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August 28th, 2010
08:50 PM ET
At rally, Beck positions himself as new leader for Christian conservativesAmong those surprised by all of conservative TV host Glenn Beck's recent religious talk - including at Saturday's Washington rally, where Beck said that "America today begins to turn back to God," - is the Rev. Richard Land, a Southern Baptist leader. "I've been stunned," said Land, who directs public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention and who attended the Saturday rally at Beck's invitation. "This guy's on secular radio and television," Land said Saturday, "but his shows sound like you're listening to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, only it's more orthodox and there's no appeal for money ... and today he sounded like Billy Graham." Beck's speeches around his "Restoring Honor" rally have brimmed with religious language: "God dropped a giant sandbag on his head" to push him to organize the rally, he said Friday. On Friday night, Beck held a religion-focused event at the Kennedy Center that was billed as Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny. Beck's speech Saturday also evoked the feel of a religious revival. "Look forward. Look West. Look to the heavens. Look to God and make your choice," he said. Beck has also begun organizing top conservative religious leaders - mostly evangelicals - into a fledgling group called the Black Robed Regiment. The organization, whose charter members convened in Washington this weekend, takes its name from American clergy sympathetic to the Revolution during the 1700s. Beck's emerging role as a national leader for Christian conservatives is surprising not only because he has until recently stressed a libertarian ideology that is sometimes at odds with so-called family values conservatism, but also because Beck is a Mormon. Many of the evangelicals who Beck is speaking to and organizing, including Land, don't believe he is a Christian. Mormons, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, call themselves Christian. "There's a long history of tensions between Mormons and evangelicals and some of that is flat-out theology," says John C. Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron. "Mormons have additional sacred texts (to the Bible) and a different conception of God." "It's also competitive," Green said, "because evangelicals and Mormons are both proselytizing in the U.S. and around the world." Some evangelicals criticized Christians for partnering with Beck this weekend because of his Mormon faith, provoking a number of evangelical political activists to pen defenses of their decision to join Beck. But Evangelicals and Mormons have also stepped up cooperation around conservative political causes in recent years. In 2007 and 2008, presidential candidate Mitt Romney reached out strenuously to evangelical leaders, winning endorsements from the likes of Bob Jones III, a Christian fundamentalist. Evangelicals and Mormons led the successful push to pass California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, in 2008. Activists from both traditions say they can set aside theological differences in the name of moral issues. "The evangelicals participating in the Restore Honor event are not endorsing Glenn Beck's theology, nor is he asking them to," said Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, who attended Saturday's rally. "Together, we and millions of our fellow citizens are calling America back to its Judeo-Christian values of faith, hard work, individual initiative, the centrality of marriage and family, hope, charity, and relying on God and civic and faith-based organizations rather than government," said Reed, who leads the Faith and Freedom Coalition. But Beck has sometimes upset religious conservatives. For instance, he said recently that opposing gay marriage is not a top issue for him. Since launching his 9/12 Project last year, which is meant to "bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001," Beck has gone in a more religious direction. The second of the project's nine principles is "I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life." The Southern Baptist Convention's Land, who hadn't talked to Beck before a few weeks ago, has started getting questions from the TV and radio personality about theological issues. "I think he's moving - I think he's a person in spiritual motion and has been," Land said. "He has said as much to us," Land said, referring to fellow pastors. "That he has moved in the direction of being more spiritual, more concerned with cultural issues and seeing that politics isn't the answer." In discussing religious values, Beck generally speaks from a nondenominational perspective, avoiding specifically Mormon or evangelical references. Beck's religious rhetoric appears to counter the prevailing conventional wisdom that the power of religious conservatives has been eclipsed by the Tea Party movement's small-government conservatives. But Green says that "groups of religious people who care about social issues have not gone away." "Some of their leaders faded but that group didn't disappear," he said. "They are waiting for new leaders and my sense is that Beck would like to be one of those leaders." |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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proof that 90% of the posters here are catholic
A man wants to be a God.
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee". Also known as Macular Dystrophy.
Why is it that every former crackhead or alcoholic who finds God has the urge to save everyone else? Then passes judgement on you if you don't believe in their crap?
THAT'S NOT A VERY RESPECTFUL WAY TO TALK ABOUT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
they assume everyone one else is just as stupid as they are.
If Beck is considered a leader, we are in more trouble than we've ever been in. The man admits to never bothering with pesky things like fact-checking (check his recent interview on "The View", yet tells his sheep that he's dealing in facts. He's a symbol of everything that the new Republicans stand for – negativity and divisiveness.
MICHELLE....BY PROCLAIMING TO THE WORLD THAT YOU WATCH THE ...."THE VIEW", YOU HAVE MADE YOURSELF TOTALLY REDUNDANT !
YOU'RE DISMISSED
(MICHELLE....WHEN MAKING IT TOO EASY, HONEY!)
So I'm guessing now that ANY god is okay with beck. Any god will do even the catholic god of Hitler?
it is the preservation of the supernatural myth that is what is important.
It keeps the Age of Stupidity rolling along.
I was happy to see Falwell die and now this guy is going to fill in his shoes. Lets bring back the crusades.... America will fight the crusade against the 2 billion muslims for the next 3 decades and China and India will overtake USA in the entire spectrum of technology, low-tech to high-tech to bio-tech. Unfortunately the faltering economy is good fodder feed all those gutless idiots to resort to relegion as an answer to all their woes in life..
Why do you fear Glenn Beck? What happened to religious unity and tolorance in America.
unfortunately there are many more waiting in the wings to pass the cross sword on and on and on...
But there is hope in the Single Strand...
The answer to the riddle is about to be revealed this fall.
Based on the hate of Glenn Beck, it seems obvious people take him out of context and are fearful of his influence. Perhaps reality is now hitting you as you realize he is just one of over 62% of Americans who want to restore a strong America. The 800,000 plus peaceful people in DC today are just a handful of people voting in 66 days. I am grateful we have the right to speak our minds in this country. Nothing but positive and racially unifying words were said today. Honor to MLK's memory and message was very clear today as well. It's very sad that I see nothing but hate in most of these messages and horrible attitude toward the Mormans. I thought our country is the example of religious freedom and tolorance, or is that only for non-Christian religions?
It's all about "DIVIDE AND CONQUER".
this guy is a moron and idiot as are his followers.he is pandering to the far right religious nuts.He should stick to selling his gold coins and fox news biased beliefs.God help this country if people actually take him seriously
WOW.......I'VE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH FEAR, HATRED AND JEALOUSY, ALL GATHERED TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE.
THE FEAR COMING FROM THE LEFT IS ALMOST PALPABLE....
AMAZING WHAT 18 MONTHS WILL DO TO A ONCE CONFIDENT GROUP !
Keep telling yourself that.
The "fear" from the "LEFT" isn't just palpable. It's 100% real and based on the reality that Beck, his followers and their twisted racist backwards regressive beliefs are 100% frightening to real Christians that practice tolerance, charity and humility in the face of the almighty. We don't wear our faith like a crown to rule others. And his Mormon faith is a proven farce and a complete mockery of spirituality. It's a corporation.
LOOKS LIKE A HIT YOUR HOT BUTTON, MICHELLE...DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY...IT'S JUST YOUR FEAR REACTING TO
MY POST....RELAX..YOU'LL BE FINE AFTER NOV.....
SURE YOU MAY HAVE TO ACTUALLY GO TO WORK AND START PAYING YOUR OWN WAY IN SOCIETY, LIKE THE REST OF US...BUT I THINK YOU'LL FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR OWN WAY IN THE WORLD INSTEAD OF RELYING ON THE GOVT. FOR YOUR HANDOUTS....
REALLY...EVERYTHING WILL BE OK.
RACE CARD PLAYED IN UNDER 6 MINS. "A-RELIGIOUS"....NICELY DONE !
JESUS WOULD BE SO PROUD OF YOU ! 🙂
WELL, IT'S BEEN FUN....BUT I'M OFF NOW ...HAVE TO GET UP EARLY TOMORROW....
HEAR THERE'S A BIG SALE TOMORROW ON WHITE SHEETS !
LOL
Not fear. Love of truth. Love of country. Some people enjoy creating fear. Some will find it everywhere they look for it whether it's there or not. Others speak out against fearmongering and falsehood and say enough is enough. This is not fear. It is standing up with conviction and speaking truth to power in order to expose lies and injustice. Freedom of speech. You may not know it but Progessives and Liberals are patriotic Americans too. We even share the same Constitution as all other Americans. Scary isn't it???..............
He's the anti-Christ.
The anti-Christ will be someone adored by all with the intention of bringing unity and peace throughout the world. Glenn isn't adored by you, therefore, not by all, therefore cannot be the anti-Christ. But I'll bet you already knew that.
Nobody knows? Nobody know which F_ING god he was talking about?
How can Palin and Beck be on the same stage calling themselves Christian? She's AG; he's Mormon. Oil and water. The only common denominator is $$$.
LMBO! The biggest "I Have a Scheme" speech of all his life. Surely no one is going to speak against faith and love and 'coming together', lmbo; but he is as phony as a unicorn in lollipop land. Use discernment people. P-i itiful!
He's gay. But not one of the good ones.
This is America. We are free to believe what we want and live free of oppression of anyone, especially the rich, religious, and of people who want to pretend they know what the real world is like. This argument sounds like all those other small minded arguments that I think to be fake as WALLSTREET ITSELF, full of judgmental and false Christians. Its like all those broken families and lost dreams of all those that believe in big corporate lies and treat the almighty dollar like it is their GOD while they let their children starve and go without because they are to prideful to get help. Social help is the most vital part of the American dream. Schools, Libraries, Police, Streets, Healthcare, etc... it is an American right to have these things to prevent the collapse of a greedy society from those whom ponder and waste money in debt while working like slaves to feed their debt and keep up with the Jones only to support a false monetary Capitalistic system of the most wealthy breeding EVIL and competition among children. YEAH! fight your war "warrior" but know MY Generation is a NEW Breed of Christians and we are tired of the racism, and stupidity, full of lies that Corporate, Facist, Republican America has sold us pretending to be Christian for way to long and living in war against an invisible enemy called Capitalism.
He is entitled to his belief's. He's even entitled to speak to those belief's. I find it incredible that someone would claim simply because he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("Mormon's" is a slang term) that his comments are insincere. As a Christian I am elated at when someone with secular popularity speaks out for a "turning back to God". I hope that this fell on a lot of open ears. I think this is a good thing. Despite any variations in belief we may have, we should work to build on the things we have in common. Even if that means that we as evangelicals get over the tensions we have largely created between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and ourselves. We will be much greater if we can build on our commonalities and work toward something good. I think we have seen plenty of evidence of what happens when we work ourselves away from spiritual things and it is not a good place to be.
A man is what he says and does. Beck is a living breathing lie. He is the the embodiment of hypocrisy, trapped in his own little media driven evangelical/political sewer of self-aggrandizing delusion. He ignores fact, tramples truth and interprets both the Bible and the Costitution as if he wrote them both himself while counting gold with one hand tied behind his back. Farse. Public perjury. History, wealth, power and glory are the true goals of this charlatan. Our world deserves better spiritual and political guidance than what this pathetic manipulative underqualified weasel has to offer.
In the photo, with arms out, he looks just like Jesus Christ! Let's follow Beck back to our roots America!
What roots would those be?
We have to rediscover our roots by gazing upon our pool of self-reflection: Faith, values, integrity, moral courage, virtue, character, and honor. We are all good citizens, by working on our inner strength, we will renew America's strength once again!