Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
There's a new savior in town--and his name is Glenn Beck.
Black pastor C.L Jackson, speaking at Glenn Beck’s much hyped “Restoring Honor” rally today, told the crowd of many thousands of tea party patriots, “We were brought together by what I call this servant of God, son of God, Glenn Beck.” Jackson, who was present when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream speech” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on this day 47 years ago, found the inspiration to stand on those same steps and compare Glenn Beck to his personal savior.
(The crowd and Lincoln Memorial beyond).
To quote John Batchelor from the Daily Beast:
It is a farce of an event in the way the bookish Karl Marx meant it, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”
As paper fans fluttered in the hands of the peaceful and excitable crowd who gathered on this hot August day on the National Mall of Washington DC, Pastor Jackson continued his speech by relating the New Testament story of the women who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. She prayed and gave her best to Christ, Jackson explained, and “you can pray and give the best you have for Glenn Beck.” Beck honored Jackson by awarding him a metal of honor for his “Faith.”
And the crowd, sporting signs that said “appeal to heaven” and wearing t-shirts that read “PRAY VOTE PRAY” and “Go BE the Church,” roared and applauded, calling amens and hallelujahs. This crowd of Middle Americans—who ranged from chatty and tattooed Nascar enthusiasts, to warm and sincere minivan moms—traveled from Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and parts unknown, to attend this church picnic gone national.
They were not so much the libertarian tea partiers whose top concerns are fiscal and monetary issues, rather than social issues—no, this was a crowd of religious patriots. One might even call them evangelical. On an impromptu basis, they broke out prayer, in song—God Bless America, America the Beautiful—and in chant, “USA, USA, USA!”
(This man is praying.)
(This man in the grey was an enthusiastic chanter).
(This man was playing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on his horn as the nearby crowd sang along).
One woman, who was pushing past me in the friendliest way possible, said that this rally reminded her of a pro-life rally she attended on the mall in the nineties. “There were like eight people touching me, but it was ok because we were all Christians and we were all praying together.” Then, the force of the crowd took her away as she waved goodbye to me.
(A patriotic couple).
(More patriotism).
Just as the crowd lived up to its stage role, Beck too played his part well. He cast off his role as the Fox News showman and the radio personality for yet another: the reverend Glenn Beck. Rev. Beck, delivering a three-hour long sermon that was interrupted only by speeches from Sarah Palin, baseball star Albert Pujols, Alveda King (Martin Luther King Jr’s niece), readings from the Bible, and prayers, spoke as if addressing a crowd of sinners in need of redemption.
“I tell you, as a man whose whole life was a lie…the truth shall set you free….choose today to change your life and lead it according to faith, hope, and charity.”
If the far left found its messiah in 2008 with Barack Obama, then the evangelical right now has its savior in Glenn Beck. Like Obama, Beck found great use in platitudes as he delivered his banal version of oratorical inspiration. (Here was Beck today: “It is time to start up the heart of the nation.” “God is the answer and always has been.” “Look forward, look West, look to heaven, look to God.”)
In the name of hope, charity, and faith—values given to us from God, he said—he incited the crowd to find the hero in each one of them. Speaking about the presidential memorials surrounding the crowd, he said “We are standing among giants.” But, he continued, “Those heroes aren’t giants…they are us.” This had something of the same rhetoric as his nemesis Barack Obama when Obama declared "we are the change that we seek."
So we ARE the ones we’ve been waiting for! We are the ones who can be the next George Washington. “I know the next George Washington is in this crowd…maybe he’s 8 years old…and this is the moment that he will dedicate his life to.”
(The eight year old Beck is looking for?)
In the spirit of Obama, Beck even employed and encouraged revolutionary rhetoric at his rally.
For instance, Beck and Palin both declared that America is “at a crossroads.” Palin thought it appropriate that the rally was held in the shadow of the Lincoln memorial because Lincoln “secured our union at the moment of our most perilous time.” She went on saying, “may this day be the changing point” for our country.
Beck read the Gettysburg address and spoke about us being on a “battlefield.” He likened himself to the person who spotted the iceberg on the Titanic—the person who realized that unless we change course, America is a sinking ship. With fervor, he said we live in troubling times and “the storm that’s coming is not just an American storm, it’s a human storm…and we must be on God’s side.”
Meanwhile, some crowd members sported self-made shirts reading, “Send up the flares, a revolution is going down. 8/28.” As Alveda King said at the rally, “many of us know that we need to rebuild America.”
But who are we at war, civil or otherwise, with? What storm does Beck mean? Are we really going to rebuild America? Are these polite and civil people, who are understandably worried about the direction our country is going in, really serious about a revolution? Do they realize that revolutions are, as a rule, the antithesis of conservatism?
These are the questions I’d be asking if I had the stomach to take such a revival—and Glenn Beck—seriously. But no, the entire event was political farce—an unleavened parody that did not rise to the level of either satirical humor or moral gravitas. It was kind of like going to a costume party with no discernible theme.
The only political significance you could take from the political theater of the rally was the strum and drang this squeezed out of the media gizzards of the Left. How predictable it all is.
(Thanks to my friend Charlie Dameron who helped me take some of the pictures above).
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Sure, that's basically what I meant. The capacity to recognize these truths as self-evident could come from God or nature. One of the self-evident truths is that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Those who do not believe in God would take "Creator" to mean nature, right? The point is that we're all made with the same inherent rights, whether made by nature or a God.
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Trace, Tim, and others, thank you for reading my posts and commenting. I greatly appreciate your genuine responses. I did not expect to become a Beck spokesperson and interpreter, but I actually do feel somewhat qualified to fill that role.
Tim, I agree with you that some reactions were a bit heated and defensive; however, I think Emily was deliberately a little more provocative than necessary and this is not a bad thing. She has certainly started a conversation that I've enjoyed. Concerning water and wine, consider that Thomas Jefferson's famous "wall of separation" was meant to prevent governmental influence over the church, not prevent the church's influence in government. Also note that during Jefferson's presidency, at least 4 different churches met in the capitol building every Sunday. This is part of the fundamentally different culture I was describing before.
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Trace, our generation can't imagine church meetings in the capitol or Bibles printed and distributed by Congress. Yet the generation that founded our country did these things and much more. This is the sense in which our generation is a lost cause. Our Overton Window does not include this possibility. However, if we move a little closer to that direction, the next generation may not consider the concept to be so foreign.
I am happy that the specter of Glenn coming for your children rattled you. You should be aware that others are after your children as well and with less noble intent. I would worry more about Ayers (and other Marxists) who most likely are preparing to start their own indoctrination this week as your kids start a new school year. If you are willing to shield them from Beck, please have the same attitude towards their curricula.
Aug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Ottoman Umpire
I read Emily's comment as expressing a personal preference, not a general rule. And I don't see where Diane implied a similar feeling, although I could have missed something. · Aug 29 at 11:23am
Ottoman Umpire, you made me do some work. That's good. Here are the two quotes from which I started:
Emily Esfahani Smith
I agree with Mollie: religion is a rather personal thing (I, for instance, am a Catholic convert who would rather pray in a closet than with peers.) Aug 29 at 6:30am
Edited on Aug 29 at 06:38 am
and,
I did not see the Beck 8/28 event. A co-worker went. I am eager to talk to him upon his return. [1/2]
Aug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
To continue, as I mentioned above, I am not a Beck fan--the genre of his program is not to my liking. I find his theology to be frankly irreconcilable with mine. But he and I can agree on much in the political sphere. Further, we are facing in both the West and the East, a formidable threat from a totalitarian religious-political system that has both mild and violent phalanxes that perform very effectively together in achieving cultural, political and religious conquest. The time long ago arrived for Americans and other nations to find it within themselves to resist these cultural encroachments. To this end, there is absolutely nothing contrary to the Gospel in Christians effectively and publicly organizing to impact their culture and to defend their nation. Some attempts will be inept. It is, of course, important for Christians to remember that this is a spiritual battle that we wage; but if nothing else, Christianity is a religion that--at its core--understands that God and his spiritual realm intersects with his temporal realm. Thus, this material world is the stage upon which this spiritual drama is played. [2/2]
Edited on Aug 30, 2010 at 8:32pmAug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Mollie Hemingway: The whole point of civil religion is to denigrate or deny the importance of religious distinctions. I confess a particular theology ... is so much more important than any political thing out there.
Opposing a rally that talks about vague generalities is not "having a problem with God being referred to outside of your own head" but, ... about being uncomfortable with a watering down of important religious messages in service to some civic goal.
But not everyone does. Those believers that tend to be more sacramental, creedal and focused on eternal life much more than the temporal are just not going to be comfortable in American civil religion. · Aug 29 at 5:59pm
Mollie, first of all, I am not walking into the trap of using the term "civil religion." Before this thread, I never would not have thought in these terms. I see no basis for "meant to denigrate or deny the importance of religious distinctions." Americans know that we differ. I applaud the attempt to find a common ground in the secular forum of ideas for limited purposes--like defending ourselves from political, cultural and economic insanity and a foreign and domestic threat. [1/2]
Edited on Aug 31, 2010 at 3:24amAug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Mollie, I am absolutely puzzled by this comment about believers that are more sacramental, creedal and focused on eternal life are not going to be comfortable with ...civil religion [your term, again, which I, again, reject as a description of Beck's event]. I am very sacramental, creedal and focused on eternal life and I can find no point of correspondence or sympathy with your perspective. As I commented in #105, Christianity is all over the concept of the spiritual and temporal interpenetrating--no, closer than that--becoming one flesh. Frankly, I am a bit puzzled, if you are so uncomfortable with all this public, religious goings on out in the street, why don't you keep it to yourself and not concern yourself with what we folks here at Ricochet, or rally participants, are doing? Why would you care to tell us what you think? I could argue that you are doing a much more public thing with clear religious overtones here than the vast majority of folks at the 8/28 event. As to why you blog here while decrying public expression of religion, well, I have my guess why...maybe we will see for sure. Examine thyself.
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Thanks Afflatus -- My kids go to a very progressive Quaker school in San Francisco where the indoctrination never stops. Interestingly as a result they tend to react with enormous skepticism. Their ability to detect grown-up nonsense is strong. I shield them from lots of stuff, but not from ideas. (My 12 year-old is a Ricochet podcast fan.) So after reflecting I don't feel the need to "shield" them from Beck. But anytime someone tells you someone is coming for your kids, you take a step or two back.
Thanks for volunteering as Beck translator. You make him appear far more cogent than he seemed to be from my casual observations of his show.
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Diane, I understand the point, since it's usually best to develop your own estimation of events before having a look at what other folks think. But I'm finding that where I used to click over to several high profile conservative sites to see what the movers and shakers were saying, I find it much more enriching now to read and engage with the good people right here. And I come away with a better understanding of events from our members as much as our contributors. As much as I enjoy the pundits, I usually know where they will be coming from. It's the folks out there making the country work that truly interest me, which is why I keep hitting the Ricochet button like a half-crazed lab rat needing a fix.
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Dave Carter
It's the folks out there making the country work that truly interest me, which is why I keep hitting the Ricochet button like a half-crazed lab rat needing a fix. · Aug 31 at 8:39am
Too funny, Dave, and such an apt analogy! I agree that there's nothing that compares to Ricochet out there. Am spending maybe 10-20% of the time I used to watching Fox or listening to talk radio now that there are Ricochet posts and podcasts available. Such intelligent, forward-thinking people with a variety of experiences... Next time I'll just toss my Sally Sunshine protective cloak around me before diving into discussions like this.
Aug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Diane
David Schmitt
(Oooo, loved that well-timed "Just sayin'" barb...very saucy, as in definition 3. "fetchingly bold and flippant.") · Aug 29 at 8:46am
Just read your post. Fetchingly bold and flippant. ... When I'm called both "saucy" and "indefensibly stupid" in the same thread I've gotta just appreciate it. Thanks for helping me ... after the ignominious smackdown from our esteemed site owner... bet...you to open doors for the fairer sex before you ride off into the dusty Oklahoma sunset in your beat-up pickup truck. Thanks so much! · Aug 31 at 4:22am
Edited on Aug 31 at 04:24 am
"Indefensibly stupid," why, I'd never say that to a lady. I thought I read all of the posts and I do not recall you being "smacked down," as you say. Why, why, who would do that? Let me at him!
Aug '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Ah, yes, the new measure of man in the modern world: does he pick up trash and recycle well! I think yes, your husband had it correct: precognitve experience first, then formulate one's ideas from the sensations and perceptions after the fact (whatever "after" means). Regarding your statement: "Guess I shouldn't have come to Ricochet first to see what our Contributors thought of the event..." Right, right, Dave--the other Dave--said it well, next time just come first to see what the commenting members have said first. (Just a joke in case any Contributors see this comment. I am paid up till next July right? Hello? I am paid up and you wouldn't kick me off for that little wise cra
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
Ottoman Umpire
My interpretation of Emily's report -- which I very much appreciate, not having the opportunity to be there myself – is that Beck's supporters were stepping over a line in comparing Beck to Christ, and Beck didn't do enough to discourage that comparison. Similarly, the concern about civil religion is that in conflates patriotism, which is fine on its own, with religion.
Rousseau, in Book IV of The Social Contract, supported the idea of civil religion to replace Christianity with “a purely civil profession of faith, of which the Sovereign should fix the articles, not exactly as religious dogma, but as social sentiments without which a man cannot be a good citizen and faithful subject.” The idea echoes back to early Greece and the early Roman Empire. No wonder that conservatives and the religious should feel queasy about it. · Aug 29 at 9:27am
Likety, like, like like! I coudn't have phrased it better. No, really. I couldn't.
May '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
There are those of us Christians who are not overtly sacramental or credal (I actually come from a Pentacostal background) who feel a stomache churning at the mixing of our religious fervor with the political arena. I'm not that big of a fan of Beck's (I do love me some Rush, though). The over-hyping C.L. Jackson expounded made my skin crawl. I have too much esteem for my Creator to even come close to using the same type of language which describes Him in Scripture as describing mere mortal man. I agree with Beck about our country needing to restore honor. However, I think Standing in the Gap: A Sacred Assembly of Men did a much better job of that. Yep. It was overtly religious. Nope. It was not political. I am much more appreciative of a public vocal and physical (face on the ground prayers) display of religious fervor than a religious-y patriotic fervor to restore honor to our country.
Sep '10
Re: Glenn Beck-a-thon: Honor, God, and More God
I just joined Ricochet, so I hope you will pardon me for my late response.
If you will take a moment to read "I Think I See What Glenn Beck Is Doing" it will give you a very detailed and thoroughly thought out explanation of Glenn Beck's rally.