I’m still trying to figure out the message of the Glen Beck rally.

If the message was simply, “we can assemble from 80,000 to 500,000 ( the estimates vary) , most of whom are white conservatives,” then I suppose his event was a resounding success.  Surely it was about more than that.  So then, what was it?

According to CNN,

Beck’s address to his “Restoring Honor” rally, nominally held in support of U.S. troops, resembled more a revival than a political rally. In it, he urged those attending to return America to the religious values on which he said it was founded.

The sound bite most often heard in the coverage was:

Something beyond imagination is happening…Something that is beyond man is happening… America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.

So why should I, a Christian, a long-time church worker and former pulpit minister have any problem with that?

It seems to me that Mr. Beck is claiming some sort of exclusive ownership to history, Martin Luther King, and maybe even Jesus Christ.

First of all, Beck wanted to reclaim the civil rights legacy from, well from whom and/or what? Politics? The black folk that he describes as liberal advocates of social justice?

Back in March, Beck attacked any churches who advocate “social justice.” For Mr. Beck these Christians should be avoided at all costs. The negative reaction was so widespread that Beck felt he needed to restate his position.

Here’s my definition of social justice: Forced redistribution of wealth with a hostility toward individual property rights, under the guise of charity and/or justice.

Beck likes to then associate this concept with President Obama, who Beck believes had come under the influence of “Marxism disguised as religion,” apparently a reference to Rev. Wright and the church that the Obamas attended for many years.

Apparently it’s from these people that Mr. Beck seeks to reclaim the Civil Rights Movement, while insisting that:

This is going to be an iconic event… This is going to be a moment that you’ll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it. This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. It has been so distorted and so turned upside down. It is an abomination.

Now the problem I have with all this is that I remember how Dr. King was labeled as socialist or communist by many white churchmen during the 60’s — not unlike the way that President Obama is being labeled Marxist and often, Muslim.

Furthermore, the white segregationists of the 60’s clearly viewed the sit-down demonstrations in white-only restaurants as a violation of the property rights of the owners.

Likewise, when Dr. King was working for better wages and conditions for garbage collectors the day that he died, his foes would have associated him with the “social justice” definition offered by Mr. Beck.

Peter Dreier writing for The American Prospect reminds us who Dr. King was.

Today we view King as something of a saint, his birthday a national holiday, and his name adorning schools and street signs. But in his day, the establishment considered King a dangerous troublemaker. He was harassed by the FBI and vilified in the media. He began his activism in Montgomery, Alabama, as a crusader against the nation’s racial caste system, but the struggle for civil rights radicalized him into a fighter for broader economic and social justice. He recognized the limits of breaking down legal segregation. What good was winning the right to eat at a dime-store lunch counter if you couldn’t afford a hamburger and a Coke?

As a libertarian (at least libertarian-leaning) pundit, Glenn Beck would not approve of any government provided benefits.  The concept is that poverty is somehow a choice, and government should never involve itself, not even on behalf of the children involved.

To his credit the event itself apparently was less political than faith-oriented.  And although many people of faith were quite comfortable with his words, I wonder why it is that his Morman faith is considered Christian enough and President Obama’s faith is not.

Ultimately the question is: Is Mr. Beck seeking to reclaim the civil rights movement, or seeking to claim something that is not his?

And what of the simultaneous celebration representing those who have actually been involved in the civil rights moment, held nearby by Rev. Al Sharpton. Reportedly, this smaller but significant gathering was as black as the other was white — and perhaps as Democratic as the other was Republican.

Glen Beck’s rally was successful in that it was attended by tens of thousands of religious folk, who are on the political right and predominately white.

But to eschew the concept of social justice does not embrace the legacy and implications of the movement for civil rights.