Faithful America is running a radio ad across America attacking Glenn Beck as a pagan, heathen, and drowner of puppies (not actually, but just about) for his recent programs investigating the marxist-inspired ideology of Social Justice and all the progressive leaders and organizations that are involved in this movement.

Who is Faithful America?  I’m glad you asked. 

Per their website:

Faithful America is an online community of tens of thousands of citizens motivated by faith to take action on the pressing moral issues of our time. We come from diverse faith traditions but share a unifying commitment: to restore community and uphold the common good in America and across the globe. In service to this core commitment, we seek to:

• end poverty and promote economic security for all
• promote peace and restore America’s commitment to human rights and diplomacy
• prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change
• counter hate speech and misinformation in the media pertaining to people of faith
• work for welcoming communities where immigrants and people of all faiths are welcome

By speaking out, mobilizing and taking action in the public square, we are building a powerful grassroots movement to put justice and the common good back at the center of the American values debate. At this critical juncture, when our actions or inaction will have profound and permanent global consequences, our faiths demand nothing less.

Faithful America was founded on June 15, 2004, when a group of  progressives took it upon themselves to raise $36,000 to place an advertisement on Arabic-language satellite television, in order to apologize to Muslims for the abuse committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison.

Here is what the spot said:

A Salaam A’alaykum [“Peace be with you” in Arabic]. As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs.”

Faithful America claims that it has “tens of thousands of members”.   It urges its’ members to take action on issues ranging from poverty to health care to Iraq.  They claim that their campaigns have provided African children with malaria-preventing mosquito nets, (my local church did that on our own) gathered thousands of signatures on petitions to the White House, (thousands of individuals do that every day) and enabled thousands of people of faith to lobby their elected representatives in Washington to make moral decisions on issues from Guantanamo to Darfur.  

Again, individuals have the ability to do this on their own.  Why does an organization have to “urge” them to do it?

Faithful America was previously sponsored by the National Council of Churches in Christ (NCCC). In August 2007, Faith in Public Life took over this organization.

From faithfulamerica.org:

Faith in Public Life (FPL) is a communications and organizing resource center dedicated to helping faith leaders reclaim the values debate in America for justice, compassion, and the common good. FPL increases the strength and visibility and faith movements with cutting-edge media and infrastructure-building strategies. FPL’s website, http://www.faithinpubliclife.org is a valuable resource to activists, faith leaders and journalists, with an active blog and daily news clips from media outlets around the country.

Faith in Public Life (FPL) is a tax-exempt charity which was originally launched in 2006 as a way to embolden and strengthen the progressive evangelical (social justice) movement.   If you visit their website you’ll read that the group’s original mission was to counter the ideology surrounding President Bush’s 2004 reelection in which “faith was often deployed in service of a narrow and partisan agenda.” 

Ironic, huh?  Or maybe, hypocritical is a better word.

40 religious leaders throughout the United States were instrumental in FPL’s founding.  The main founders, however, were Jim Wallis of Sojourners; Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Melissa Rogers, Director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University; Rev. Dr. Jim A. Forbes, Jr., founder of Healing of the Nations Foundation; Ricken Patel, co-founder and Executive Director of Avaaz.org, which is a project of Moveon.org and Res Publica; and last, but certainly not least, Sister Catherine Pinkerton, a NETWORK lobbyist who gave the closing benediction at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. 

FPL also is very closely connected to John Podesta‘s Center for American Progress (CAP). Two of CAP’s senior fellows, Fred Rotondaro and Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, are currently members of FPL’s board. Other well-known Liberal groups affiliated with FPL include People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO); ACORN; Children’s Defense Fund; the Interfaith Alliance; People for the American Way; the Center for American Values and Public Life; and Pax Christi USA.

A bunch of well-known leaders in the progressive movement serve as speakers and organizers for FPL. Among these are Greg Galluzzo, national director of the Gamaliel Foundation; Kim Bobo, founder of Interfaith Worker Justice; Sister Simone Campbell, national coordinator of NETWORK; and Rabbi Jonah Presner of the Industrial Areas Foundation.

FPL is an advocate for open borders and is a leader in organizing for progressive change.   FPL helped to found the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM) in 2007, along with Kim Bobo and Interfaith Worker Justice.  This organization provides sanctuary for illegal immigrants facing deportation and tries to create sympathy for radical immigration reform.

One of FPL’s top priorities during the 2008 election was to try to change the view of the America public that evangelicals made up a conservative voting bloc.

FPL even circulated a Faithful America petition stating: 

The presidential primary exit polls, sponsored by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the AP, must stop stereotyping people of faith.

In February 2008, FPL joined up with the Center for American Progress Action Fund to commission a poll in two “Super Tuesday” states, Missouri and Tennessee.  The manipulated poll found that evangelicals were an important part of the Democratic base.  The results of the poll led Jim Wallis to declare that “evangelicals are leaving the Religious Right in droves.”

FPL also focused on portraying Democratic politicians as advocates of religious faith. On April 13, 2008, FPL – along with the ONE Campaign, Oxfam America, and Messiah College – organized the Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum in which CNN anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham hosted an evening with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and a number of Liberal religious leaders.   During that FPL forum, Jim Wallis took the opportunity to suck up to then-Senator Obama and successfully solicit his “new commitment” to “economic (social) justice.”

Wallis fawned over Obama, saying:

As you reminded us a week or two ago,when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn’t just speaking about civil rights. He was fighting for economic justice.

Although Wallis publically says that he does not endorse political candidates, in early 2008 he fiercely defended Obama and his 20 plus years association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

FPL advocated for President Obama’s health-care reform initiative in 2008.   Whining  that town-hall meetings, had “degenerated into armed shouting matches,” FPL staged a Liberal counter-effort in the summer, entitled “40 Days for Health Reform.”  Working through Sojourners, PICO, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, FPL produced and aired cable television ads and hosted a webcast call-in program with President Obama and Liberal religious leaders, trying to “reframe the debate” about health care.  FPL also generated 20,000 (pro-health care reform) phone calls to Congress, as well as 100 visits to Congressional offices, in a single day. 

Astroturf at its best.

Advocating against the use of enhanced interrogation procedures on suspected terrorists, FPL applied pressure on the Obama administration by creating lobbying groups like the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

Per the Washington Post, these efforts had a direct effect on White House policy in 2009 and early 2010:

[P]rogressive faith campaigns had an influence on everything from Obama’s signing of executive orders reducing torture, to his cautious (insincere) wording about public funding for abortions in his health care proposals.

FPL’s total disdain for the Tea Party movement of 2009 and 2010 was the same old propaganda it spewed against the town-hall meetings concerning health care reform.

In May 2010, Wallis criticized the Tea Party Movement and criticized the values upon which the movement was based:

The Libertarian enshrinement of individual choice is not the pre-eminent Christian virtue. Emphasizing individual rights at the expense of others violates the common good, a central Christian teaching and tradition. 

I will wrap up this post by quoting  Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

Regrettably, there is no shortage of preachers who have traded the Gospel for a platform of political and economic change, most often packaged as a call for social justice…

The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ. The Gospel is not a message of social (collective) salvation, but it does have social implications.

Luke 20:25  

And he (Jesus) said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar‘s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

Sources:  glennbeck.com, faithfulamerica.org, faithinpubliclife.org, discoverthenetworks.org, albertmohler.com