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Mark Early of BreakPoint promoted the "Seek Social Justice" videos, saying, "Social justice is no small concept. It's about 'shalom'—man at peace with God, his fellow human beings, and creation."

The National Association of Evangelicals has issued a similar statement on justice. In its 2001 statement of civic responsibility, "For the Health of the Nation," the NAE states that "economic justice includes both the mitigation of suffering and also the restoration of wholeness." The NAE also states that government has a "divine mandate to render justice (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet. 2:13-17)."

"I don't know what to make of Beck's absurd rant," wrote Dan Nejfelt of Faith in Public Life. "The fact that a person with a multimedia platform and an audience of millions is either so addled that he believes social justice is a tool of tyranny, or so craven that he would use fearmongering and vitriol to come between people and their churches, is—to say the least—a troubling indictment of what we as a society value and reward. I just hope nobody comes to believe that the Gospel According to Beck is the word of the Lord."

Beck is not the only critic of "social justice." The Sandy Rios Show on WYLL in Chicago recently critiqued Wheaton College for embracing "anti-American" and "pro-Marxist" theories under the guise of social justice. The show focused on a Wheaton education department document that included phrases such as "social justice" and "agents of change."

In a response, Wheaton College provost Stan Jones said the Rios show "significantly misrepresented how social justice is addressed at Wheaton College":

We equip our students to think carefully and biblically about issues of justice, and encourage them to commit to act justly throughout their lives as defined by a biblical worldview … There is an enormous difference between recognizing as a justice issue of concern to God the tragic state of so many rural school systems and inner-city school systems that serve disproportionately minority constituencies, on the one hand, and a radical, naturalistically-driven call for Marxist redistribution of wealth on the other.

As the House of Representatives prepares to vote on the Senate health care bill, activist groups made appeals for or against the legislation.

An alert from the American Family Association (AFA) said that if the House passes the bill, "we will have Obamacare. The Senate bill will quickly move to the president's desk and he will sign it before the ink is dry. And the government takeover of health care will be complete … We must kill this bill dead and drive a stake through its heart."

For Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the outcome is literally a question of life or death.

Land closed a recent Richard Land Live broadcast saying if any version of the House or Senate bills passes and "we get Obamacare, ninety-nine percent of you that are listening to me are going to live a shorter life than you would otherwise. And it'll be more filled with pain, discomfort, and suffering before you die."

For many activist groups, the issue of gravest concern was the issue of abortion funding.

Evangelicals for Social Action sent out an alert this week that advocated for comprehensive health care reform with tighter restrictions on abortion funding.

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March (Web-only) 2010, Vol. 54