"Social justice" has got to be one of the emptiest say-nothing phrases ever to be uttered in politics anywhere. Beck attributes it to communism, but I don't think I've ever heard it used by any real communist anywhere.
Anyway, Glenn Beck doesn't like it either:
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/b...communism.aspx
Quote:
Glenn Beck warns of creeping Christian 'communism'
Posted: March 12, 2010, 1:23 PM by Gillian Grace
Glenn Beck, the Fox News commentator known for his tearful rants in defence of American liberty and against the evils of liberalism, has told his audience that it may be time to abandon most of the Christian churches.
In recent radio show, that was broadcast on more than 400 affiliates, he told his listeners to leave any church that uses the phrases “social justice” or “economic justice." “I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site,” he said.
“If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!” He went on to say, “If you have a priest pushing social justice go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them. [Ask them] are you down with this whole social justice thing?”
Later, on his Fox television broadcast, he noted that both the communists and Nazis subscribed to the philosophy of “social justice.” While social justice is part of many Protestant and Jewish traditions, Catholic commentators felt Mr. Beck’s remarks were specifically targeted at their church.
“What he said was dangerous because it’s a continuation of the idea that charity is equivalent to socialism and addressing the structures that keep people poor is equivalent to communism — when in fact it’s a constitutive part of Christianity,” said Father James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit magazine America and the author of the just released The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.
“[Mr. Beck] is a major figure with a huge following radio and television on a popular network; he’s not some fringe figure with a tiny little blog. So what he said calls for a response.”
In his commentary, Mr. Beck pointed out that the phrases “social justice” and “economic justice” could not be found in the Bible. But Fr. Martin said that Jesus spoke specifically about social justice without having to use the exact term. “When Jesus tells his followers [in Matthew] what it’s going to take to get into heaven, he doesn’t talk about what church you go to or how you pray or how often. He talks specifically how you treat the poor.” Over the past 150 years, Fr. Martin noted, successive popes have written encyclicals specifically on economic and social justice.
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The rest of the article is at the above link.
Of course the Catholic Church is unfit to be fretting over poverty or the poor since it is behind most of the poverty in the world.