A Jewish guy on another blog mentioned that he had expected more of a straightforward patriotic conservative rally than what we got. That made me recognize that I too was surprised at what we got but it took his saying it to make me see it. What we got was something more like The Old Time Gospel Hour -- from a heretic yet.
Yes, the more I think about it the bolder I get about this, the more I know that what Beck did yesterday was try to blur the distinctions between Christianity and Mormonism as much as anything else he was doing there, try to overcome the opprobrium in which Mormonism is rightly held by the majority of Christians by doing what Mormons usually try to do -- act as if they are just another Christian denomination. Since he has such a strong conservative following he can count on some of the Christians just getting in line like unthinking sheep -- because his conservative patriotic message is so powerful. And it is, I agree, that's his attraction, he does a great job with it and I wish we COULD support him, but for a Christian it's a snare, it's poison.
Spit it out, Christians.
Now, I WANT a rally around the name of Jesus myself, nothing would make me happier than a REAL revival in this nation, led of course by God, not a trumped up "revival" of the sort that too many Christians have come to associate with the term, and certainly not a revival led by a Mormon. But I'm sure it was the Christian emphasis yesterday that got me into the event as much as I did, and that's why I've been having to struggle so much to free myself from the entanglement with false Christianity which is what it was really all about. I would love a true Christian rally for this nation on such a scale, but I want it from a true Christian base, not from a Mormon. Beyond that, not just a rally, a man-made thing, but a God-born revival. I yearn for it.
I also wondered what Jews could do with all the references to Jesus, which someone else raised at the other forum too. Well, at a true Christian rally, Jews can stand with us if they can accept our emphasis on Jesus, and some do these days, recognizing honestly that it's America's Christian heritage that provided the freedoms they have enjoyed along with everyone else. But I think they too were flimflammed yesterday. They shouldn't be put in the position of thinking they're there for a patriotic rally only to find out they're in church.
Oh yes, Glenn Beck is a very nice guy, a strongly patriotic guy, a true American conservative, no doubt about it.
Well, the devil wraps his poison in very attractive packages, Christians, he doesn't come poking with his pitchfork. That comes later, after he knows he's got you.
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Later: The person who commented on this post seems to think I ONLY want Christians to rally. No, I thought I've been clear, we can have a multi-religion POLITICAL and PATRIOTIC rally, and other groups can have their religious rallies, and my desire for a Christian REVIVAL that is God-brought certainly doesn't contradict freedom of religion. If my commenter had been reading carefully I think he could see that's been my position all along, though I may not always have been clear enough about it.
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8 comments:
Okay, not to put too fine a point on it, isn't "patriotism" a false idol as well?
The state was not created to uplift the individual, but to satisfy the many. “It will give you everything if you will adore it.”
E pluribus unum. Heresy?
If you can't stand w/Beck, it would appear to me that you can't stand with America, either.
I argue against the Ayatollah Khomeini inspired Islamic heresy of "Wilayat al-Faqih" all the time. IMO, it represents an attempt to combine several aspects of Islamic religious jurisprudence with the secular notion and responsibilities of the "State". It's the same form of government that Osama bin Laden advocates, only in it's "Sunni" form.
It takes the notion of "E pluribus unum" to its' logical "extreme" of religious uniformity. Is that something you want the US government to do?
And as my good friend Warren of the Longrange blog likes to point out...
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.~ George Washington -
If you were to ask me, the only thing Beck has done is to ask people to return to their religion and practice it as they've always practiced it, and to get the government to stop erecting a pantheistic secular alternative to religion and put it back into it's original "Constitutionally limited" box.
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