Beck and the Mormon Religion

To understand Glenn Beck‘s involvement with the Mormon religion, one only needs to look at Beck‘s own narrative describing it.

In “The Real America“, Glenn Beck details his long history of substance abuse and alcoholism. He describes how, after he finally hit bottom, he lost his job and family, then started to pull himself out of the gutter.

If I hadn’t been such a cheapskate, cocaine would have killed me. The Real America p. 52

At one point in the process, with a new girlfriend and her children, Glenn started going to check out various churches. They went down the list from A – Z and hit one or two every Sunday. Finding that a Mormon congregation seemed to suit them the best, Beck comments about his general attitude at that time:

I don’t care if you guys have Kool-Aid to drink in the basement, give me a cup. I’m so tired, I can’t live with the baggage of my life any more. I can’t live with the mistakes that I have made. The Real America p. 222

Youtube video series where Beck describes his becoming a Mormon. Link is “1/7″, others follow.

Of course, people will try to smear Beck by way of asserting that Mormonism is some kind of cult, that one would need to be a wacko to be involved with it, and so forth.   But the above comment by Beck pretty clearly lays out where he was at, and he’d gone to try out many churches, and picked that one.

That’s pretty simple.

What is the purose of  slant, misrepresentation, attacks on Beck by attacking his religion?

Prevent unity of the opposition, keep the enemy divided and bickering.

“He’s a Mormon so don’t listen to him”.

A classic Ad Hominem logical error, where instead of the argument being attacked, the presenter is attacked. We don’t, today attack past President Eisenhower for having been a Jehovah’s Witness, or President Kennedy for having been a Catholic.

Note to Atheists and religious skeptics.

Penn Gillette, of the magician duo Penn and Teller, and the HBO Show “Bullshit”, has described in detail the way in which his conclusions about many things parallel those of Glenn Beck.  Penn is an atheist.  I’ll add more to this later, including the video links.

Meanwhile, note the following:

Enlightenment may be achieved in the life of an individual by a movement away from a repressive and restricting religious environment. But similarly, it may be achieved by a move away from a repressive and restricting non religious lifestyle, to a religious environment. It is the latter which we see evident in Beck‘s explanation of his conversion to the Mormons.  Both may be viewed as important transitions in life, for those who experience them.

What is certain is that the country needs a unified opposition to totalitarian, socialist agendas at this time.  The USA has religious freedom.   Beck is a Mormon, Gilette is an atheist.  And they see things pretty much the same in political terms.  Beck is not telling you and me to become Mormon.

He’s telling us to take our country back.