Mr. Glenn Beck held a rally on the 47^th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s  “I Have a Dream” speech. He held his rally for ‘Restoring Honor’ at the same location as MLK did 47 years ago as well. I watched the whole speech and was surprised by his out-of-character appeals for unity, positivity and cohesion amongst all people.

“We have grown tired and we have grown weak. We have divided ourselves. There is growing hatred in the country. We must be better then what we allowed ourselves to become. We must get the poison of hatred out of us”

These are not vile statements. In fact, I agree with some aspects of this statement. I believe that there is growing hatred in the USA and the divisions are growing deeper by the day.

Here is my next quote from Glenn Beck:

“I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. … No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus — band — Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’d kill Michael Moore,’ and then I’d see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I’d realize, ‘Oh, you wouldn’t kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn’t choke him to death.’ And you know, well, I’m not sure.” –responding to the question “What would people do for $50 million?”, “The Glenn Beck Program,” May 17, 2005

This is where Mr. Beck and I part ways. I do not advocate or think about killing political adversaries and I certainly wouldn’t proclaim these thoughts to the world. I understand that he used to be about entertainment.  Previously, he would only use his “power” to sell books and to get great ratings on his TV and radio programs. But, the times, they are a changing.

Beck is now using his “power” to hold rallies, attack political opponents, spread lies, alter elections and we do not even know how far he can take his celebrity.

After watching the rally for ‘Restoring Honor’ I came away with the sense that I was watching a late night preacher.

“Too many Americans are looking to someone else. We must be the people who look inside ourselves first and then we are a life raft to those around us who need help. Do not give them fish, but teach them how to fish.”

“Look to the heavens and look to God and make your choice!”

Of course, he is only speaking about the God from the Church of Latter Day Saints, as a Mormon, Mr. Beck has a lot of beliefs that are not aligned with those of mainstream Christianity.

Such as:

A belief in Polytheism. In LDS teachings the holy trinity does not exist as one deity, but rather 3 separate Gods.

A belief that God was once a man. If you live a good life you too can become a God!

A belief that Jesus and Satan are brothers.

A belief that Jesus was conceived by sexual intercourse, not immaculate conception.

A belief that Jesus was a polygamist.

A  belief that the Book of Mormon and other LDS scripture are the word of god, not just the Bible.

A belief that an Angel came to New York in the early 1800’s to give golden tablets to Joseph Smith.

A belief that Jesus did not ascend into heaven after the Resurrection, rather, he went to South America.

Most importantly, as a Mormon Beck believes that “any righteous society in the Americas would be protected, whereas if they became wicked they would be destroyed and replaced with a more righteous civilization.

I bring up these doctrinal differences for a few reasons.

1)      LDS and Christianity are different religions. Just as Islam and Judaism are different from LDS or Christianity.

2)      Beck is a devote Mormon and is using his religion to get people to follow him.

3)      Many of these people do not know of the differences between the LDS and Christianity.

Which brings us back to the 8/28 Rally. Beck preached, praised God, urged America to turn to God and be forgiven for their sins. Of course, he forgot to mention that it is not the Holy Trinity he is speaking of.

Glenn Beck:

Let’s be honest. If you look at history, America has been both terribly good and terribly bad. It has been both, but to concentrate on the bad instead of learning from the bad and repairing the bad and then looking to the good that is still out in front of us within our reach— We have a choice today. We can either let those scars crush us or redeem us. We must extend to those we disagree with— But, you are honest and have integrity! There were people on stage that not only took a great personal risk but also, one in particular, organized for our president – lead a prayer breakfast – is a Democrat. You think the media would tell you that “This was only a bunch of tea partiers.” No, that person stood on the…stage because of honor. And there is a lot we can disagree on but our values and our principles can unite us. We must discover them again. Recognize your place to the creator. Realize that he is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life and protects us. I ask, not only if you would pray on your knees, but pray on your knees but with your door open for your children to see. Go to your churches, your synagogues, your mosques – anyone…not preaching hate or division….

Many people believe in a god or have a spiritual side. We have questions to ask that no one can answer, so people go to a mystical god in search of answers. I would not belittle or bemoan someone for doing this. It is their right and their choice to search for these answers.

However, when these people spread lies, distort history, politicize religion, wage wars, cut education funding, cut healthcare funding and dehumanize homosexuals; that is when I have a problem with their beliefs.

From Associatedcontent.com:

Also in November, 2006 (14), Glenn Beck interviewed then Minnesota Representative-elect Keith Ellison, a Muslim. He said, “No offense, and I know Muslims, I like Muslims, I’ve been to mosques… With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, “Let`s cut and run.” I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies — and I know you’re not. I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.”

“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.” –on why people who lost their homes in forest fires in California had it coming, “The Glenn Beck Program,” Oct. 22, 200

If you think it is just Beck who is like this, think again! Call me paranoid, but there seems to be a coordinated movement underway to supplant the democracy we have enjoyed in the United States with an unquestionable theocracy that is ruled by various conservative Christian groups, including the Latter Day Saints.

They fight against things they do not know; they fight against science, progressivism, humanism, socialism, liberalism, civil rights, cooperation, community and rational thought.  This is a fight that is being waged and you may not even be aware.

Daniel Czitrom:

Historians and teachers have reason to be deeply concerned over the latest actions taken by the Texas Board of Education regarding social studies curriculum standards.

The board has moved aggressively to put its hard-right conservative stamp on what students need to learn about the American past. Among the changes made by the board was the elimination of Thomas Jefferson from a list of thinkers who had inspired revolutions around the world. Conservatives object to Jefferson’s support for a clear separation of church and state.

This trend is troubling in terms of the writing and the teaching of U.S. history.

In 2002, the school board, egged on by well-funded conservative organizations, excluded “Out of Many: A History of the American People,” ostensibly for an offensive passage discussing prostitution on the Western frontier.

But the real reason became clear as that dispute played out, and I think that it helps explain what’s happening today. Many conservatives are simply unwilling to accept how much the writing and teaching of American history has changed over the past 40 years.

They want an American history that ignores or marginalizes African-Americans, women, Latinos, immigrants and popular culture. Rather than genuinely engaging the fundamental conflicts that have shaped our past, they prefer a celebratory history that denies those fundamental conflicts.

Conservative textbook activists believe that somehow what they call the “revisionist” history of recent decades needs to be “balanced.” Hence their insistence that, for example, textbooks stress the superiority of American “free enterprise” — they think the word “capitalism” is too negative. And they insist books stress, as school board chairman Don McLeroy put it, that “America was built on Biblical ideals.”

I do not mind that people have beliefs.  I usually encourage such a thing! However, a belief in something that cannot be proven (faith) is a very powerful thing. One can use this belief for good by helping others and promoting respect. Or, they can choose to lash out against things they do not understand and things they fear.

Another columnist defended the Conservative Christian version of history.  In an article on CNN.com, Mr. Knight goes into great length trying to rebut an argument by someone named, “Mr. Bunch” that Glenn Beck and David Barton are creating pseudo history.

Robert Knight:

Mr. Bunch seems, above all, to be annoyed that many people are no longer staying on the liberal plantation of secularized American history. He offers little in the way of examples of error, just differences of opinion, such as his own assertion about “the much-debunked idea that America’s creation was rooted in Christianity.”

Much debunked? That would have been news to many of the Founding Fathers, whose biblical understanding of man as created in the image of God informed their insistence in the Declaration of Independence that people have “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This was tempered by the biblically informed idea that man is prone to sin. In the Federalist Papers, No. 51, for example, James Madison wrote, “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Therefore, any government formed by men needs checks and balances to avoid tyranny. On a more elementary level, the signers of the Declaration and the Constitution were mostly Christian. You can look it up.

Perhaps this is why the Ten Commandments numerals are represented at the bottom of a door to the U.S. Supreme Court courtroom and why Moses, revered as the lawgiver to Jews in the Hebrew bible, and Christians in the New Testament, appears holding two tablets elsewhere in the Supreme Court building.

He appears between the Chinese philosopher Confucius and Solon, the Athenian statesman — at the center of a frieze of historic lawgivers on the building’s East Pediment. Moses is also among an array of lawgiver figures depicted over the Court’s chamber.

The “wall of separation between church & state,” by the way, is not in the Constitution. It’s from a letter from President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptists, who were concerned that the national government would favor one Christian denomination over others. But Mr. Jefferson’s phrase has become a sacred totem used by activist judges to drive Christian symbols from the public square.

The real reason that Mr. Bunch is so exercised is that the truth about America’s Christian founding is getting out, despite media hostility, politically correct schoolbooks and rising intolerance toward any public expression of faith — unless it advances leftist goals.

America is a unique beacon of freedom precisely because of its founders’ Christian perspective, which has protected the right of conscience and thus freedom of religion for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and nonbelievers. Try to identify another nation on Earth that similarly advanced individual rights without being influenced by Christianity.

Okay. I will stop you right there, Mr. Knight. I understand that you “constitutionalists” don’t read the US Constitution much.

Article 1 (it is number 1 for a reason)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This means that the US cannot make a pro-religion law or an anti-religion law.

We also have The Treaty of Tripoli, the first treaty ratified by the US Congress. This was in 1797.

Article 11:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

So, maybe the members of the US Senate or President John Adams were just having fun with words when they said, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” To me it seems clear.

To Beck, Mr. Knight and a bunch of Christian soldiers we are all agents of Satan trying to promote our socialist agendas.

In the 8/28 speech, Beck attempted to promote respect and unity, but he ended up lashing out against his political detractors and opponents. This is not the work of a historically important individual. This is the work of a weak-minded demagogue who does not know better.

So, maybe that is not enough evidence for you? Well, here ya go! Check out this link to a page of quotes, information and links detailing the founder’s beliefs. I included some other great quotes for fun too. Enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Girl in 1990
2. America v. Europa
3. The new GOP (i.e. Tea Party) lies.
4. Gauging Glenn Beck, Tea Party Effects on Midterms
5. Quotations