I have read almost every book Glenn Beck had written . (1) I find his three great books , each of them are like School Collage Text books with illustrations that connect every facet of Government to some grand scheme of secretive operations . I admit that the books he writes are intriguing how to books on fixing America . I have grown over the years to listen to what he says , but some circumstances now Glenn Beck has begun to annoy me . I have respect for him , but I will explain .For most Mormon's Beck is an icon in the media . Here we would like to caution Latter Day Saints on Beckism .
For years now, Glenn Beck has been warning us that we are hurtling toward a point of no return. Time and again, he has said that we're in an “Archduke Ferdinand moment,” one shot away from a global conflagration. On other occasions he's changed analogies from World War I to World War II; in March he announced on his radio show, “We have become the Weimar Republic. The warning signs are here and the enemies are within the gates.”
Glenn Back has made outrageous statements over the years his most recent Beck called Hurricane Irene a "blessing" on his Friday radio show, saying it would teach people to be prepared for disasters.
As the hurricane barreled towards the East Coast, Beck said that it would be a valuable lesson for people who have not heeded his warnings. He said he has long told his followers to stock up in case of "global disruption in food." He said that, even though people had mocked him for it, disaster preparedness was key to him.
"If you've waited [until now], this hurricane is a blessing," he said. "It is God reminding you, as was the earthquake last week...you're not in control." Here you have a hurricane that could kill thousands , what's got me pecking at Beck is that he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ( Mormon ) , if the hurricane and earthquake were from G-D sent to punish the unrighteous , and I'm sure that the righteous would be swept away as well . Acts of G-D don't discriminate, and I hate to see any Mormon killed in the hurricane .
So perhaps it's not surprising that Beck is now preparing his followers for Armageddon. On Monday, in the first of three rallies he's holding in Israel, a mostly American audience gathered in the ancient Roman amphitheater in the northern seaside town of Caesarea to hear from Beck and leading end-times preachers like John Hagee and Mike Evans. I don't believe that the Mormon church sanctions Glenn Beck's actions as a member of the Church . Though I've often 'wondered' what the head of the Latter Day Saint ' church often thought of Beck . (2) The Head of the Mormon Church is a according to the Churches theology is a 'living prophet' , he for the most part can be equated to the Pope . He receives 'revelations' from on high ( please I am not mocking here ) , each Mormon claims that they can receive personal revelations from G-D . Getting closer to my point here I believe that Beck has not openly claimed that he has 'received' personal communications from the Almighty . (3) Yet he acts as if he has , and the many statements he has made recently has turned him into a straw prophet In his broadcasts, Beck uses all the tools of a showman propagandist: he makes absurd comparisons, uses false analogies, tells whopping “stretchers” (Huckleberry Finn’s term for statements with little regard for fact or truth), weeps on cue (You Tube footage shows him swiping Mentholatum under his eyes to induce tears), and lapses into sophomoric lampooning, mocking, ridicule, sarcasm, taunting, and joking. At times, his TV show resembles a circus side show. Alex Koppelman observes, “He laughs and cries; he pouts and giggles; he makes funny faces and grins like a cartoon character; he makes earnest faces yet insists he is a clown; he cavorts like a victim of St. Vitus’s Dance. His means of communicating are, in other words, so wide-ranging as to suggest derangement as much as versatility.”5.
Here at one of his rallies Glenn Beck goes into his preacher mode:
His voice grew more and more urgent, sounding rather like Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka narrating the Wondrous Boat Ride: “There's going to come a time when there's nothing but freeway and a cliff!” Then, suddenly oddly calm, he said, “We're there.” From the crowd, there were scattered assents. “While there may not be a political solution, the good news is, the God of Abraham ain't running for office!” The cheering crowd leaps to its feet. “Be not afraid! Know who he is! Know his face! Know that he is a God of covenants and a God of miracles! We are leaving the age of man-made miracles of spaceflight, and we are reentering the age of miracles of God.”What’s particularly seductive about Beck’s performance is that he wears many masks, which he deftly changes, alternately engaging, mesmerizing, and en-flaming his audience, making them laugh one minute and inciting them to storm the Bastille the next. This mixture of clownish behavior and apparent deadly seriousness accounts for Beck’s appeal to a certain portion of the United States populace. His charm, boyish good looks, adolescent pranks, and jokes keep viewers entertained so that when he takes aim at the latest “progressive” crime or whatever he sees as the most recent threat to freedom and free enterprise, his audience is ready to follow him to the outer edge of outrage. Beck describes his shtick as a “fusion” of entertainment and enlightenment. And it’s effective. When he shifts into his latest example of evil or corruption in the White House or Congress, his followers are ready to beat their plowshares into swords and join his crusade. In fact, he used to open his show by repeating the words of Jesus to his disciples: “Come, follow me.”
NOTES TO THE ARTICLE:
Here's a reading of Beck's big three books in order to understand "BECKISM"
- (1) An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems, Simon & Schuster 2007. ISBN 978-1-4391-6857-8
- Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government, Simon & Schuster 2009. ISBN 978-1-4165-9501-4
(2) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, often not in the main stream of Christian sects . Today it headed by President Thomas S Monson .The church has 14 million members world wide . Latter Day Saints are generally good people who believe in family values and helping others . Not mocking the 'church' . I am only critical of Glenn Beck as a person .For the last year or so, Beck has been transforming himself from a political commentator to an unlikely religious leader, a Mormon who has mastered the style and idiom of evangelical Christianity. “Restoring Courage” marks the completion of his evolution into a messianic preacher. It's a multiday Israeli extravaganza set to culminate Wednesday evening with a rally beside the southern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, all devoted to showing solidarity with the most hawkish elements in Israeli society. He's recast himself as a great champion of the Jews, united with Israel in a coming global war with the Islamist and socialist hordes.
(3) Beck is an enigma, a chameleon, a shape-shifter, continually reinventing himself. He has gone from “zoo radio”cut-up, to stand-up comedian, to political commentator/entertainer, to Fox News firebrand, to cheerleader of a populist anti-government movement, to a modern-day Cassandra prophesying doom and destruction for a nation allegedly in the thrall of progressivism. A Latter-day Saint friend of mine calls him “a cross between a professional wrestler and a televangelist,” and some critics see him as the Barnum and Bailey of right-wing broadcast media (4) Although Beck’s broadcasts often neglect Mormon beliefs, practices, jargon, and symbols, he has positioned himself to speak the same language to Mormons as to conservative Christians (many of whom consider Mormonism a non-Christian cult). Beck's radio shows often go over the edge that reminds one of some of the antics of the post modern radio shock jocks .
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