As an interested spectator of American politics, we have been intrigued by the rise and rise of Glenn Beck. Even local radio talk-back personalities such as Leighton Smith acknowledge watching Beck. But where will it all end? That depends to a large extent upon Beck himself, but the runes thus far are not good.
There are things about Beck that are refreshing and engaging. He does not appear to have vaunting personal ambition. He reads a lot. He is self-taught. He has a great sense of humour. He laughs at himself. His concern for his country appears genuine, not venally motivated. He does not appear to think of himself as a somebody, a celeb, a star. He has broken just about every "rule" in the book for a cable talk show and his ratings continue to soar. Who would ever have thought that you could command such attention by using a chalk board and actually presuming to teach your audience what you have been learning? He certainly breaks the mould.
He has trenchant critics from just about every position on the political spectrum. Some of the criticism from Christians is just a little too cute. For example,
In the whole discussion about Mormonism, I think we’re missing a big part of what is going on with Glenn Beck. The problem is not simply Mormonism. The problem is idolatry.
People who follow Glenn Beck may not become Mormon and reject the Trinity, but they will likely follow his Americolatry—his worship of our nation. His view of life rises and falls on the state of our country. Christians I know who follow Beck quickly get pulled into his idolatrous fervor that declares that our nation can be our savior.
Both the left and the right subscribe to this Americolatry. If our government does X, Y, and Z, then we will be joyful, satisfied, safe, and complete. Then we will live in heaven. But if the other guys get their way, it’ll be hell. In that equation, God is no longer our joy, our comfort, our satisfaction, our all. If God is brought into the conversation at all, it is to use God as a means for our own idolatrous ends. This kind of idolatry is very alluring and dangerous for Christians.
Now, I am sure that Beck would find this critique incoherent. If there is one drum that he has beaten loudly and repeatedly it is the declaration that neither the US government and the civil state cannot save. He has repeatedly slammed and ridiculed progressivism. He has excoriated Woodrow Wilson. He has pilloried the idolatry of Manifest Destiny. He has called his followers to turn away from looking to government. His alternative: he repeatedly calls his hearers to look to themselves and their communities and to start taking responsibility. Lately, he has overlaid this with a call to look first to "God". He appears to have got this from his reading the founding fathers.
Now it is here that the substantial and just criticism needs to fall. Putting the noun "God" between inverted commas, effectively says it all. Beck has been calling for us to submit to an idol. The deity of which he speaks resembles the rationalist construction of many of the US founding fathers. He is the uber-being who allegedly lies behind the particular conceptions of him, as presented in Mormonism (Beck is a professing Mormon), Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism--and whatever else.
The problem is that all deities (which is to say all human constructed gods) inevitably manifest themselves in one way or other in the world. Those who believe in the deity get together and do stuff. They build their Babel towers. Beck's idol--the one which he is currently constructing and promoting--will prove to be no exception. (We are employing metonymy here, of course. Idols don't exist. They can do nothing. It is man that does and acts, in the name of his idol gods.) Now, it is too early to say precisely how Beck's crusade will eventually play out. It is possible that our commentator above may be right and that it will end up in just another form of America-worship. But maybe not. Maybe it will maintain a vague decentralised, limited government, classic federalist, republican, states-rights profile.
But Christians must not endorse nor be involved. To the extent that they are, they must repent and withdraw. For Beck's "God", to which we are to submit and reverence, is a filthy, destructive idol--or more accurately, a conglomeration of idols. The idolatry of Hinduism is obvious. Allah is an idol--the creation of Muhammad and his devotees. The god of Joseph Smith and Mormonism is an idol. And, dare we say it, the god of Judaism is an idol. (Before you react, let us remind ourselves that he who does not acknowledge Messiah, does not acknowledge nor believe in the God Who sent Him.)
Now, in rejoinder, Beck would argue that he is merely referring to all that it commonly conceived amongst the "great religions" of the world--distilling out the essence of the deity--so that all those who follow different religions could celebrate and work together on the basis of what they have in common. Of course that would be true. But it completely condemns his case. For the "God" is nothing more nor less than Beck's ideas or conceptions (or the ideas or conceptions and ratiocinations of however many people who would agree with him--it matters not; truth is not established by votes) of what god is and does and requires.
But the first great commandment utterly forbids what he is doing and prevents Christian support" "I am the Lord thy God Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods in My presence." (Exodus 20:2) No common cause with idols or other rival conceptions of deity whatsoever. None. Nada.
Until Glenn Beck repents of his idolatry, the Lord will not bless and prosper him. Until he repents of his sin and believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ that he might be saved he is bound to promote and extol a filthy idol. At the moment, thus far, Beck is proclaiming a false god and he is a false prophet.
Now, if the Living God were to open his eyes and grant him repentance and the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that would be a whole other story.
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