Beck Speaks for God Now

I hope Glenn Beck has finally gone too far. But I fear he'll just dial it back a bit and keep his show with its seed and gold advertisers. This guy is like a cockroach, you just can't kill the bastard. I am speaking, of course, about his call for all Christians to leave their church if the words "social justice" are mentioned on the church website. Glenda claims this is code for Communism or Nazism--and they're basically the same thing, right? Do you believe this, America? And if you do, I've got a some loan derivatives, a bridge and some swamp land to sell you. I recall that Joe McCarthy finally crossed a line when he accused Eisenhower's church of being filled with commies. That tore it!

Christian bloggers and media figures began voicing their protests and some even called for a boycott by Christians of Beck's shows on TV and radio. The next day Beck amended his statements--just as he did with the climate change thing--saying he was talking about churches which were for big government programs to help the poor.

It's all so offensive and meaningless. He attacks the very core of Christian faith and Christ's teachings--that you should help those less fortunate than yourself, not be primarily concerned with material wealth, and work to stop the defects in society which make people poor--and then backs away and none of his zombie followers are outraged.

My feeling is charity and compassion are the only things organized religion are good for. I think a lot of religion is about fear of death--one of Beck's biggest bargaining chips for viewers and their money. The selling point of most churches is: If you go to my church every Sunday and drop a few bills in the collection plate, you'll go to heaven, float on a cloud, and play a harp all day. The really imporant thing is to be kind to others while you're alive and I don't think you should be forced into it by the threat of hellfire. You should because it's the right thing to do. I hate the idea that if you don't have Christian values then you have no moral values at all because God the policeman is not there to keep you in line.

But back to Beck, his whole message is--I overcame my alcoholism and crawled out of the dungheap to become this raving success, so you should never lend a hand to anyone who's in trouble. You should be afraid that Obama and the commies and the lefties are going to take away every penny you've spent your life earning and give it to lazy undeserving black and Hispanic people. And you'd better be ready for the Apocalypse because it's coming any minute, so buy up these seeds and gold my advertisers are selling you.

What sort of church does Beck want? One where you worship at the altar of the almighty dollar, keep out those who are different, and praise the mighty bomb which protects us all--kind of like the one in Beneath the Planet of the Apes where the mutated humans including Victor Buono worshipped in the subway system. At least that would be somewhat entertaining.