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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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I'm not a christian,but keep buying into my gimmick and keep sending me money!
There is no god to turn back too, only the age old lie to keep you in your place... at least no positive evidence that I know of. I fear a new dark age...
Christians from all denominations and political leanings should be disgusted that Beck, a mormon, should question Obama's Christianity. Whether you agree or not with Obama's politics, his belief in the Trinity is the same as all other denominations, unlike the mormon polytheist abomination. If you believe in God the Almighty, and Jesus Christ as your Savior, Glenn Beck should not even enter your mind as a tool of God, he is only a tool.
Please ...you right wing , fear mongering,Beck lovin', half-witted, red white and blue wavin' morons: Why don't you go and get the gun I'm sure you're sleeping with under your pillow and blow your heads off. You will be happier.
Americans need to wake up the fact that Beck is simply another opinion pushing charlatan who is a product of mormon cult theology. He does not possess a single ounce of journalistic integrity, he has no qualifications and he is definitely not conservative. But then, what can anyone expect from someone who can't find anything filthier than their own personal reflection. Since people like Beck cannot exist on the basis of any personal merits, they survive by puting others down with lies and half truths in order to feel good about themselves. The truth about Beck is that he a dry mormon alcoholic who never got the counseling required by alcoholics. He flippantly throws around Christian terms like "God", "Jesus", "Holy Spirit" as well as voices of other so called "Spirit Powers" on his radio talk show. Beck is a mormon in active standing with the mormon church and is not a Christian. Mormonism teaches many gods, that the god of the earth was once a man who attained godhood status and that Jesus Christ and Satan were brothers. Because Beck does not possess a single ounce of journalistic integrity, he is the perfect abortion poster child for Fox Network. The people who love what Beck says are no different than the impressionable sheep who loved every speech made by Adolph Hitler in his early years when he brought Germany into an era of economic prosperity. These same sheep (like the ones who listen to and believe the lies of Beck) also blindly followed Hitler into one of the darkest chapters of world history. Beck and the Fox Network both cater to the same lowest common denominator of demagogery. The man would not know the first thing about God as he is a mormon. Someone should ask him which of the many mormon gods he kept talking about during his argument with himself on Saturday. Unfortunately, these teabaggers out there do not realize that Beck is talking about a different god than that of Christianity, Judaism or Islam.
Ridley is on the left wings payroll. He has posted his same rant word for word across the internet using different names in an attempt to slander conservative voices.
Glenn Beck is a shock jock....that is all. If you take him seriously then the joke is on you.
“I could give a flying crap about the political process.” “We’re an entertainment company,” Beck says.
Hey, do you know about the U.S.A.?
Do you know about the government?
Can you tell me about the Constitution?
Hey, learn about the U.S.A.
In 1787 I'm told
Our founding fathers did agree
To write a list of principles
For keepin' people free.
The U.S.A. was just startin' out.
A whole brand-new country.
And so our people spelled it out
The things that we should be.
And they put those principles down on paper and called it the Constitution, and it's been helping us run our country ever since then. The first part of the Constitution is called the preamble and tells what those founding fathers set out to do.
We the people,
In order to form a more perfect union,
Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
Provide for the common defense,
Promote the general welfare and
Secure the blessings of liberty
To ourselves and our posterity
Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
THANK YOU, SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK
Our nation was not founded as a "christian nation." That's nonsense invented by the extreme right. In fact our founding fathers were mostly Deists. Beck and Palin were exactly the kind of religious idiots our founding fathers were trying to protect us from. Beck and Palin are the western equivalent of the Taliban. If they had the power, we'd all be marching to their tune by order of law (or stoned to death as the Sharon Angle christian reconstructionist types advocate).
What dupes people are in believing that Beck has all of a sudden become religiously enlightened. He's nothing more than a showman who is selling himself as a product endorsement. He's no closer to God than the next person, in fact he may be more closer to the devil. He's crazy as a fox, no pun intended, hypnotizing his followers to do his bidding...just don't drink any of his kool aid.
Glenn Becks message is good. What's necessary now is action. First resist lies then speak the truth. This nation is still, under unjust laws, murdering its young in abortion, increasingly murdering its elderly and sick in eauthanasia and destoying the meaning of family and marriage through homosexual unions. God is no fool, He will not accept lip service, but watches to see our actions. Christ said,"If you love Me, you will DO as I say." Christ was no murderer, pervert or hypocrite. The 10 Commandments remain no matter how many try to avoid them with unjust laws.
According to the genuine Christian bible Glenn Beck a Mormon meets the qualification as a heretic and false prophet!
Don't take my word for it compare and look it up the differences and what the Bible (not book of Mormon and) Christian Theologians have to say!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf33g9ep4YU Does this sound like a good christian to you???
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits".Matthew 7:15
A true Shepard will be known by his works and deeds, the blind will follow the blind as the serpent will swallow his own tail. America wake up words are not deeds, this man of the so called cloth is wearing money. His intentions is to fool you all into his own agenda. A man of the lord would not be used by anyone, let alone politics. He is the serpent and you are the tail.
America was in fact founded on Christian Principles. We are a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy. Do your homework.
If a man says the words you want to hear, expect him to start selling you some snake oil. He is only using god to fool you people to believe he is the man you need when election time comes. Really glen beck???? You have become blind and the people who control this puppet are laughing all the way to the pew. Come on people this nut is nothing more then a wolf in sheep clothing heralding the new world order of things to come.
Hahaha... Glen Beck... Mormon loser. Has anyone here actually read their views? They are enough to make you laugh out loud. You think Muslims are nuts, try Morons... I meant Mormons. Glen Beck is an idiot and he's only in it for the money, just like Sarah Palin. Anyone that thinks he's bright obviously has a few screws loose and should immediately report to the nearest mental health facility. What America needs right now is NO MORE RELIGION and MUCH MORE THINKING. Keep god out of the the USA.
Beck: Division Equals Unity, Rage Equals Love, Freedom Equals Ideological Alignment, Jesus Equals Howard Roark:
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2010/08/beck-division-equals-unity-love-equals.html
People come on this commentary with such hate and ignorance. What bothers me is that these people are products of the past 3 to 4 decades. They learned to be so skeptical and cynical from a society built from Television, the media and worse yet our educational system.
The key word lacking in these people is "Compassion". We are humans who need to be united by people who are positive, caring and compassionate. But so many have been hardened by this liberal multi-culture, selfish driven society that they not only cannot identify human nature's cry for the truth, they criticize and degrade it instead and then call it free speech.
I'm saddened by the number of people who comment here who fit this description. Glen Beck is not perfect, he is only trying to help this country but callous people can't even recognize it.
Before you try to remove the splinter from someone's eye, remove the boulder that blocks yours first.
People come on this commentary with such hate and ignorance. What bothers me is that these people are products of the past 3 to 4 decades. They learned to be so sceptical and cynical from a society built from Television, the media and worse yet our educational system.
The key word lacking in these people is "Compassion". We are humans who need to be united by people who are positive, caring and compassionate. But so many have been hardened by this liberal multi-culture, selfish driven society that they not only cannot identify human nature's cry for the truth, they criticize and degrade it instead and then call it free speech.
I'm saddened by the number of people who comment here who fit this description. Glen Beck is not perfect, he is only trying to help this country but callous people can't even recognize it.
Before you try to remove the splinter from someone's eye, remove the boulder that blocks yours first.
Even the devil himself can disguise himself as an angle of light. Mormans are a cult and don`t believe in the bible. They believe in the book of morman and they don`t believe Jesus Christ is anything more than a teacher of sorts, a mini god. Not the one true God. Joseph Smith was a heritic.