Merry Christmas, Everyone!

On 8/28/2010, Glenn Beck held his “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, DC.  It is believed over 500,000 people attended what Beck billed as a non-political event.  As he said on his 8/30 television show: “I said the message would be about restoring honor and turning to God. I said the day would be about faith, hope and charity. I told you for a long time the day would be focused on challenging each and every individual so we can restore honor. That’s the key to restoring our country, restoring ourselves first.” Beck’s own words attest that not only was this a non-political rally but that it was a non-denominational rally – spiritually challenging and uplifting, but non-doctrinal to ANY particular religion other than the basic Christian values found in the Bible.

Since Glenn is a known Mormon, there are some on the “Christian”-side who are criticizing him for his audacity in believing that he could or should hold such a rally as the Restoring Honor Rally.  Some accuse him of attempting to fulfill a Mormon prophecy of “Divine Destiny” – the same phrase Beck has used in describing the Founders and the writing of the Constitution.  These critics claim that Glenn believes that it is his divine destiny to fulfill the prophecy that …the Republic would nearly falter, (and) Mormons would swoop in to save the day (David Shedlock “8/27 & 8/28 Glenn Beck Takes Another Bite Out of the Apple: The Meaning of Divine Destiny”). According to these critics, Beck’s pleas to Americans to “get down on their knees and pray” is really his way of fulfilling Mormon prophecy and attempting to convert all Americans to Mormonism.  Also according to his critics, Beck can’t help but preach his religion: “Beck asks Christian leaders to “put differences aside,” but Beck himself daily peppers his broadcasts with Mormon distinctives because he cannot keep his beliefs to himself.” (Shedlock, “Divine Destiny: Evangelicals with out the Evangel”). And since Glenn can’t keep his beliefs to himself, “Satan is the one laughing at them as ‘Christians’ run head-long into embracing non-Biblical theology and call it ‘Christian’” (Brannon S. Howse, “Glenn Beck Rally Set Stage for “Christians to Accept Paganism, and Mormons Say Beck Achieved 200 Year Goal of Getting Evangelicals to Declare that Mormons are Christians”).

Since when does calling people to pray, to go to THEIR churches, to get back to God, to practice Faith, Hope and Charity mean that someone is attempting sending Christians into “non-Biblical theology”?  According to Howse, Beck’s “Black Robed Brigade” will result in: “The compromise by evangelical leaders and pastors by spiritually uniting with ‘all faiths’ with the theme of ‘looking to the one god’, as described by Beck, has laid the foundation for untold numbers of self-professing Christians to now embrace pluralism and pagan spirituality. Pastors and evangelical leaders literally locked arms with all faiths, including Imams, in a spiritual endeavor despite the clear Biblical warnings of II Corinthians 6:14. (2 Cor. 6:14 states: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?)”

How is it possible for Glenn to have a theme of “looking to one god” and yet be laying the foundation for Christians to embrace pluralism and pagan spirituality?  The logic makes no sense.  Howse also tries to use Ephesians 4:14 to continue to make his point when he states:  “As a result, the members of their own congregation hear no advanced warning of the coming spiritual undertow nor do they acquire the needed Biblical knowledge that keeps them from being children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” Unfortunately, Howse practices his own deceitful plotting by using a common ruse in Biblical arguments: pulling a verse and using it out of context, for if one reads the entire section of Ephesians he is referring to, one would actually see this:  “It was he who gave some to be apostles, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  Instead speaking the TRUTH in LOVE, we will see all things grow up into him, who is the Head, that is, Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-15)  In fact, Beck’s call to “look to one God” reflects an earlier part of the same chapter of Ephesians which states: “As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:1-6)

A Restoring Honor Rally, calling to all Americans to pray, to practice charity, to go to their own churches and have hope and faith, being misconstrued as a call to practice paganism is not the only weapon the critics have been aiming at Beck.  He’s also been accused of practicing Cosmic Humanism – the idea that man is God.  This accusation comes from Glenn’s appearance on Fox Sunday with Chris Wallace when he said: “because there’s nothing that we can do that will solve the problems that we have and keep the peace unless we solve it through God, unless we solve it in being our highest self. Be your higher-self.” These critics somehow seem to have missed the point of Christianity in general according to the Apostle Paul who wrote: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24).  Isn’t what Beck said the same as what Paul stated?  Furthermore, using the concept of reaching one’s “highest self” we can also define the top human need in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:   Self-Actualization, which says that the final need of human beings to be fulfilled as people is to experience MORALITY AND PURPOSE, MEANING AND INNER POTENTIAL.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

So which part about “experiencing morality and purpose, meaning and inner potential” goes against putting “off your old self…and put on the new self, created to be like God…”? or as Beck puts it: “being our highest self”?  Is it possible that perhaps Beck is truly asking people to reach their highest potential? That we must start by changing ourselves in order to change the country? Or, since Glenn is a Mormon, and like the obese, one of the last groups of people unprotected by th0se who profess to being politically correct, Beck’s critics attempt to use his own religion to accuse him of nefarious motives behind his Rally?

Throughout history people who have had the ability to touch others’ lives have been attacked, martyred and betrayed by those who are envious of their power.  Beck called out to the Nation and over 500,000 people showed up.  Another 130,000+ watched the rally as it was live-streamed on Facebook, and untold thousands watched it on C-SPAN.  Who else has been able to accomplish such a feat today?  He has spent the last few years telling America to “get on your knees and pray.”  There was no other doctrine than the Christian doctrine spoken on stage on 8/28.  There were no other values than the ones this country was founded upon pushed on the crowd; no talk of anything other than love, faith, hope and charity.  Love of God, love of family, love of country and appreciation for those who protect our country – who protect our very way of life by sacrificing their lives and time for the sake of our country, our rights, our families.  But, because Glenn Beck is a Mormon, because of his ability to call people out and have them actually show up, without being paid, he is attacked.  The attacks from the left are expected; the attacks from the Christian right? Not so much, until we are reminded of history and the in-fighting among Christians throughout the ages, beginning as early as 75 AD, that started as debates over doctrine and the “true religion”  and ultimately turned into genocide, inquisitions and witch-hunts.  Is this a witch-hunt being performed on Glenn Beck because he is a God-fearing Mormon?  Or is it because of his ability to call people to action?  Is Beck amassing too much power and must be attacked and dismissed as “not one of us” because of his Mormon beliefs or because of his power?

Those who question Beck’s “qualifications” to call people to God should go back and read the writings of the Apostle Paul, especially Romans and Ephesians to see what he says about judging one another on the basis of theological differences.  In Romans, Paul says: “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike.  Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.  He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.  He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.  For none of us lives to himself alone.  If we live we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” (Romans 14: 5-10)

If Glenn Beck has not accepted Christ as his Savior –  as many of his critics say he hasn’t and use as their reason for attacking him – then maybe this is God’s way to reach Beck’s heart.  How many thousands of people may have been reached through Beck’s appeals for the American people to reach to God?  Who are we to question God’s ways?  Hasn’t it been demonstrated throughout the ages and in the Bible that God will use even the most lowly person to fulfill His plans?  The Prophet Jonah, when he disobeyed God, eventually went on to fulfill God’s plan.  Judas, the most despised and misunderstood of all the disciples, was used to fulfill Christ’s destiny.  Why is it then, that so many Christians are attacking Glenn for attempting to reach the masses and ask only that they turn to God, that they pray for wisdom and that they find their purpose at the feet of God?

In the story of Esther, Mordecai beseeches Esther to go to Xerxes and beg for the lives of her people when he says:  “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) Is it possible that those who choose to criticize Glenn should instead be criticizing themselves and their church leaders because they have been called but have refused to do God’s work and in so doing have caused God to go to someone like Beck to do the work that the critics should have been doing?  Or instead of criticizing Beck, perhaps take this moment of history to heart and start doing the work that God has called all of us to do?  As Christ says in Luke 6:41: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye’, when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

The truth is that Beck is not preaching Mormonism, he is asking people to turn to God in order to restore honor in their own lives to start the restoration of honor for our America.  As it is said in Luke 6:45: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”"  Has Beck’s words and actions reflected a heart stored up with evil?  Or do they reflect that most important of all Commandants – the one that is” Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)?  It is by this commandment that we should judge Beck’s words and actions – is he fulfilling this commandment and asking others to do the same? And if he is living up to that commandment, then perhaps we should stop fighting and criticizing, and start living up to it ourselves so that we can follow the next greatest commandment which states: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) – only then will we truly be able to Restore Honor to America.

Editor’s Note: While it is important for us to not fall to a place where we begin to worship Glenn Beck, it is important for us to come together for a higher purpose. A battle that will last far beyond tomorrow and far beyond 2010. Glenn held this Restoring Honor rally because he sees the bigger picture of what it will take to overcome the attacks against the sovereignty of the United States of America by those who seem to be influenced by interests from far beyond our borders. It will take the building of a strong base before we can make serious gains in restoring honor in our America.