https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUxZeEaa7BI
I had not realized to just what extent Glenn Beck was
reaching out and engaged in a kind of functional if informal ecumenism. I knew
he had made tremendous inroads into the Evangelical sphere deceiving many
people into thinking him a Christian. And now apparently he's even gaining
traction among Roman Catholics.
A Mormon, this latest development simply reveals the reality
that for many American Christians (of whatever stripe) the real gospel is
Right-wing ideology – nationalism, capitalism, and a host of quasi-Christian
narratives imposed on these categories and their outworking in history. This is
why Beck can get on marvelously with the likes of David Barton and other
Evangelical charlatans. Ostensibly a libertarian, Beck's social critique can at
times resonate with some on the Left. And apparently many of the left-leaning journalists
and authors that appear on his show are so eager to get that publicity boost
and the sales that result, they are willing to forego or set aside the
integrity they purport to uphold (as independent journalists). In other words
they're willing to take a stand against commercial-driven news media – but only
to a point. I know the reasoning many of them use and it's the same found in
Evangelical circles – the end justifies the means. If I can get my message out
to a wider audience then it's worth cavorting with the likes of a fascistic
buffoon like Glenn Beck.
Beck is all smoke and mirrors, his only real ideology is
mammonism. The libertarian angle has been employed to oppose elements with the
Democratic Party and it played to the zeitgeist of the Obama years. Beck goes
wherever the current takes him. He wants to be the father of a movement, but
its movement with no foundation, no ideology and as such – like many in his
larger sphere, his frustrations and the intensification of the cultural conflict
and political polarization have led him down a fascistic path in his support of
Trump and Trumpism, which is a form of violent nationalism wed to myths, and
one that utilizes and spins every cultural element to its purposes. History is
rewritten, religion is appropriated, and the world is re-framed devoid of any
contact with reality. And this certainly includes an inversion of the
Left-Right divide. In Beck's fantasy world of re-written history it was the
Right that supported the Civil Rights movement, and the Left that produced
fascism.
And as the Sirius XM-Trump episode revealed, Beck is
spineless and without principle. He criticised Trump in robust (and even
violent) terms when he came on the scene as a serious contender in 2016. But as
his opposition risked the alienation of his audience and the collapse of his
empire, he flipped – and by 2020 was licking Trump's boots.
I did not realize until I heard Taylor Marshall reference
Beck that he has also made in-roads into the Catholic realm. Marshall is a
far-right Trumpite and Integralist who flirts with fascistic thought. I partake
of some of his material because it continues to fascinate me that for the
Right-wing Catholic world the concerns are not about Scripture or even
tradition as much as they are obsessed with prophecies, visions, and pedantic
(sometimes comical) obsession over ritual.
In referencing him, Marshall obfuscated Beck's Mormon
identity – something I believe he did on purpose when reporting the interview
on his show. I know what Marshall is and it's not hard to see why his star has
risen so rapidly – he has a considerable following. Beck is someone I largely
wrote off years ago and yet perhaps that was in error. He's still working in
his own sphere and has successfully created a Right-wing nexus, a place and
platform for Evangelicals, Catholics, and the kind of Right-wing militia-type
filth you see at the Trump rallies. It bears watching as whatever is happening
on Beck's show is probably a harbinger of what's coming. And then of course
it's worth reflecting on the evil and demonic nature of this man and the way he
has successfully deceived so many. I can think of many people I know who were
still old-school Fundamentalists in the 1990's – along with the all the
hostility to LDS and Roman Catholicism that would entail. I've watched these
people transform and now they're not only confused about what the gospel is –
they've been completely swept away, off into this other sphere of thought and
energy. John Birch Society materials
have long floated around those circles and undoubtedly played a role as well in
softening the ground for this kind of ecumenism on the basis of fringe Right-wing
politics. But it was Beck who came onto the scene in the early 2000's and
skyrocketed to fame with the election of Obama in 2008. It was a turning point.
Fringe views, revisionism, and fantasy narratives became mainstream.
Everyone is upset about woke ideology and the like. The
actual Biblically-minded and grounded Christians I know aren't taken in by this
stuff but sadly I have seen too many that are upset and have done a
pendulum-swing to the other extreme. Rather than rejecting the entire political
spectrum and its forced binaries as un-Christian, they have instead been
manipulated and worked up by the likes of Beck and the monied interests that
back him and ally with him. It wasn't political or theological liberalism that
would deceive the rank and file folks in the Evangelical pews. Instead
Dominionism wed to deeply rooted indoctrination around patriotism and
nationalism as well as good old fashioned mammon-worship is what did them in.
It was a deadly formula and I can only imagine where it's going to end up.
I know of many Christians who simply devour programmes like
this (even breaking plans and rushing home in order not to miss them) and yet
they do not know their Bible. They don't have time for it, cannot concentrate
on it, and in many cases are troubled by what they read and are more likely to
move on and consume some other form of media.
We are witnesses to apostasy.
See also:
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/03/beck-and-his-beast-worship.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2021/03/shame-on-voddie-baucham.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-nation-christian-right-and-levins.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2015/12/becks-bimbos-and-manipulation-of.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2014/11/sacral-orthodoxy.html
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