taking statements out of context (for example all of his clips of Dr. Cone’s interview were taken from a separate interview on a completely different topic about which he was writing 30+ years after his initial writings on Black Theology) and using them to provoke fear and anger, Beck has not taken seriously his role in the media and the responsibility that said role carries.  History has proven that a leader does not have to explicitly tell his or her followers what to do in order for mayhem to ensue.  And Mr. Beck is one of our social leaders.

As for the bible verses about those who should care for those who do not have…please don’t assume that a verse quoted here and a verse quoted there tells the whole story of Jesus’ words to us about social justice.  Please read Matthew 23, all of it, to see how Jesus responds to the government that he recognizes as spiritually legitimate for his time and place—those who are in charge of his people and the synagogue.  (Of course Jesus doesn’t speak of government redistribution—he is not Roman nor of the power structure in the Roman Empire that has any say over that.)  Jesus spends most of the Gospels showing people how they have gotten away from the laws of the Torah, which made it a societal sin not to take care of those less fortunate and the alien.

“If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.” (Deuteronomy 15:7).

Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.” (Deuteronomy 27:19) New Revised Standard Version

And please don’t take just my quotation of these passages, but take a look at other passages that Jesus upholds from his nation’s book of Law, the Torah.

But I know that as “Christians” we tend to hold what Jesus says more important than what he practices.  So, again, please closely read Matthew 23 (the whole chapter), the warnings or “Woes” that Jesus speaks to those in power.  And then take a look at the following on your own, and study the teachings of Jesus through this parable as it is written (not my interpretation):

Matthew 25:31-46

“31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”

40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

41Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”

44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’              New Revised Standard Version

I understand that you might be afraid of the language of Black Liberation Theology agitation it seems to cause in this country.  I find it an odd juxtaposition that even with all of the angst over Black Liberation Theology, many people still don’t find it odd that most of Western Christian society is based on taking over other people’s lands and telling them that their gods are insufficient for its purposes and therefore must be done away with.  And if you are worried about what Dr. Cone’s influences are then check his resume and see that it was pre-eminent White scholars that shaped his thought.  He validated his own experience through the academically sanctioned pathway of study.  It is why his work is still so volatile today, because his work is in the mainstream academy.  But I don’t have to justify Dr. Cone’s works, to you or anyone else, because they speak very clearly for themselves.

I am sure that the works of Dr. Cone from 1969 will never prove as disastrous as some may think, for any race.  They will certainly never justify the subjugation of any people into slavery nor will they delineate humanity by races that humiliate and condemn there very existence, like a certain Western Enlightenment scientists of the 17^th and 18^th centuries which “scientifically” fueled biblical justification of slavery and the declassification as anyone of African descent as a human being.

“In 1684, French physician François Bernier attempted to classify human bodies by skin color.  He divided the races into four distinct groups.  But it was not until 1735 that race became a theoretical scientific assumption with the work of Carolus Linnaeus, the founder of binomial nomenclature, the naming in Latin of species.  “For Linnaeus there were four races, Homo Europaeus, Homo Asiaticus, Homo Afer and Homo Americanus.”  (An original source for this information can be found here: William Bingley, Natural History of Animals: Illustrated by Short Histories and Anecdotes and Intended to Afford a Popular View of the Linnaean System of Arrangement, (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing), 2008.) And this is a short excerpt written for a Systematic Theology course, not taught by Dr. Cone but by Dr. Morse, that I took in 2008.”

And just as Mr. Beck spoke to in the introduction of his piece, please don’t lump us all together in the seminary.  As you can see from all responses, we are a diverse group of people with different interests and issues we support and don’t support.  I also take exception for those of us who consider ourselves conservative, evangelical and even fundamental.  Your assumption that our “seminary” demonizes good people is just that, an assumption.  By the way, I took great pains in my response to speak from my own personal experience and the reaction to the ramifications I see in my life and for those I care about.  How my personal reaction to issues raised becomes turned around to an attack on a good person is just the kind of “telephone” game  that worries me when it comes to lack of clarity and compassion for one another.

And so, I wish you God’s speed.  The following is meant in all sincerity—I have a few more bible verses for you that speak way better than I can.

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”  II Corinthians 9:8

“The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

(King James Version)

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