I heard Glenn Beck on the radio today and what I heard almost made me stop the car. (Which would have been unfortunate since I was driving down the road at the time. In traffic.) But I thought I heard him imply that the popes of the Catholic Church had begun teaching about social justice after the advent of Marx, and Nietzsche, and progressivism (implying that these are the sources of the teachings of the Church).

I also thought I heard him say that no church or preacher, etc, has any business saying anything about politics. As if Christians can separate their private and their public lives and keep their religion hidden away in some little box somewhere. As if pastors—which word means “shepherds”—don’t have an actual moral and ecclesial obligation to speak out and teach about moral and social issues.

Hey, Glenn, ever hear of the Nazis? Plenty of pastors, priests and religious went to their deaths in Germany because they considered it their duty to speak up and preach and teach about what was going on in their country. They felt it was their duty to speak out against the policies and practices of Hitler and his government. And slavery? Ever hear of that? Before we ever fought about it over here, Pope Paul III ruled that any Catholic having anything to do with slavery would be automatically excommunicated. And that was back in 1537. Before that Pope John VIII in 873 called slavery a grave sin and asked that slaves who had been bought should be set free. (See article by Fr. William Most for more.)

Now I’m not saying that no pastor, priest or religious ever fell for Marxism or other lies. And I’m definitely not prepared to do a full-blown rant on the social and moral teaching of the Church…Yet. But I plan to. I was going to anyway. Eventually. The state of the world and the moral situation in our country is enough to make it necessary for all the faithful to do what they can to shed light wherever and whenever possible. But I was horrified and taken aback by what Beck said on his show and I feel that I absolutely must respond. But I’m going to do some reading up on the subject first. Something I might recommend—no, something I do recommend that Mr. Beck do as well. And preferably before he makes such ridiculous utterances again.

I’m going to take a break now and get another cup of coffee. And get back to studying the documents of Vatican II. Which study I began a few weeks ago when my copies arrived from Amazon. Hey, Glenn, you might get yourself a copy too. It’s two volumes jam-packed full of interesting things like what the Church actually teaches and why. You might even get yourself your very own personal copy of the Catechism too. And READ it. Read Vatican II and the Catechism and please don’t say another word about the Church until you do! I have read the Catechism, thank you very much, and have studied it off and on since 1995. And I read Vatican II back during that same period of time. Because I wanted to know about the Church. I wanted to know what she taught. And the best way to know that is to study the documents that set forth those teachings. They’re out there for anybody to read. You can read them online if you don’t want to or can’t find a copy to buy somewhere. Good Lord, man, I was with you on so much you said until you did this. Way off base. Way off track. Way. WAY. I’ll be back. Later. Must. Have. More. Coffee. Now.

Read the transcript of Glenn Beck on the radio today. Read more about the social and moral teaching of the Catholic Church. Read the Catechism online. Get a copy. Read Vatican II online. Get copies: Vol 1, Vol 2.