Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 31, 2010 - 4:22pm
In a new column in Human Events, Gary Bauer explains that, at heart, President Obama, progressives, and Islamic terrorists all have the same agenda, which is to destroy America and its Judeo-Christian values:
Progressives and Islamists are indeed on the same side. Their common disdain for Christianity explains why left-wing judges in America find any inkling of Christianity in the public square unconstitutional, while Islamist judges in the Middle East deem it executable.
Their common view that life is expendable explains the left’s embrace abortion-on-demand and why the Islamists don’t hesitate to deploy their own children for homicide bombings.
Their common totalitarian impulse explains why each group has as its governing objective to render its subjects entirely dependent on the state for everything in their lives, from education to healthcare.
...
There’s a reason Obama won the Muslim American vote by more than nine to one, and why it is suspected that he received millions of dollars in contributions to his presidential campaign from Muslims abroad.
It’s not because Muslims thought Obama would fight for gays in the military. It’s because they knew he’d treat Israel as more of an annoyance than an ally, and because he’d be sure to diminish America’s stature in the world. And they were right.
More fundamentally, left-wing progressivism and Islamism both hold that religious belief and reason are at odds. Of course, Islamists embrace faith and reject reason, while progressives value reason to the exclusion of faith. Eventually these groups may have to address their basic differences.
But there will be time for that later. For now, there’s a greater goal to achieve: the annihilation of moral accountability and individual liberty and the destruction of the Judeo-Christian philosophy that is the foundation of Western civilization.
Bauer says that any "differences between the left and radical Islam fade to irrelevance in the face of such common enemies as traditional Christianity, Judaism, Israel, free enterprise and the very idea of America itself."
And just to claify, when Bauer uses the terms like "radical Islam" or "Islamist," he means "terrorist."
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 31, 2010 - 3:03pm
What was it that I was just saying about the fact that Religious Right groups seem to do nothing but duplicate the work of other Religious Right groups and that every new organization or event or program seems to have the same mission as every other one?
Well, in addition to the Pray and ACT 40 days of pre-election prayer and fasting, and Cindy Jacobs' 40 days of pre-election prayer and fasting, and the National Religious Broadcasters' 40 days of pre-election prayer, we can now also add the Southern Baptist Convention's 40 days of pre-election prayer:
The 40/40 Prayer Vigil is designed for people to pray for 40 days, between Sept. 20 and the morning of Oct. 29, and then pray for 40 hours between 4 p.m. on Oct. 29 and 8 a.m. on Oct. 31. A downloadable prayer guide and more information is available at www.4040prayer.com. The 40/40 prayer guide is written so that it can be used by an individual, a small group or the focus of an entire church body.
The vigil focuses on personal and church revival and national renewal, [Richard] Land said, noting participants are encouraged to heed the truths of 1 Timothy 2 and pray for those in positions of authority in the government.
A pitched spiritual battle rages across the country and around the world, Land said. "Such warfare must be met first of all with spiritual weapons," he said. "We must pray for a great outpouring of God's Spirit on our homes, our churches and ourselves that our moral foundation might be recovered."
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 31, 2010 - 1:32pm
One thing I find fascinating about the Religious Right is how seemingly every major new organization or effort that it launches is literally the same as every other organization or effort it has ever launched.
Just today I noted how yet another group was calling for 40 days of prayer heading into the mid-term elections, as if all the other calls to 40 days of prayer and fasting were not enough.
Similarly, it seems like every few weeks, some new Religious Right group is formed that does exactly the same thing all of the other Religious Right groups are doing.
Apparently, the idea began with Beck's favorite historian, David Barton. When Beck told Barton he wanted to "get religious leaders together," Barton suggested forming a Black Robe Regiment -- named after what Barton had said was a group of preachers who supported the American Revolution from their pulpits. Beck decided that was "exactly" what he was looking for because it was a movement supposedly like his that was "not about politics."
Beck then described the first meeting he held with "the largest evangelical leaders in the country" some of whom had been involved in the Christian Coalition. ... Beck elaborated on his call to "mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes," calling on his listeners to "tithe 10 percent" and encouraging them to "sacrifice our fortunes so our children don't have to pay for our lifestyle." Beck implored his listeners: "You must tithe because these people [the Black Robe Regiment] are going to be in trouble. They're going to come under attack."
So Beck's brilliant idea is to bring together a bunch of Religious Right leaders in an effort to motivate pastors to play a bigger role in politics and the culture?
Fellow pastor Russell Johnson lacks [Rod] Parsley's charisma, but he has mastered the art of organizing. His group, the Ohio Restoration Project (ORP), recruited nearly 1,800 churches with "Patriot Pastors" and deputized them to draft new "values voters."
The ministers signed 410,000 Ohio homes onto Johnson's mailing list, and the ORP can tap 100,000 prayer warriors through e-mail in a moment's notice. This is more than just a group of voters ready to punch some ballots. According to ORP outreach materials, it is a "mighty army" ready to do battle.
While Johnson reaches white evangelicals and fundamentalists, Parsley appeals to both African Americans and Pentecostals. Together, the two men have forged a political machine that aims to remake Ohio politics—and the nation.
The mission of the Houston Area Pastor Council and sister councils in USPC is to empower pastors and their congregations across racial and denominational lines to impact the culture and community through concerted prayer, to equip our congregations for effective citizenship and to provide a unified voice on spiritual, cultural, social and moral issues from a Biblical perspective. The AMERICA Plan was developed as a Purpose Statement of how pastors and churches can and must enage in godly citizenship.
HAPC has become a respected voice on front line cultural and political issues from a non-partisan perspective, holding elected officials of both major parties and non-partisan offices to a Biblical standard. The Pastors' Declaration of Godly Citizenship was developed to clarify the core values of this coalition.
HAPC has conducted numerous luncheons, workshops, rallies, elected official summits, Pastors' Day At the Capitol and many other activities bringing pastors together, proving top quality Biblical, historical, legal and public policy information as well as standing in the gap for our nation.
Historically, churches have emphatically, and with great passion, spoken Scriptural truth from the pulpit about government and culture. Historians have stated that America owes its independence in great degree to the moral force of the pulpit. Pastors have proclaimed Scriptural truth throughout history on great moral issues such as slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor and prostitution. Pastors have also spoken from the pulpit with great frequency for and against various candidates for government office ... It is time for the intimidation and threats to end. Churches and pastors have a constitutional right to speak freely and truthfully from the pulpit – even on candidates and voting – without fearing loss of their tax exemption.
Watchmen on the Wall" is a powerful conference in the nation's capital especially designed for pastors and ministers, based on Isa. 62:6: "I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent..." FRC launched the Briefing in May 2004 to:
* Remind spiritual leaders of our nation's Judeo-Christian heritage.
* Inform them about the moral issues being debated in the public square.
* Ignite their passion to become watchmen who will sound the alarm.
* Inspire them to encourage their churches to engage the culture.
Our hope is that you will return home encouraged and educated about the issues of the day that affect faith and family and that you will be inspired to share with your congregations what they may do to take a more active role as salt and light in your community and government.
And those are the groups I can think of just off the top of my head.
Obviously, none of the previous efforts have accomplished their goals - if they had, there would be no need to keep launching new groups with the exact same mission over and over again.
But apparently Beck believes that Beck thinks that he (with the help of the very Religious Right leaders behind all these other efforts) has finally found the key: getting pastors more engaged in the political process.
But you'd be wrong, because Morrison is claiming that the "Southern Strategy" is nothing more than run-of-the-mill political efforts to win votes in the South:
A former Republican National Chairman is getting kudos from the liberal media for an odd thing. Veteran political reporter Dan Balz of the Washington Post applauds Ken Mehlman’s decency, reserving generous commendations for Mehlman’s efforts at “outreach” to black voters. He notes that Mehlman made a special effort to apologize to black voters for Richard Nixon’s “infamous” Southern strategy of 1968 and 1972.
For a savvy reporter like Balz, this is nonsense on stilts. Can anyone imagine Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine apologizing for Thomas Jefferson’s Southern strategy? Or Andrew Jackson’s? Woodrow Wilson’s? Franklin D. Roosevelt’s?
FDR won four elections as president, something now barred by the Twenty-second Amendment. Every one of those elections started out with Roosevelt’s campaign managers banking on the electoral votes of the Solid South.
"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
The "Southern Strategy" was a targeted effort by Republicans to win over traditional Southern Democrats through the use of racially polarization. As Richard Nixon's strategist Kevin Phillips explained:
From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.
“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
Morrison asserts that "there’s nothing infamous at all about seeking support in the South" and, as such, Republicans have nothing for which they need to apologize ... which I guess is true provided that you redefine the term "Southern Strategy" to mean the exact opposite of what it actually was.
In response to the unprecedented spiritual and moral decline in our nation, the NRB Executive Committee is issuing a call to God’s people to devote ourselves to 40 days of earnest, soul-searching prayer, beginning September 1, 2010 and ending October 10, 2010. The theme verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people.” We must seek God for the revival of our souls and the life of our nation.
NRB is requesting that you join us in calling upon God's people to commit to these 40 days of prayer. God will hear our prayers and heal our land only after we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.
Specifically, we are asking:
Stations to air 30- and/60-second PSA’s, encouraging Christians to take part in the “If My People” prayer initiative. To assist you, previously recorded PSA’s are available here.
Ministries to include the NRB call to prayer in their September programming. This would remind and encourage audiences to participate beginning September 1 for 40 days.
As Peter said, judgment begins with the house of God. Now is the time when we must be transparent before the Lord to let Him change us, so that through the power of the Holy Spirit we might change the world.
The fast will begin at 7:14am (based on 2 Chronicles 7:14), on Sept 20 and end at 7:14am, Oct 30, 2010. Although many will follow only a liquid diet, persons can fast as God directs them during this 40 day span.
Ever since President Obama was elected, 2 Chronicles 7:14 has become the verse around which the Religious Right has mobilized ... and that should give you a pretty good understanding of their mindset at the moment:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 31, 2010 - 9:29am
Yesterday I wrote a post highlighting a recent column by Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in which he blasted the idea that Evangelical Christians would support a Mormon like Glenn Beck as he called the nation to revival.
Moore called it a "scandal" and shortly after it appeared online Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Tweeted his support for Moore's article, which got me wondering about Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, because I know that Land has been among those working closely with Beck in recent weeks:
A few weeks before organizing a massive rally on the Mall that had the feel of a religious revival, Glenn Beck sought the blessing of some of the country's most prominent conservative Christian leaders.
The Fox talk show host wanted their support as he shifted from political commentary to a more spiritual message, he told the group of about 20.
This is where God is leading me, Beck declared, according to Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, who was there, along with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
Land said most in the group found Beck's faith genuine and heartfelt, although not everyone agreed to embrace him publicly.
"We walked back to the hotel after and said: 'That was extraordinary,' " Land said of his conversation with Dobson after the dinner in Manhattan. "I've never heard a cultural figure of that popularity talking that overtly about his faith. He sounded like Billy Graham."
Today, Land sat down with NPR's Robert Siegel and disputed Beck's claims that President Obama's Christian faith is unrecognizable while also claiming that though Mormonism is not a Christian religion, it is an "Abrahamic faith":
SIEGEL: Glenn Beck is a Mormon. Is that brand of Christianity as distant or more so from yours than the National Council of Churches mainline Protestantism you...
Dr. LAND: Probably more so.
SIEGEL: More so.
Dr. LAND: And look, Glenn knows this. He said, look, I'm a Mormon. Most Christians don't think that I'm a Christian. And so, you know, I'll quote the pope, when he's talking about liberation theology.
I do not think Mormonism is an orthodox Christian faith, with a small O. I think perhaps the most charitable way for an evangelical Christian to look at Mormonism is to look at Mormonism as the fourth Abrahamic faith.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2010 - 2:31pm
I don't really have anything insightful to say about this, but I just wanted to mention how odd it is that I keep hearing this same line from Religious Right leaders claiming to have been in some meeting or other gathering at which leaders where trying to create a plan of political action when one (always unnamed) pastor said they just cannot participate because they "would lose half their congregation."
I have heard this several times in recent weeks and months, but only noticed how odd it was today when I heard both Glenn Beck and Chuck Colson say it.
Beck claims that someone said it during a meeting he attended with James Dobson and James Robison and others where they all decided to come together and take a stand with Beck to defend religious liberty with the exception of "one person [who] said 'I can't, I'll lose half my congregation" (scroll ahead to around the 55 second mark):
Chuck Colson uses the exact same line in this recent video urging people to sign the Manhattan Declaration, claiming "a megachurch pastor in a major American city was asked by a colleague to sign the Manhattan Declaration, his answer was 'I can't, I'll lose half my congregation" (scroll ahead to the one minute mark):
Now what are the chances that two different religious leaders in two completely different situations gave exactly the same explanation as to why they couldn't support these separate political efforts?
And does Beck really expect us to believe that there was one religious leader attending a meeting with the likes of himself, Robison, and Dobson who declared himself unable to take a political stand out of fear of alienating half his congregation? What exactly is a person like that doing at a meeting with professional Religious Right activists in the first place?
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 30, 2010 - 1:03pm
One of the most frequently used rhetorical images at Glenn Beck’s "Restoring Honor" event was the crossroads. Attendees were told urgently and repeatedly by Beck and others that America is at a crossroads, that everyone has to make a big, historic, important decision to save America – right now! Do it!
But since this was Beck’s “non-political” event, he couldn’t say the big choice or big crossroads had anything to do with the 2010 or 2012 elections, on which Tea Party activists are intensely focused.
He said his rally was not about politics but God, about “turning back to the values and principles that made us great.” He told people how to pray and how much money to give to their churches. And he demanded they make that big choice, whatever it is.
Here are just a few of the very many crossroads to which Beck led his followers. None of them seem likely to be clear or focused enough to spark the national transformation Beck promised from this rally:
“America is at a crossroads and we must decide. Are those words that Abraham Lincoln spoke and they have no relevance or meaning on us today?”
“America is at a crossroads and today we must decide who we are, what is it we believe. We must advance or perish. I choose advance.”
“America is at a crossroads and there is a clear and simple choice. Do we choose to just look at the scars, do we choose to look back, or do we do what every great generation has done in America in times of trouble: look ahead, dream about what we’re going to become, not worried about what we are, look forward, look west, look to the heavens, look to God, and make your choice.”
“My challenge to you today is to make a choice. Does America go forward and the American experience expands, or does the experiment fail with us?”
Beck repeatedly urged everyone in the crowd to “grab your stick,” a reference to his earlier description of Moses as “a guy with a stick.” With all due respect, Glenn, Moses gave his people clearer instructions.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2010 - 12:33pm
Russell Moore is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and he does not approve of all those self-proclaimed Christians who are disgracing their faith by aligning themselves with the false and dangerous teachings of a Mormon like Glenn Beck:
A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they've heard the gospel, right there in the nation's capital.
The news media pronounces him the new leader of America's Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America's Christian conservatives have no problem with that.
If you'd told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it's not. It's from this week's headlines. And it is a scandal.
...
To Jesus, Satan offered power and glory. To us, all he needs offer is celebrity and attention.
Mormonism and Mammonism are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They offer another Lord Jesus than the One offered in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, and another way to approach him. An embrace of these tragic new vehicles for the old Gnostic heresy is unloving to our Mormon friends and secularist neighbors, and to the rest of the watching world. Any "revival" that is possible without the Lord Jesus Christ is a "revival" of a different kind of spirit than the Spirit of Christ (1 Jn. 4:1-3).
For the record, in citing 1 John 4:1-3, Moore is saying that Beck's effort to unleash revival in America is operating under the spirit of the Antichrist:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
I guess I should also point out that Moore's piece was posted on the American Family Association's OneNewNow website, so it seems as if the AFA is not particularly comfortable with Beck's Mormonism either.
UPDATE: I see that Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has Tweeted his support for Moore's article.
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 30, 2010 - 12:21pm
It may seem too obvious to be said, but let’s say it. Beck’s claim that his event was nonpolitical doesn’t pass the smell test, the laugh test, or any other test. He picked Sarah Palin to speak just because she’s a military mom, not because she’s the darling of the Tea Party movement, right?
Alveda King, who invoked “Uncle Martin” repeatedly with her own “I have a dream” speech (let’s just say his version’s place in history is secure), used her remarks to press two of her major political projects, criminalizing abortion and denying equality to gay and lesbian Americans, decrying that “the procreative foundation of marriage is being threatened, and the wombs of our mothers have become places where the blood of our children is shed in a womb war that threatens the fabric of our society.” King said we will know we have arrived “when prayer is once again welcomed in the public squares of America and in our schools,” which is standard Religious Right rhetoric.
Beck says God led him away from a political message to a focus on faith, hope, and charity. Beck’s faith award went to Pastor C.L. Jackson, whose long ministry as a preacher is only part of his record. Jackson is also a Republican Party activist. A Texas Freedom Network report described him as “Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s point man in drawing African-American voters in Houston.” In 2004, Jackson bragged to Tavis Smiley about having helped deliver those votes to Perry and pledged to do the same for George W. Bush in Louisiana, Alabama, and Ohio. Among the reasons he cited were “family values” and same-sex marriage. In June of that year, Jackson hosted a Juneteenth celebration featuring Perry and David Barton, whose Christian-nation view of history is getting a huge new audience thanks to Beck.
Jackson’s praise for Beck was remarkable. He called him “servant of God, son of God, Glenn Beck,” and said “God sent his son to this earth so that we could all gather, and I think that’s the dream and the vision of Glenn Beck.” He seemingly compared Beck to Jesus when, telling the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet , he urged the audience to “pray, give the best you have for a young man named Glenn Beck.”
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, reportedly a pal of Karl Rove and Tom Delay, is another strange choice for a non-political event. (His record of funneling money through his nonprofit foundation to aid his buddy Abramoff may also make him an odd choice for an event devoted to honor.) Lapin, long the Religious Right’s favorite rabbi, was on stage at both the Friday night “Divine Destiny” event and along with a small group of other religious figure, helping to give the event a veneer of religious pluralism.
In the clumsiest effort to give a nod to religious pluralism, a speaker at Renewing Honor followed a song promoting unity by saying, “we are Americans and we stand together, black, white, Jew, Gentile, together in unity as one strong group of people, Americans today in the name of Christ.”
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2010 - 10:46am
The AFA's Bryan Fischer rips into Glenn Beck for not opposing gay marriage, accusing him of siding with "people who want to use the anus for sex" over God-fearing Christians:
Glenn, Glenn, Glenn: if special rights are given to people just because they want to use the alimentary canal for sexual purposes, no social conservative will be able to criticize homosexual behavior on biblical or moral grounds without running the risk of legal punishment.
Goodbye freedom of speech and goodbye freedom of religion. You, Glenn, will have aided and abetted those who are out to destroy two of the inalienable rights God has given to men, and you don’t think that’s a threat to this country? Wake up and smell the toxins, my friend.
We must choose between the homosexual agenda and religious liberty, because it is impossible to have both. Every advance of the homosexual agenda comes at the expense of our first liberty, the very first right enshrined in the Bill of Rights, the right to freedom of religious expression. You have chosen the side of suppression and tyranny over the light of liberty.
...
It’s not too late to issue a mea culpa and come back into the light and be a vigorous advocate once again for the truth about marriage and the family. You have done a noble thing in calling this country back to God through your “Divine Destiny” evening at the Kennedy Center and your “Restoring Honor” event at the Lincoln Memorial.
You have done a noble thing on your radio and television programs by repeatedly calling us back to our founding history and to our foundational values as a country.
But Glenn, our “Divine Destiny” as a nation does not include societal approval for people who want to use the anus for sex. The “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” don’t endorse such behavior. And neither should you.
Kevin Sorbo (SOUL SURFER, WHAT IF…, AVENGING ANGEL, HERCULES, ANDROMEDA) wants to stand up for truth, and as the host of Cloud Ten Pictures’ upcoming explosive documentary THE 12 BIGGEST LIES, he’ll be facing the age-old battle between truth and lies head-on.
This will represent Sorbo’s first foray into the documentary genre ... "Communism didn't work for the USSR, but it was an accepted philosophy for over 50 years. Once the wall came down, that philosophy was exposed for the failed experiment - the lie - that it was. It still boggles the mind; some of those people had lived a lie for their entire lives to that point. We have similar accepted theories today, where any debate has been squelched by the community that yells the loudest, and that's too bad. I'm just doing my part to help create a free-thought zone and give the other side a voice. It's exciting - exhilarating, even," said Sorbo.
...
THE 12 BIGGEST LIES explores several topics that may be viewed as extremely controversial to some audiences. "Men and women are equal", "The world is overpopulated", and "Islam is a religion of peace" are some of lies exposed in the documentary. Sorbo’s personality helps to connect with the audience and keep the naysayers glued to their screens.
...
Featuring interviews from leading minds such as Dr. Ravi Zacharias, Alex Jones, Kerby Anderson, Dr. Craig Hazen, Calvin Smith, Dr. Jeff Seif, Dr. Stanley Monteith, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, Michael Coren, Ray Comfort, Jack Kinsella, Nonie Darwish, and many others; 12 BIGGEST LIES marks Cloud Ten’s ninth documentary, and is the follow up to DRAGONS OR DINOSAURS?, which revealed shocking new evidence in the age old creation vs. evolution debate.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2010 - 9:57am
Bryan Fischer has now turned his attention toward explaining exactly why President Obama is not, in fact, a Christian ... and he's once again doing so by demonstrating the intellectual rigor for which the American Family Association is well known:
In a telling excerpt from his memoir, [Obama] writes about being asked by his daughter a question regarding what happens when we die. Talk about teeing it up for a Christian father! Here is the ultimate question in all of life, and his daughter wants to know what he, a self-proclaimed follower of Christ, believes.
Here are the words of Christ himself on the subject: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
Here, in our pseudo-Christian president’s own words, is his answer to the question of the ages: "I wondered whether I should have told her the truth, that I wasn't sure what happens when we die, any more than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang."
This is an answer that no Christian could possibly give. It’s an answer that could only be given by someone who does not believe in Christ, his mission, and his teaching. It’s an answer an agnostic could give, an answer an atheist could give, or an answer a spiritual inquirer could give. It’s even an answer a Muslim could give since a Muslim can’t know he’s going to paradise unless he blows up some infidels. But this is not an answer a Christian could give.
Now we can’t be sure exactly what Mr. Obama meant when he confessed ignorance regarding “what existed before the Big Bang,” but the Scripture leaves no doubt on that score: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”( Genesis 1:1).
So a Christian knows the answer to this question also. What existed before the Big Bang? That’s easy: God. The answer is found in the very first words in the Bible.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 30, 2010 - 9:13am
I spent the weekend trying a sense of just how the Religious Right is responding to Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, but haven't seen any sort of dominant narrative emerge. Instead, it has mostly been a mish-mash of vague statements and generalities.
For starters, a call to decency reigned. Not some bland, gray, boring form of mundane living, but rather the centuries-old respectable virtues that gave us the America we now enjoy.
Sometime around 1960, morals jumped off the bridge without first attaching the bungee cord. The result is a nation with everything from devastated families, drug- and crime-infested communities to a hedonistically driven national debt.
...
America, by margins of 70 percent to 80 percent believe in the values that made us, whether it be in maintaining “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance or “In God We Trust” on our coins. Americans have grown weary of the oligarchic cultural elite oppressing the masses.
To discerning persons, the rally was not about Glenn Beck. It was not about Sarah Palin. This rally was about freedom, honor, our American heritage, and sacrifice. And foundationally, it was about God.
Clearly, Glenn Beck's dreams for a Rally which could "restart the heart of America" exceeded all expectations. Even the Press, which for days leading up to the event had minimized, mocked and trivialized the event, immediately began to acknowledge its massive size and possible significance. Then, they quickly regrouped and the punditry began all over again. I imagine the implications of the event will be fodder for much pontificating for weeks. However, any honest reporter must admit that this was clearly an historic event.
The people who gathered in the Capitol on August 28, 2010, from all over the Nation and representing a wide cross section of the people of the United States of America, left filled with hope, encouraged and challenged to serve and participate.That can only be good for what ails this Nation.
For his part Ralph Reed responded by accusing the media of missing the point about the rally by focusing on Beck's Mormon faith:
The evangelicals participating in the Restore Honor event are not endorsing Glenn Beck’s theology, nor is he asking them to; they are joining in his clarion call to restore America’s honor and founding principles. Together, we and millions of our fellow citizens are calling America back to its Judeo-Christian values of faith, hard work, individual initiative, the centrality of marriage and family, hope, charity, and relying on God and civic and faith-based organizations rather than government for our security and prosperity.
We have always partnered with those with whom we had theological differences: the Jewish community in defending the state of Israel, Roman Catholics in defending life, Mormons in defending marriage. The media can’t have it both ways. Either evangelicals are theologically narrow and judgmental, or they are just as politically sophisticated and mature and capable of building coalitions with 80% friends who they do not view as 20% enemies. It seems they get criticized no matter what they do.
Glenn Beck promotes a false gospel. However, many of his political ideas can help America.
Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Mormonism is not a Christian denomination but a cult of Christianity.
The country needs to get back to the simplicity of the Bible. The reason our country is in bad shape is that ministers for the most part do not share the truth. Many endorse false gospels including Mormonism.
In fact, I think this "Prayer Point" in Faith 2 Action's latest email pretty much sums up the tension among the Religious Right between wanting to be a part of Beck's new religious crusade while worrying that Christians are being misled by Beck's faith:
Pray for all those involved in the large rally being held at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow. Pray that many will learn about our nation's true heritage and that no one will be deceived into joining the Mormons. Pray that Glenn Beck will leave Mormonism and come to true salvation in Christ.
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 28, 2010 - 2:21pm
The Glenn Beck fans on my subway car after today’s rally were a subdued bunch. They didn’t seem energized by having spent time with their idol and many thousands of fellow fans. Why not?
“It was kind of boring,” said one. “It wasn’t what I expected,” said another. “It was good,” one said with an unenthusiastic shrug. “He had some good speakers.” One recalled someone sitting near them grumbling, “I didn’t come all this way for an awards ceremony.”
Not the reaction you’re going for when you’ve declared your intention of fundamentally transforming the country and sparking a Great Awakening that will turn the country back to God.
It wouldn’t be surprising if a lot of attendees at today’s rally feel like victims of a bait and switch. Beck built a huge fan base with over-the-top attacks on President Obama – he hates white people, he’s a communist-socialist-Nazi – denunciations of “social justice” Christians, and hard-hitting appeals to the anti-government Tea Party brigades to save America from all the evil villains who are trying to destroy it from within. There are a lot of people in America who love Beck because they believe he is telling them these hard truths that nobody else has the guts to tell them. They were the folks with the “Don’t Tread on me” and “Taking our Country Back” T-shirts. But today Beck was preaching love and unity. We’re all Americans aren’t we?
Somewhere along the line, Beck says he had a change of heart. He decided the rally would not be about politics at all, but about God. There was a sort of confused silence among my corner of the crowd when he explained this. And it didn’t help that his performance technique of dramatically lowering his voice, which works fine on TV, meant that a lot of folks simply couldn’t hear a lot of what he had to say.
After the rally, people I spoke with did not feel that they had been given any clear marching orders in spite of Beck’s long and repetitive speech telling people that America is at a crossroads and they had to stand up! But stand up for what exactly?
In fact, a lot of speakers insisted we as a nation are at a crucial crossroads, but nobody ever explained exactly what it was. Given Beck’s decision to portray this as a non-political event honoring veterans and the civilians who received his new faith, hope, and charity awards, the speeches about the crossroads never led to a hard hitting political conversation. So people were exhorted to go to church, get right with God, and stand up for truth. They need Glenn Beck to tell them this?
Of course, we’re not buying that the event was as non-political as Beck portrayed. In a future post we’ll take a look at Glenn’s remarks (I’ve learned his fans call him by his first name) and the other speakers.
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 28, 2010 - 7:30am
Americans for Prosperity, the “grassroots” Tea Party organization funded by anti-government billionaires, is one of several right-wing groups that glommed on to Glenn Beck’s decision to bring the Tea Party crowd to Washington, D.C. With help from the Koch family, AFP has grown rapidly. In the words of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, AFP has grown in a few years from “an idea in a New York apartment” into a network with 32 chapter and more than a million activists. AFP’s Tim Phillips told the 2500 activists (their number) at the “Defending the American Dream Summit” on Friday that “we’re going to take back Washington for two days and we’re going to take back our country over the next few years.”
During the plenary session and in workshops, AFP speakers insisted that the organization was nonpartisan and will not endorse candidates, disclaimers that seemed like a micro-thin veneer of legalese over plans to pour millions of dollars into attacks on Democratic House candidates between now and November. In fact, the group’s November is Coming! campaign is targeting 40-50 House races where they can “make a difference.” Here’s part of the message it asks voters to sign:
Dear Policymakers, Elected Officials, and Candidates: You know that November is coming and voters care about the issues. Left-wing policies continue to drive Obama’s agenda for even bigger government. We want you to oppose big government programs or any other freedom-killing policies or we will remember in November.
November is Coming includes a publicity-seeking bus tour, and AFP is recruiting activists to engage in door to door “voter education” efforts and make phone calls from home into targeted districts using a sophisticated computer phonebanking system. The calls and visits aren’t about telling people to vote for, AFP says, it’s just doing people the service of letting them know how their representatives voted on issues like health care, cap and trade legislation, and stimulus spending. You can see some of the ads on AFP's You Tube channel.
AFP group used Colorado as a test case for the November is Coming model, and has held organizing meetings in 20 cities since June. Among its targets in Colorado: Reps. Betsy Markey, Ed Perlmutter, and John Salazar. Campaign organizers showed ads attacking candidates for being in league with Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and said they are currently running a $330,000 ad buy attacking Markey.
Political consultant Dick Morris predicted that the GOP would take control over both Houses after the November elections and promised big attacks on public employee unions and a showdown over government spending. He told the crowd that there would be another government shutdown, like in 1995 and 1996, but this time he’d be on their side, and this time they’d win.
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 28, 2010 - 12:41am
Right Wing Watch has been watching the recent morphing of Glenn Beck from political hatchet man into messianic religious figure. That self-transformation continued at America’s Divine Destiny, the Friday night warm-up to Beck’s Lincoln Memorial rally. The three-hour program at the Kennedy Center for the Arts combined gospel music, patriotic songs, and speeches about the need for spiritual renewal in America.
It is impossible to overstate Beck’s assessment of the importance of his events. Toward the beginning of Divine Destiny, he stated , “this is the beginning of the end of darkness. We have been in darkness a long time.” Saturday’s rally, he said, would be a “defibrillator to the spiritual heart of America.” Near the end of the program, he emphatically declared, “We are 12 hours away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America. It has nothing to do with this city or politics, it has everything to do with God Almighty.”
Beck’s co-host for the evening event was David Barton, the Religious Right “historian” who has
made a career promoting his theory that America was founded as a “Christian nation.” Beck is clearly enamored of Barton, having recently called him “the most important man in America.” Beck introduced Barton to the Divine Destiny audience as “the best man I know.”
Barton’s primary role at tonight’s event was to tell stories and wave copies of old books and sermons to make the case that the nation’s founding documents were cribbed from Christian sermons, and that Jewish and Christian leaders have since the nation’s founding banded together to fight those who would secularize America. Barton referred to the conflict with the Barbary pirates in the early 19th century as the first time “we had Muslims targeting us.”
For anyone who has followed Barton’s long career as a propagandist for the Republican Party in Texas and nationally, his Christian nation rhetoric was no surprise. But it was nothing short of breathtaking to hear Barton repeating “that’s right” when Beck said that “religion and politics must not mix.”
Beck asserted more than once that the weekend was not a political event, no matter what his cynical critics said. That assertion is laughable given the relentlessly political nature of his television show and Barton’s entire career, not to mention Beck’s reliance on the Tea Party movement to turn out attendees for his rally. Among the other speakers was Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a fixture at Religious Right political events, and college professor Dr. Patrick Lee, who argued that America has no right to alter the “objective” definition of marriage.
The closing prayer was given by Pastor John Hagee, whose accepted-and-then-rejected endorsement of John McCain became an embarrassment to the candidate in 2008. Among the nation’s sins for which Hagee asked forgivness was that “under the banner of pluralism we have embraced and worshipped the gods of this world.” Hagee said that scripture commands us to pray for the nation’s leaders, and he prayed that God would lead us “out of this politically correct moral fog” and back to the righteousness of our forefathers by lifting up godly leaders and removing the not-so-godly from office. A fitting send-off for this completely non-political event.
Herescope: The Next Great Awakening ... or Great Deadening?
Finally, if you've always wanted to become a part of the "professional left" or help write this blog, you are in luck because PFAW is hiring a Communications Specialist and a Research Associate.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 4:38pm
Gov. Bob McDonnell has now been confirmed as a speaker at the Values Voter Summit.
Tony Perkins again warns the GOP not to abandon social issues.
Shockingly, people on the Right are not happy about the revelation that Keh Mehlman is gay.
Bryan Fischer says ... well, it's Bryan Fischer, so you know what he says.
Mike Huckabee asks you to join him in thanking Ken Cuccinelli for fighting health care reform.
Newt Gingrich is listed on this new list of confirmed speakers for Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom conference.
You know what America needs? A new documentary featuring Bryan Fischer, Janet Porter, Wendy Wright, Phyllis Schlafly, Cliff Kincaid and others explaining how Obama is turning this nation into a Communist state:
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 3:49pm
Ever since Janet Porter lost her Faith 2 Action radio program earlier this summer, her organization has all but ceased to function, which is what made the sudden appearance of a new piece on the F2A website noteworthy in itself ... but it turned out to be even more interesting because F2A seems have to sprung back to life specifically in order to warn Christians not to get too cozy with Glenn Beck:
Beck can say and write many good things, but that doesn't mean that we should embrace his spiritual position or accept him and other Mormons as Christians.
At a quick glance, some of the Articles of Faith of "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" can seem very similar to true Christianity. However, Mormons attach very different meanings to certain words that Christians commonly use, such as atonement. Glenn Beck made a reference to atonement in his commencement address at Liberty University in May. According to Mormonism, only Christ's blood shed in the Garden of Gethsemane atones for personal sin. Mormonism also teaches that through the atonement of Christ and by their good deeds and "holy" living, men can one day become gods, and with their multiplicity of "goddess wives," populate their own planets.
Deception takes many forms. Unless we exercise caution, even "the elect" can be deceived (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to "Test all things. Hold fast what is good."
We can get many good things out of Glenn Beck's books as well as his radio and TV programs. But, Beck and all those associated with Mormonism need our prayers that they will someday see the error and reject it.
This is very similar to the arguments made earlier this week by Brannon Howse who, you may recall, also severed ties with Porter earlier this year due to her embrace of "whacked out folks." So it seems that while Howse and Porter don't agree on the dangers of dominion-oriented prophets and apostles, they do agree that Mormonism is a dangerous cult.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 2:42pm
Earlier this month, just as the right-wing anti-mosque hysteria was getting whipped up, Focus on the Family posted a video in which Stuart Shepard and Bruce Hausknecht complained about how municipalities were discriminating against churches using zoning laws:
Shepard: What does this tell us about the state of religious freedom in the United States?
Hausknecht: Well, we're seeing first a hostility toward religion. You would think in this day and age of tolerance that there would be tolerance for religious views, religious people. There is not. We're seeing it in the zoning cases, we're seeing it in the schools. That is a definite wake-up call for people of all faiths to stand up and protect their rights.
At the time, Focus was one of the few Religious Right groups that had not yet taken a position on Park 51, so I wondered if the organization would defend the right of Muslims to build the Islamic Center, especially in light of the organization's plea for "people of all faiths" to wake up and protect their religious freedoms.
So I know it will come as a shock to you all to learn that Focus' concerns for the rights of "people of all faiths" does not, in fact, apply to Muslims:
During CitizenLink's weekly webcast, Tom Minnery said, "Nobody is suggesting that the brand of Islam practiced by the owners of this mosque [is] going to lead to more terrorist attacks. But for Heaven's sake, in the name of all that is decent and in the name of common sense, build it elsewhere."
He said the group had the right to build, but he questioned the prudence of doing so. "Is it dishonoring to the 3,000 people who gave their lives to have this mosque which, in some minds, represents a similar religious belief that caused the terrorists to do what they did?" said Minnery.
Stuart Shepard, host of the webcast, noted that this position is a departure from Minnery's previous positions on religious liberty.
"You have spent a lot of time talking about religious freedom. And you work for Alliance Defense Fund quite a bit helping them fight for the rights of people, for religious freedom. It is quite a turn for you to say that this is not the right location for religious freedom to be expressed," said Shepard.
Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values, thinks it is evident that Palin still has a lot of star power.
"Sarah Palin is the only figure in the Republican Party that can go into any mid-size city in America and put 10,000 people in an arena -- so she's a force to be reckoned with," he notes.
This was a fundraiser for Heroic Media, a faith-based non-profit that publicizes alternatives to abortion. Originally planned for an auditorium that holds over 2000 people, it was moved to a smaller venue (600 seats) and ticket sales remained low even after ticket prices were cut in half. There were still probably 80 empty seats, and it was clear that some number of attendees had free tickets.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 1:26pm
A few weeks back we noted that Brian Camenker of MassResistance was still smarting over the fact that his participation in a scheduled Tea Party rally had lead all the other speakers to withdraw, causing the event to collapse.
Shortly thereafter Camenker was crowing that he'd been invited to speak at another Tea Party rally featuring Don Feder and praising organizers for their willingness to include him even if its angered RINOs and the Left.
Like so many other destructive trends, Massachusetts is a harbinger of things to come (or already happening) across the country. RINOs ("Republicans In Name Only") who demand that "social" and moral issues be purged from ALL Tea Party events managed to shut down the Lexington Tea Party on July 25. And now they've been at it again.
When it was announced that Don Feder would be the keynote speaker at the Fort Independence Tea Party, it got immediate attention across the state. Don is a well-known writer, lecturer and pro-family leader going back over 20 years.
But a few days later Don said that he had been contacted by Christen Varley regarding his appearance at the event. Varley was primarily responsible for the shutting down of the Lexington Tea Party, and her outrageous actions prompted the organizers to do this one. Don told us that unless we could guarantee that no speaker at the event would say anything bad about Varley, he'd have to cancel his appearance. We told him we didn't think anyone had any intention of mentioning her, but we weren't going to explicitly ban speakers from saying anything. So Don said he'd have to pull out.
...
In many ways this represents a far worse threat than the radical Left. If Republican candidates are told by people they trust that the homosexual agenda in the schools and other "social issues" are "toxic" and will cause them to lose elections, what do you think will happen when they get elected? They'll continue to stay away from these issues -- and cave in to the other side faster than ever. And of course, even more taxpayer money than ever will flow into those programs.
This is extremely serious. Elections are the best time to raise these issues and hold politicians' feet to the fire. But instead, anyone who talks about it is being demonized -- by supposed "conservatives". And as a result, this gives the left and the media an open door to pile on even more and make the pro-family position appear "fringe" -- exactly what the radical left wants!
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 11:11am
Yesterday I wrote a post noting that Alveda King is claiming that her anti-gay, anti-choice activism is the true legacy of her uncle Martin Luther King's "I Have a Bream" legacy ... but I didn't realize the true extent to which King believes that she alone represents MLK's legacy.
King’s academic credentials have also raised eyebrows. She is regularly referred to as "Dr. Alveda King" in promotional material, although her doctorate is an honorary one, bestowed by St. Anselm College, a Catholic school in Manchester, N.H. And she could not recall why she was awarded the honorary degree.
"I guess for my stand on the support of marriage, and family, and education, and life."
...
In the late 1970s, King was elected to the Georgia state Legislature, where she served two terms as a Democrat -- a period she is not eager to recount.
"I’m not involved in politics anymore," she insisted. "Make sure you note that."
By the mid-1980s, King left office and began work on a romance novel, "Arab Heart." A few years later, she filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures, charging that Eddie Murphy stole her plot for his 1988 comedy "Coming to America."
"I gave the manuscript to be read by Eddie Murphy, and he decided to take that and cut me out," she said. "But that’s what happens in the industry."
In 1994, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against King, finding that her self-described "historical tale of romance and adventure" did not have "substantial similarity" to the film, noting that the former was a "serious work with few lighter overtones, whereas 'Coming to America' is a quintessential light romantic comedy."
...
King, who until recently went by Alveda Beal King, has political commitments born of a difficult personal life. She frequently describes the formative role played by her divorces and two abortions, holding tight to her family name even as she became estranged from family.
In 1994, she released a letter condemning Coretta Scott King’s support for abortion and gay rights, saying it would bring "curses on your house and your people...cursing, vexation, rebuke in all that you put your hand to, sickness will come to you and your house, your bloodline will be cut off."
...
Alveda is dismissive of her aunt, who died in 2006, saying, "I've got his DNA. She doesn't, she didn't...Therefore I know something about him. I'm made out of the same stuff."
On a related note, CNSNews.com ran an article today looking at King's claims that her uncle was anti-choice, noting that he had once accepted an award from Planned Parenthood. Of course, King dismisses this fact entirely:
He pointed out that Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, awarded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. its Margaret Sanger Award in 1966, and it highlights King's acceptance of that award on the organization’s Web site.
But Alveda King told CNSNews.com that the award does not prove her uncle supported abortion, and pointed out that Dr. King did not even attend the award ceremony.
“Mrs. Coretta Scott King knew that her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was pro-life,” she said. “Mrs. Coretta King, who was pro-abortion, took and did read the (acceptance) speech, and accepted on behalf of her husband.”
In her analysis of the acceptance speech, Alveda King concluded -- based on the words spoken by Dr. King in his lifetime -- that the speech, and a subsequent letter thanking Planned Parenthood for the award, were not written by Dr. King.
“He did not write the speech. He did not deliver the speech,” she said. “There was a thank-you letter with what appears to be his signature on it, but he had other people who signed his letters in his office, so you can’t even really say he signed it.”
Basically, Alveda King has been cut off from the King family because she has made a career out of trading on the King name while peddling views that are diametrically opposed to those held by Martin Luther King Jr ... and so it only makes sense that Glenn Beck has tapped her to speak at his rally being held on the anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech as Beck tries to claim King's mantle for himself.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 10:46am
The other day I wrote a post highlighting a piece by Accuracy In Media's Cliff Kincaid in which he seemingly demanded proof that President Obama had ever been baptized and joked that maybe this would become the next Bither-like campaign.
But while I may have been joking, Kincaid most certainly was not, as he's now written another piece laying out a Birtheresque conspiracy about Obama's suspect claims regarding his baptism:
AIM also wants accountability. What AIM has done is quote directly from Obama’s books about his spiritual and political journey. We have pointed out that Obama’s claim about his own baptism, as reported in his second memoir, The Audacity of Hope, is subject to interpretation because of the lack of detail about how and when he was baptized and by whom. It appears, based on information provided by Obama’s own church, that Obama was describing how he became a member of that church.
Obama’s claim of being baptized is presented in the context of discussing the fact that he was not born and baptized a Christian. He describes his Muslim father and grandfather and attendance in a Muslim school as he was growing up. Obama acknowledges that, before he joined Wright’s church, some people regarded him as a Muslim. Wright himself dabbled in Islam before establishing his church, Obama concedes.
The proof of the baptism claim is precisely what is lacking in his book. There is no need or demand for a baptismal certificate, but there is no detail about the ceremony, other than talking about a walk down an aisle and a profession of faith, and no information about who performed the baptism and who attended. Traditionally, water is used in such a ceremony. There is no reference to water in Obama’s book.
...
[W]hat is being questioned in not his faith but the veracity of his claim in his book, published as he was preparing his presidential run, that he underwent a baptism. Was this claim inserted into the book to make Obama more politically palatable to the American electorate who would be naturally suspicious about what the media called his “unorthodox” religious background?
Some Christians claim that baptism is not required to become a Christian. Obama could have claimed that he became a Christian in Wright’s church through a simple profession of faith and that a formal baptism was not required. Instead, however, he claimed to have undergone the procedure ... [Obama's] claims about a baptism cannot be taken at face value.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 27, 2010 - 9:37am
Earlier this week we noted how Glenn Beck's Mormon faith was becoming an area of concern for some on the Religious Right, especially in light of the fact that Beck seems to be making a transition from Tea Party leader to religious leader.
These sorts of concerns had prompted Davd Barton to write a defense of Beck, saying that Beck must be judged by his works and not by his lable and that, by that standard, he is a better "Christain" than the likes of Bill Clinton or Nancy Pelosi.
Now Jim Garlow, who has been a guest on Beck's program and will also be attending Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, penned a lengthy piece defending Beck and explaining that evangelicals worked hand-in-hand with Mormons during the Prop 8 fight after they agreed never bring up their faith:
Several months before the election, three officials from the Mormon Church came to my office. The meeting was cordial, respectful and warm. We discussed ways to work along side each other in this battle.
Most of us are familiar with the term “co-belligerency,” which means that people with diametrically opposing views on certain critical issues work together. It was in that role that we came together.
Towards the very end of the meeting, I was just ready to bring up a critical issue: the insistence of Mormons to proselytize and argue theology. Before I could bring up the obvious “elephant in the room,” the highest ranking Mormon official present – a member of the Council of the Seventy – said (as nearly as I am able to re-construct the conversation), “Allow me to broach a topic that is likely on your mind. You will be concerned that our people will bring up discussions regarding their Mormon beliefs. I want to assure you that they will not bring up that topic in conversation.”
I was surprised at his directness, thus I said, “Can I have your word on that?” He responded, “You can.” I asked, “Even though you are over the Pacific Rim (approx. 1/3 of the world) in the Mormon Church, may I have your cell number and call you personally if I become aware of any violation of the promise?” He responded, “You can,” and gave me his cell phone number.
I never called it. Not once. Because I never heard of one single violation. On our first weekend of knocking on doors across California, 25,000 persons showed up to work. Twenty four thousand of them were Mormons. They worked. They worked hard. They never brought up their faith. Not once. A letter had been sent instructing them to discuss only the defense of marriage – and they honored that policy.
Based on that experience, Garlow has come to see Mormons "not theological brothers and sisters, [but as] friends and neighbors" with whom evangelicals can work on issues of concern to both groups.
Garlow says that he has had some direct contact with Beck and knows others who have had much more and, as such, is comfortable that Beck is reliable, trustworthy, and sincere ... though he does have some concerns:
But what about Glenn’s Mormonism, many ask? That is a legitimate question. Glenn was raised, as I understand it, as a Catholic. He became a heavy drinker, destroying everything in his life. It was the Mormons that got him into the equivalent of a 12-step program. His life was turned around. His wife, as I understand it, is a strong Mormon. My personal read-out would be that Glenn’s Mormon ties are not profoundly deep rooted. I am not saying that to denigrate his theological understanding. I simply do not see evidence that he has deep Mormon theological motifs.
But didn’t he talk about some Hebrew stone tablet on his show recently? Yes. Frankly, I am not sure why he did it. It appeared for a moment that he might be – for the first time – pushing his Mormonism. But in further conversation with those I regard to be “in the know,” that was apparently not the case.
Two statements by Beck have caused serious Bible believers serious heartburn. One was on an interview – I believe with Katie Couric – and the other was recently on the Bill O’Reilly show. In both cases, Glenn trivialized the dangers and harm of gay “marriage.” Some defend him, saying he was merely saying that that issue is not his personal focus.
I am not certain how to interpret this one. I was on his show a couple months ago. He specifically asked Robby George (Princeton professor) to tell the audience about the Manhattan Declaration – which strongly affirms traditional, natural marriage. He then changed the conversation to the violence against those that defended Prop 8 in California. At that point, I spoke up, referencing the acts of violence and vandalism committed by those trying to advance the radical gay agenda.
I do not have an explanation for his comments on Bill O’Reilly. I need to know more of the background. It was, most assuredly, not his strongest moment. He may be in need of much more biblical truth and social science data.
But despite these sort of concerns about Beck's recent comments and his faith, Garlow says he is happy to stand by Beck becuase he is being "used by God" to save America:
Glenn Beck is being used by God – mightily. The left loves to slam him and do so viscerally and often with vulgarities. Glenn is not perfect. (For the record, neither are you or I.) But his expose on America’s sins is stellar. I am convinced his motives are pure. His research department is profoundly skilled, checking footnotes down to the last detail. The left cannot “get” him – at least, not at this point. They have tried. Since they have no truth, and history is not on their side, they resort constantly to ad hominem attacks. He has withstood staggering scrutiny, disdain and attacks.
Based on all I know about him, I am proud to stand with him at the Restoring Honor Rally this weekend. Glenn does not see that this about him, because it is not. It is about Restoring Honor. That is the issue. It is much bigger than Glenn Beck and he knows it. And God knows, we need it.
Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 27, 2010 - 7:08am
At 6 a.m. this morning, four hours before tickets were scheduled to be given away for the Friday night warmup to Glenn Beck’s Saturday rally on the National Mall, hundreds of his fans lined up against the wall of the Kennedy Center even after being told there were no tickets available. Some milled around a pickup truck emblazoned with American flags and the exhortation, “Save an American, Kill a Terrorist.” (You can get your own T-shirt at www.AlwaysRemember912.com.]
Kennedy Center security guards met new arrivals with flyers from Mercury Radio Arts - the event’s producer – giving a website where people can watch a live stream of the event. Some people decided to wait anyway. Some didn’t trust the flyer . One suggested it might have been a dirty trick by Huffington Post. Some just hoped they’d be rewarded somehow for being steadfast.
At about 6:40, Mercury Radio Arts spokesman L.J. Herman told the crowd there really were no tickets. He explained that 1500 people had lined up by 8:30 last night, meaning that all the tickets were already spoken for. Rather than making people wait all night, event organizers decided to give out the tickets then. Some of the morning arrivals were understanding and philosophical, and even saw the decision as evidence of Beck’s benevolence; others were frustrated that they had dragged themselves out of bed so early even though the tickets were long gone. Herman said an alert had been posted to GlennBeck.com last night.
Betty Ring, who traveled from Romanville, PA, worked the line, urging people not to be mad at Beck. Ring said she arrived at 10 last night, too late for tickets, but spent the night outside anyway as she had no hotel room. She encouraged people to come back to the Kennedy Center tonight for an unofficial prayer rally outside while Divine Destiny was happening inside. Ring claimed that Beck had been told by Kennedy Center officials that he could not pray inside, and that in response they will pray all night. Herman made it clear the MRA had nothing to do with the “organic” plan for the outside rally, which has no permits, and which might not be welcomed by Kennedy Center security, which was already working the building with dogs this morning.
After the crowd was asked to disperse, most people wandered off, while others lingered over their coffee, speculating among themselves with wonder just how massive the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial will be.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 4:31pm
Speaking of Religious Rigth activists being upset about the fact that Ken Mehlman has come out, you knew it was just a matter of time before Peter LaBarbera weighed in, which he is doing by blasting RNC Chair Michael Steele for saying he is happy for Mehlman and saying that this is proof of why gays must be kept out of the Republican Party:
Why couldn’t Mr. Steele just have kept quiet about this tragic revelation by which another sexually confused man seeks to rationalize his misbehavior (sin) by declaring homosexuality part of his inherent being? Nope, instead, like a three-year-old boy approaching a puddle, Steele just had to step in it. Pro-family writer Laurie Higgins of Illinois Family Institute observed:
So, Steele is “happy” that Mehlman is homosexual and/or happy that he is public about it? Why would he be happy for a friend embracing immoral and dangerous practices or for a friend being public about his embrace of immorality? And why does he respect him for his “difficult” decision to announce his immorality publicly? What fecklessness or cowardice Steele’s comment demonstrates. And this from the leader of the Republican Party…
...
So, we learn that Mehlman used his tremendous influence within the Republican Party to undermine the GOP’s clear platform language in support of preserving traditional marriage. All the while rank-and-file Republican Joes and Janes were assuming that the RNC leader was standing up for marriage between a man and a woman. Mr. Mehlman just proved why homosexual activism should be kept out of the Republican Party: it undermines core conservative values supported overwhelmingly by the GOP grassroots.
They fought in trenches … stormed beaches … cut through sweltering jungles … marched over burning deserts. Our military has protected our soil, seas and skies. Today, they're drawn into a new battle. Harry Reid and homosexual activists are attempting to advance their political agenda by overturning 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' Our military is for protection, not politics. Stop Harry Reid on Election Day.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 3:38pm
Yesterday, Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, came out as gay, which is just the latest development signling that the Right is losing its fight against gay marriage.
But don't think for a second that the Right is going to give up without a fight, as Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, both from the Family Research Council, have already written an op-ed telling the GOP not to even think about abandoning social conservatives on this issue:
Republican leadership is working hard to prevent a party split. Millions of Tea Party supporters are justifiably fed up with the GOP, and threatening to abandon the GOP in favor of a third party if Republicans do not fully attack out-of-control federal spending and power with a commitment to constitutional government.
That danger cuts both ways.
Social conservatives cannot be played as fools by the Republican Party. They are not “useful idiots.” If Republican leaders abandon social conservatives and the party platform, then they will face the same kind of disaster they could be facing if Tea Partiers abandon the GOP -- Millions of social conservatives will either stay home, or will vote for a third-party candidate who takes up the mantle of marriage, life, faith and family.
As we discuss in the introduction of our book, “The Blueprint,” this is exactly what President Obama wants to see. If a majority of Americans reject the agenda of President Obama and his Democratic Party—as they do today—the only way that Obama and the Dems can hold on to power is to split the opposition vote.
If the GOP splits either over economic issues or over social issues, then President Obama could be reelected with as little as 40% of the vote.
Think that sounds preposterous? It’s happened before in American politics, with 1912 as a perfect example. The year 2012 will be the 100-year anniversary of when a Republican split gave America a Democratic president.
If Republicans flinch on marriage, America could have eight years of President Obama.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 2:59pm
Earlier this month I wrote about Ralph Reed's upcoming Faith and Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing to be held in Washington, D.C., September 9-11 which Reed is calling the "the political equivalent of NFL minicamp."
Today, Reed sent out an email urging activists to register and provided the first look at the line-up of scheduled speakers he has landed:
Gary Bauer, President, American Values
Ken Blackwell, Senior Fellow of Family Empowerment, Family Research Council
Glen Bolger,Political strategist and pollster
Jim Bopp, Legal Counsel, Faith & Freedom Coalition
Lynn Westmoreland, United States Congressman (R-GA-3rd district)
Interestingly, the names Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabe are not on this list despite the fact that Reed has been using them in his promos for weeks now:
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 12:57pm
Yesterday, Martin Luther King III wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post taking issue with Glenn Beck's attempts to claim MLK's mantle with his upcoming "Restoring Honor" rally being held at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.
"It is absolutely ludicrous that abortion supporters would accuse a blood relative of Dr. King of hijacking the King legacy. Uncle Martin and my father, Rev. A. D. King were blood brothers. How can I hijack something that belongs to me? I am an heir to the King Family legacy," she said. "I have a right to stand at the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th Anniversary of my Uncle's 'I Have A Dream' speech. The Dream has yet to be realized. That Dream is in my genes and I carry forward in the fight for equality and justice for all blacks, including those in the womb. My dad and my uncle gave their lives to ensure that the day would come when blacks would be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. If they were here, I know they would stand with me in this fight for the lives of those most vulnerable among us," said King.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 11:01am
Just yesterday I noted that Mike Huckabee had joined Tony Perkins, Mat Staver, Pat Roberston and others in recording a message urging activists to attend the upcoming "The Call" prayer rally with Lou Engle in Sacramento, CA.
And one of the points I have been trying to emphasize in my posts about the rise of these self-proclaimed "apostles" and "prophets" like Engle within the Religious Right movement is that when they claim to be battling Satanic and demonic forces, they mean that quite literally.
And, just to demonstrate that point, here is Engle explaining that events like The Call are so important because they unleash spiritual movements in America that can break Satan's control over our government, though which He is enacting His evil agenda:
Engle believes the anniversary meeting, which thousands are expected to attend, has the potential to turn the nation toward biblical values, as participants pray for "righteous" leaders to emerge from the midterm elections and for God to "shift the whole political system in America and the seven spheres of society."
"There is a hill above Capitol Hill," Engle said. "It's God's praying church who actually begins to influence the governments of the earth through their prayers."
Engle makes no apologies for his political advocacy. He believes if Christians don't influence politics, Satan will.
Prayer and preaching the gospel are the church's primary calling, he said. "But to say don't get involved in those high places [of government] is actually allowing our archenemy Satan to put his own people in those high places, where spiritual powers can actually control societies and release laws that actually legalize systemic evil," Engle added.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 9:43am
I haven't written much about California's Proposition 19, a ballot initiative that would would legalize possession and cultivation of marijuana in the state, mainly because I hadn't seen anyone on the Right doing anything to oppose it.
But it looks like Randy Thomasson and SaveCalifornia.com are now leading the fight against Prop 19 with a new website, MarijuanaHarmsFamiles.com, and a completely over-the-top new video about how Prop 19 will utterly destroy the state:
You have got to hand it to the Right: when it comes to opposing propositions in California, they sure do know how to make memorably fearmongering ads.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 26, 2010 - 9:16am
Via CBN's David Brody we learn that a group of Christian leaders have signed on to a letter decrying those who have been questioning the legitimacy of President Obama's faith and urging the media to ignore those who are doing so:
As Christian leaders— whose primary responsibility is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our congregations, our communities, and our world— we are deeply troubled by the recent questioning of President Obama’s faith. We understand that these are contentious times, but the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for public debate.
President Obama has been unwavering in confessing Christ as Lord and has spoken often about the importance of his Christian faith. Many of the signees on this letter have prayed and worshiped with this President. We believe that questioning, and especially misrepresenting, the faith of a confessing believer goes too far.
This is not a political issue. The signers of this letter come from different political and ideological backgrounds, but we are unified in our belief in Jesus Christ. As Christian pastors and leaders, we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith.
Therefore, we urge public officials, faith leaders, and the media to offer no further support or airtime to those who misrepresent and call into question the President’s Christian faith. And we join with the President in praying that God will continue to bless the United States of America.
It is no surprise to see names like Joel Hunter, Jim Wallis, and Kirbyjon Caldwell among the signers, but it is a bit surprising too see that Bishop T.D. Jakes and Rev. Sam Rodriguez signed on as well.
For his part, Rick Warren is taking a bold "no comment" stance regarding the legitimacy of Obama's Christian faith, with his spokeperson issuing this statement to Brody:
Dr. Warren has not made any comment, nor has he signed any group letters or statements.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 25, 2010 - 4:54pm
After initially announcing that a Christian militia would provide protection during the upcoming "Burn a Quran Day," the militia now says it will not participate because "we don't want to be a part of inciting violence and racism anymore."
Richard Viguerie claims that Sen. John McCain's primary win over J.D. Hayworth is a win for the Tea Party. Huh?
Finally, Terence Jeffrey is mad at President Obama for recognizing that there are atheists in America, saying it is just making Muslims hate us even more.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 25, 2010 - 4:11pm
The general consensus about the "Truth Academy" hosted earlier this month by Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality was that the event was pretty much a bust considering that only a few dozen activists actually enrolled ... and many of those who did were eventually revealed to be there simply as spies.
But LaBarbera is undaunted and today told Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel that he is planning to hold more "Truth Academy" events all over the country in the coming months:
Barber: Tell us quickly about the next Truth Academy you're working on and what your strategy is going forward and your plans are for future Truth Academies.
LaBarbera: Yes Matt, it looks like we'll be having one in Oklahoma in winter, in January or February. We have interest in North Carolina, in New York. I think all across the country we'll see people wanting to have these and you can get more information at AmericansForTruth.org, just hit the Truth Academy button.
But Matt we're happy to have you on board, and Rena, and the excellent people you have there at Liberty Counsel. But the whole idea is everybody is ignoring this issue, the media has declared that you cannot talk about it, so we're going to talk more about it because we know that Americans are fed up with the non-stop homosexual propaganda they get in the media, that they get from Hollywood, that they get from the schools, and now even the corporate world and academia. And we're saying "hey, we're on the side of truth," we need to educate people so they can confidently go out and educate others and proclaim truth on this issue.
Barber: Well, thank you so much Pete for all you're doing at Americans for Truth and keep pushing forward my friend.
To that ever-growing list we can now add Mike Huckabee as well, who explains that "with Judge Walker reversing the votes of millions of people concerning traditional marriage, this is a perfect time to gather for a solemn assembly to fast and pray and stand for the most critical issues of our day." Christians must gather, Huckabee says, to "cry out for mercy" and "turn this nation back to God as Jesus is our only hope":
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 24, 2010 - 3:10pm
It it too much to ask of the mainstream media that if they are going to quote the AFA's Bryan Fischer, that they mention hislonghistoryofmaking militantly anti-gaystatements, especially when they are quoting him in an article relating to gay issues?
Apparently, because Fischer's well-established hatred all of things gay didn't warrant even a passing mention in this USA Today article about how increasingly "gay relationships and gay families are portrayed as just like other families" in movies and television:
It's a landscape that many Americans still don't accept.
Such movies and TV shows "desensitize the public to the raft of problems associated with homosexual behavior," says Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the American Family Association, one of the proponents of Proposition 8, California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage now tied up in court. "Hollywood is conveying a deceptive message about that behavior and doing a disservice to (viewers) who are coming to conclusions based on what they see on the silver screen. It's a distortion of reality."
Says Glenn Stanton, director of family studies for Focus on the Family: "When actual gay and lesbian weddings are shown on TV (as in news coverage), we win. When they're shown through the lens and creativity and artifice of Hollywood, we don't. Hollywood is succeeding, but they're doing so by not representing reality."
Of course Fischer doesn't accept it - he thinks all gays are violent, deviant perverts and pedophiles who ought to be treated like criminals.
Maybe the media ought to at least mention that fact the next time they decide to quote him.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 24, 2010 - 2:30pm
Politico has a long article about conservatives' concerns about whether Glenn Beck's upcoming rally, and his activism in general, is dedicated to advance conservative ideas or just about advancing Glenn Beck.
As if there is even a question.
But I wanted to highlight this one section:
At the request of Beck’s team, which lacked the organizational infrastructure or logistical know-how to pull off Saturday’s march, asked for assistance, Tea Party Patriots agreed to help promote the march among its 500,000 email subscribers and to provide 400 volunteers to staff it, a requirement before the National Park Service would issue a permit.
So Beck asked Tea Party activists for help in organizing and staffing the event but insists that this is not a Tea Party/political event, but rather a solemn religious assembly:
It won’t feel like a Tea Party event. I told people “leave your signs at home.” You will feel the difference, I think, when you first walk out on the mall. I’ve put this at the Lincoln Memorial for a reason. That’s a sacred spot. This isn’t a "rah rah USA!" kind of thing. This is a sacred reflective spot in our nation, you know, the Reflecting Pool. That was done for a reason. I think if you stand between Lincoln and Washington, spiritually, mentally, morally, we will heal our country. I am putting people between Washington and Lincoln physically to try and give them the understanding that these two giants were men just like them. They were American citizens who just did the hard thing, and sometimes doing the hard thing is just doing the right thing. Or more importantly, when nobody notices. And so this is really just to go back to the founding principles.
If you have any doubt that Beck's egomania is rapidly spinning out of control, you really ought to read the entire interview he gave to Townhall in which he repeatedly insists that "there is a revolution coming" and that his 8-28 rally is going to, literally, transform the nation because he, just like the Founding Fathers, is "divinely inspired":
I believe this is the battle between good and evil. If you look at those who live under Shariah law in Iran, the ideas are just more extreme there. It is a clash of people that are rulers, who say they know better and they will force people to do whatever it is and they will destroy those who disagree with them. On a much lesser degree, that’s where we are headed and where it finally ends I don’t know, but is the same root of the same tree of evil. We are battling the oldest battle known to man and it is a spiritual battle that must be won inside of ourselves first.
I learned this from studying the years of 1740-1776, there was an awakening, then an enlightenment, then freedom. If we don’t wake up to the truth of God and the spirit, we are toast.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 24, 2010 - 12:09pm
I always thought that the central tenet of the Christian faith was ... well, faith. But, as it turns out, when someone like President Obama claims to be a Christian, that can't just be taken on faith, which is why we keep seeing column after column written by right-wing activists claiming that they don't believe that Obama is, in fact, a Christian ... and it is entierly his own fault, of course:
The current president has neither a church, nor, to my knowledge, even a denomination. When I'm asked questions about his faith, by sincere people not looking to attack, I sincerely can't give a good answer. It's a problem I didn't have with any of the Bushes, the Clintons, Reagan, Carter, and on and on.
...
Of course, it shouldn't be difficult to rectify misperceptions. Throughout American history, presidents have been asked about their faith and sat for lengthy interviews sharing their thinking, explaining precisely what they believe. Why doesn't Obama simply do the same? This isn't rocket science ... Obama's problem isn't a tiny fringe that believes he faces Mecca to pray five times a day, but an increasingly large number of Americans that aren't sure what he believes. Until he makes that clearer, confusion will understandably reign.
In the aftermath of Obama's unsolicited, controversial dictates over the Ground Zero mosque debate, White House image-makers are now trying to convince the public he is a devout Christian. Specific to that point, he may not be a Muslim, but I'm convinced he isn't a Christian, either.
As evidence of his devoutness, the White House has entered into evidence that he allegedly prays every day. Let me be clear – praying every day no more makes one a Christian than walking across a stream makes one a fisherman.
...
Scriptures tell us that by our works we shall be known (Matthew 7:15-20). Where is Obama's fruit? I think it can be reasonably argued that, if he were a Christian following after Jesus, there would be no questions about his faith. If his actions were Christ-like, people wouldn't question whether or not he is a Muslim.
Obama talks about hearing a Wright sermon, “The Audacity of Hope,” which inspired the title of his second book. However, there is no mention of any baptism in this—his first—book. The reference to being baptized came in the second book, as Obama was preparing to launch his presidential campaign. The timing is significant.
These are the facts as Obama himself reported them. So how have the media handled them? Needless to say, there has been no serious investigation into whether the claims are true and what they mean.
“Obama’s religious biography is unconventional and politically problematic,” Newsweek’s Lisa Miller reported. “Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father, Obama grew up living all across the world with plenty of spiritual influences, but without any particular religion. He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.”
The phrase, “having been baptized,” is apparently based on Obama’s claim about being baptized. Our major media haven’t questioned the claim.
Miller went on to say, “His baptism presents its own problems. The senior pastor at Trinity at the time of Obama’s baptism was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the preacher who was seen damning America on cable TV…”
Notice the formulation, “at the time of Obama’s baptism.” She carefully does not say that Wright performed the baptism. In fact, there’s no evidence it was a baptism in the traditional sense that it was performed by Wright or anybody else. It looks like Obama walked down the aisle and made a profession of faith. That is not a Christian baptism.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 24, 2010 - 10:50am
Yesterday I wrote a post about how some Religious Right activists have been growing alarmed by Glenn Beck's subtle transformation from Tea Party leader to religious leader because Beck is a Mormon, citing a recent radio program by Brannon Howse, president and founder of Worldview Weekend, which focused on how Beck has started merging Mormon doctrine with his lessons on American history.
As Julie Ingersoll explained, Howse brought Ed Decker, a former Mormon, on to his program last week to explain the significance behind the theories Beck was promoting on his August 18 show about the history of Native Americans:
[O]n his show on Wednesday, Beck discussed an obscure archeological find, the Bat Creek Stone, that Beck believes has been hidden from the public by the Smithsonian Institution and others because it is evidence of ties between ancient Israel and Native Americans -- which, although Beck did not say this explicitly, would also be evidence for claims (albeit recently disputed within the LDS Church) made in the Book of Mormon. Howse, on his radio show, said he was “stunned” to hear Beck “laying down Mormon teaching” and “when [Beck] started talking about the Bat Creek Stone. . . . I didn’t stay with it, it was just too weird.” (While Howse presented no evidence that Mormons have used the Bat Creek Stone to promote such a view, Beck's use of it was characteristically wacky, as the theory he promoted has long been discredited by archeologists) ... Howse’s guest was Ed Decker, a former Mormon whose apologetics ministry, Saints Alive, focuses on demonstrating the ways in which Mormonism departs from orthodox Christianity. And together they spent nearly an hour denouncing Beck and skewering Mormonism. They even read and ridiculed comments from people on Beck’s website, who indicated that they were Mormon. Decker said Beck has been “using terminology that Mormons manipulate. . . terms that have double meanings . . . and that now he’s getting into things right out of the Book of Mormonism itself.”
Normally, when Beck goes off trying to expose these sorts of conspiracies, most of us are inclined to simply tune him out. But in this case, that would be a mistake because if you know anything about the importance of Native Americans in Mormon theology, it is blatantly obvious that Beck is now subtly incorporating his religious beliefs into his grand theory of America history:
As Richard and Joan Ostling explain in their book "Mormon America: The Power and the Promise," this unique belief about Native America history is central to the Mormon faith:
The Book of Mormon tells of two ancient seaborne migrations from the Holy Land to the Americas, by Hebrew peoples who are assumed to be ancestors of Native Americans. The older migration, by the Jaredites, occurred after the Tower of Babel incident around 2200 BC, and the later one around 600 BC, just before the Babylonian captivity of the Israelites. In the second, more detailed narrative, Lehi, a descendant of the biblical patriarch Joseph, builds a ship. Guided by a compass, he sails by way of the Indian and Pacific Oceans to the Americans, landing possibly in Central America. Two of Lehi's sons become wicked and rebellious, so God curses them with dark skin. Many American Indians, traditionally called "Lamanites, are supposed to have descended from them. Nephites are the descendants of Lehi's faithful sons.
RICHARD OSTLING: Mormonism teaches that ancient Israelites came to the New World and created scriptures, which we have today as the Book of Mormon, thus Israelites are ancestors of Native Americans. There's a whole story, a very elaborate story of great cities being built. But non-Mormons - and I guess we'd say Mormon skeptics - who have studied these matters do not see evidence. They don't see the DNA that would support the Israelite theory. They don't see evidence of Hebrew language in the New World. They don't see the archeological sites that would show these grand cities that are described.
MICHAEL COE, Archaeologist: According to a lot of Mormon archeologists, their job is to find that this is a true story, that all these things actually existed in this place that is described in the Book of Mormon, which in this case, would have to be in Guatemala and the neighboring Mexican state of Chiapas. And this is what they've been after for 50 years. They've excavated all kinds of sites, and unfortunately, they've never found anything that would back it up.
Clearly, this theory is the foundational premise upon which the Book of Mormon is based and, as Decker explained to Howse, Beck's discussion of the Bat Creek Stone and the "real" history of Native Americans is designed to bolster the idea that "the Jews came to America before Columbus [because] this is the basis of the Book of Mormon ... he's saying that the Smithsonian and many of the scientific agencies of America have lied to the America people and hidden facts from them that prove that the Jews were here before Columbus":
For years now, Beck has been a hero to the Religious Right, but you have to wonder how much longer that will last now that Beck no longer views himself simply as a conservative leader, but as a religous leader and is even using his program to promote Mormon doctrine as American history.
Update: In the interest of fairness, I want to call attention to this Joanna Brooks piece in which she argues that the role of Native Americans it not, in fact, a "foundational premise" of the Book of Mormon:
If anything, Mormon leaders have been slowly but steadily deemphasizing Native Americans over the last three decades, abandoning the grand discourse once used in the 1970s by Church leaders like Spencer Kimball to describe even contemporary Native peoples as Book of Mormon “Lamanites” with a special history and destiny. That deemphasis has led to mixed feelings and even lasting hurt among some Native peoples, as the recent death of once-prominent Navajo Mormon George P. Lee, who had served as a high-ranking Church leader but was later excommunicated, reminds us.
Ask a 21st-century Mormon what the foundational premise of the Book of Mormon is, and he or she will tell you that they believe the book is scripture because they read it and prayed about it and find reason for hope and deeper faith in its pages. As it is for most contemporary people of faith, personal spiritual experience is the foundational premise of contemporary Mormonism.
My point wasn't that the history of the Native Americas is "foundational" to the beliefs of 21st-century Mormons, but that it was "foundational" to Joseph Smith's own understanding of the Book of Mormon; as Richard Lyman Bushman wrote in "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling":
The efforts to situate the Book of Mormon in history, whether ancient or modern, run up against baffling complexities. The Book of Mormon resists conventional analysis, whether sympathetic or critical. Early Mormons themselves had trouble grasping the book's nature. When required to offer a brief summary, they often called it a history of the Indians. Samuel Smith, Joseph's brother, on a tour to win followers in 1830, tried to sell the book as a "history of the origins of the Indians." Joseph himself wrote a newspaper editor in 1833 that "the Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians."
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 24, 2010 - 9:01am
Last week we posted a photo of Ken Hutcherson officiating Rush Limbaugh's fourth marriage along with a quote from a recent Hutcherson column in WorldNetDaily in which he warned that God was going to unleash his judgment upon this nation unless we banned the promotion of homosexuality.
Folks, we are proud and excited to announce that Pastor Ken Hutcherson will be our keynote speaker for the Americans For Truth fundraising banquet on Saturday, November 13th at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Hutcherson is a former NFL football player, but most importantly he is a man of God who has proven himself a faithful ambassador for his Savior, Jesus Christ. Hutcherson founded and pastors Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington (home of Microsoft), and he is one pastor who does not shy away from the cultural battle for truth.
The New Yorker profiles David and Charles Koch, the ideological billionaires behind so much of today's right-wing movement.
Replace "homosexuality" with "Christianity" in this Brad Dacus quote and imagine how the Right would respond.
Harry Jackson continues to rail against gay marriage: "We declare that there is coming an unprecedented political backlash against same-sex marriage being forced down our collective throats."
Mike Huckabee denies trying to sell his endorsement for $250,000 and also went campaigning with Bill McCollum in church this weekend.
Janet Porter's Faith 2 Action organization has been almost non-existent lately ... with the exception of posting things on how "Amazing Animals" like the woodpecker prove that God exists.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 23, 2010 - 4:05pm
Those who have been busy pointing out the hypocrisy of those right-wing activists who hail the fundamental importance of defending the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom while simultaneously leading a crusade against the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" have been fond of asking just how large the "mosque exclusion zone" is supposed to be.
Liberal talking heads often suggest that opposition to the mosque at Ground Zero is just thinly veiled bigotry. They contend that the opponents of the mosque would oppose the construction of a mosque anywhere, and ask rhetorically, “How large should the mosque-free buffer zone around Ground Zero be?”
I’ve thought about that question, and here’s my suggested compromise: Back up the mosque one yard for every life that was lost at Ground Zero on 9/11. Three thousand lives lost equals three thousand yards away. If the organizers of the Ground Zero mosque would accept that compromise, the controversy would be over.
Let's see, 3,000 yards is 9,000 feet, which is 1.7 miles ... so there you go: the Mosque Exclusion Zone is officially set at at just under two miles.
Does that mean that all the mosques that already exist within this radius now have to be shut down and moved?
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 23, 2010 - 3:07pm
Conservatives have been very confused and upset for quite some time now that their former hero Ted Olson not only supported marriage equality but actually became a leading advocate, playing a key role in getting Proposition 8 struck down.
How did Mr. Federalist Society decide it’s okay to use the U.S. Constitution to require gay marriage? The New York Times is reporting that his new young Democrat wife may be a key reason.
This NOM post in turn links to this post by Ed Whelan who says that he will wisely "refrain from further comment" on how Olson's wife has completely destroyed his integrity:
Ted Olson and his anti-Prop 8 media machine have been aggressively leveraging his past associations with conservative legal causes in support of his newfound support for the invention of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. In so doing, they’ve tried to obscure the fact that the position that the Constitution can and should be interpreted to invalidate traditionalmarriage laws can’t possibly be reconciled with the conservative legal principles that Olson used to purport to stand for. (I’m not addressing here the very different question whether a conservative can soundly support legislative revision of marriage laws to include same-sex couples.)
For anyone who has wondered what really accounts for Olson’s new position, I pass along these excerpts from a New York Times article last week on the influence of Lady Booth Olson, Olson’s wife since 2006:
Lady Olson was more than just a minor behind-the-scenes player in this potentially pivotal case.
“Lady could not have been more supportive of this,” Mr. Olson said in an interview shortly before Vaughn R. Walker, chief judge of the United States District Court hearing the case, ruled on Aug. 4 that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. “And she’s certainly influenced my views — her ideas, her approach, her feelings.” …
Mr. Olson’s previous wife, Barbara, was a conservative commentator who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when she was on the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Some friends hypothesize that Lady Olson just might have softened some of her husband’s views.
“In my innermost thoughts, I like to think he thought that on some level, but Ted’s never said that,” Mrs. Olson said. “He’s very proud. He owns his own decisions.”
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 23, 2010 - 1:22pm
It really is remarkable to see Glenn Beck, who is currently coming under attack from the Religious Right for his own Mormon faith, attack President Obama and others as false Christians, saying that those who "pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you are evil. And when you know you intentionally are doing it power, and control, and money, and a hidden agenda and you lie, cheat, and steal every step of the way to do it, you are evil":
I am getting really tied of this holider-than-thou line of attack from Beck, even as his beliefs as a Mormon have been subject to similar attack, so I am just going to excerpt some passages from the book "Mormon America: The Power and the Promise" by Richard and Joan Ostling explaining the differences between Mormonism and mainstream Christian denominations and why the latter do not consider the former to be part of the Christian family:
In 2001, the Vatican reached the significant decision that LDS converts to Catholicism must be rebaptized, though the church customarily accepts baptisms performed in most other denominations. L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily, explained that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith decided that Mormon baptism "is not the baptism that Christ instituted," partly due to the LDS belief that "God the Father had a wife, the Celestial Mother, with whom he procreated Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit."
...
America's largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, staunchly opposes LDS theology. The second largest, the United Methodist Church, reject LDS baptism in 2000 on the grounds that Mormonism is self-definition "does not fit within the bounds of the historic apostolic tradition of Christian faith." A Methodist paper noted that the LDS church add scriptures to the Judeo-Christian Bible and has "some radically differing doctrine on such matters of belief as the nature and being of God, the nature, origin and purpose of Jesus Christ ; and the nature and way of salvation. Other cited problems: God the Father is a procreating deity with "a body of flesh and bones" and is "male gendered and married to a heavenly mother of clear female gender." Jesus is not eternal with the Father and is "an entirely separate and distinct being" identified with Jehovah, the Father's oldest child. Mormonism uses the language of the Trinity but with different meanings and is tri-theistic or possibly polytheistic. Also, "God's and human are the same species of being, but at different states of development," and the goal of human salvation is "achievement of godhood."
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was one of the first major bodies to study officially whether Mormons are Christians. The project began with a national Presbyterian convention in Salt Lake City in 1990, with a follow-up study released in 1995. Presbyterian guidelines state that the LDS church "expresses allegiance to Jesus Christ in terms used within the Christian tradition" but nonetheless is not regarded as "within the historic apostolic tradition of the Christian Church."
Presbyterians are advised to treat Mormons as adherent of another religion, putting relations under the "interfaith" rubric. Besides the need for rebaptism, Mormons should not receive Presbyterian Communion; and weddings and funerals involving mixed families are handled as "interfaith" rather than intra-Christian rites.
...
In the Mormon understanding of history, the church literally disappeared shortly after Jesus' apostles died, although apostate human organizations perpetuated the false claim to be Christian. The same process of apostasy was repeated among the believers in the New World who were visited by the Mormon Jesus. There was no church on earth during a hiatus of some 1,400 years until God intervened to restore apostolic governance through the prophet Joseph Smith and his successors.
As Joseph Smith wrote, "we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly" ... and by "translated correctly, Smith meant the version he wrote that was designed to bring the text more in line with established Mormon doctrine and "restore truths to the Bible text that had become lost or changed since the original words were written."
As we have noted twice in the last week, the Religious Right doesn't consider Beck to be a Christian - and neither would most of the major Christian denominations - and yet he continues to accuse President Obama and progressive Christians of being apostates and heretics.
You’d think that Glen Beck would be able to look at his own experience and see how callow and nasty these attacks really are. But you’d be wrong.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 23, 2010 - 10:58am
Recently, Glenn Beck seems to have started undergoing a transformation from a Tea Party leader to a Religious Right leader as he increasingly sells his brand of right-wing conspiracy-theorizing in religious terms.
What started with his partnership with David Barton as rapidly expanded to include all sorts of Religious Right activists and now Beck has started claiming that his upcoming "Restoring Honor" rally is literally being orchestrated by God and that "the Spirit of the Lord is going to be unleashed like you've never felt it before" and miracles will take place at the event.
Beck's move to establish himself as a religious leader among conservatives is being met with alarm from some evangelical activists due to the fact that Beck is Mormon, forcing people like Barton to defend his associations with Beck by claiming that Beck shouldn't be judged by the label he wears but by the fruits that he produces.
Please remember Brannon started the website keepglennbeck.com to support Glenn when the radicals wanted his advertisers to stop advertising in his program. With that said, Brannon believes Glenn has now moved into an area where we must draw a clear line theologically and doctrinally. While Christians can join Glenn in opposing tyranny, socialism, cultural Marxism, and the like but we cannot join him spiritually. Glenn's website describes the event at the Kennedy Center as "Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny" and states that the event will include "uplifting music, nationally-known religious figures from all faith will unite…" Glenn's website also promotes Glenn's "Daily Spiritual Thought" and "join Glenn Beck live each weekday morning at 7:05a ET for prayer." Why must we respectfully and lovingly tell Glenn we cannot agree with him nor find common ground in the area of Biblical doctrine and theology?
Is Glenn now using his TV program to push his Mormon faith? Glenn has the right to push his Mormon faith on TV but Glenn needs to be upfront about it ... The point of today's program is that Christians need to be wise and not fall into the trap of compromising on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in an effort to be politically correct, tolerant and find religious unity with anti-Biblical beliefs and religions. We appreciate the strong and courageous stands that Glenn has taken but Christians understand that Glenn is now, by his own choice, promoting something that is not compatible with Biblical Christian doctrines. We can be co-belligerents on many moral issues with non-Christians but we cannot find common ground theologically and doctrinally. Christians must understand that the Jesus of the cults is not the Jesus of the Bible.
You may recall that, a few months back, Howse severed ties with Janet Porter due to her associations with the "kind of whacked out folks" who preach Dominionism.
Similarly, Howse's Worldview Weekend has had a long relationship with David Barton, so it'll be interesting to see how Howse handles Barton's increasing involvement with, and defense of, Beck's Mormon faith.
But I guess we know a few pastors whose help Welch doesn't want as he fights off this Nazi-like siege from President Obama ... and that would be any pastor, like Kirbyjon Caldwell or Joel Hunter, who vouches for Obama's Christian faith:
[P]astors like Hunter and Caldwell who serve as spiritual lapdogs to Obama are even more culpable for giving him cover. They are much like the clergy of Hitlerian Germany and the "Positive Christianity" that represented complete acquiescence to and control by the Nazi state.
Welch claims that "neither I, you nor anyone is in complete position to be the judge of whether Obama" is truly a Christian ... and then proceeds to state that Obama is not a devout Christian by any stretch of the imagination.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 23, 2010 - 9:15am
Sarah Palin's decision to come rushing to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's defense last week after Schlessinger announced that she would be leaving her radio show because of criticism she received for repeatedly saying the "N-word" on a recent broadcast did not sit well with a lot of people, including us.
And it looks like it didn't sit well with a variety of Black conservative leaders either, though they seemingly tried to downplay their displeasure by issuing their statement blasting Palin for using "this incident as a stepping stone for her political ambitions" late on Friday night:
Dr. Schlessingers' use of the "N" word on her program was in poor judgment and an unfortunate choice for which she has apologized. While we do not condone her behavior, we accept her apology and understand she did not intend to offend. We are disappointed, however, that Sarah Palin used this incident as a stepping stone for her political ambitions, raising her political goals above principle, said leaders in the black prolife movement.
"Many of these politicians are involving themselves in matters that have nothing to do with them," said Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union. "Just as the President should not have involved himself in the Mosque issue in New York, or the Police incident in Massachusetts, Sara Palin should not have involved herself in this matter or -- the Georgia governors race where she supported a candidate that supplied funding to Planned Parenthood. Doing so caused us all to question her assertion that she is pro-life. Palin should forget about political leverage and deal with the righteous principles of human dignity." Gardner said.
"When I heard the caller on the Dr. Laura show, I wondered if she was a plant, someone designated to provoke a reaction from Dr. Laura," said Catherine Davis, a founding member in the black prolife movement. "It is unfortunate Dr. Laura took the bait. But Sarah Palin's insertion into the matter just seems opportunistic and political." she said.
"Every time Sarah Palin chooses politics over principle, something is lost," said Dr. Alveda King, Director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life. "Palin can't win by jumping into the game where the nefarious race card is being played."
"It's time to strike a nail in the coffin of racism in America," King continued. "Governor Palin could better use her time in trying to unite the human race. This battle can't be won with politics. This is a matter of the human condition -- and the human heart," concluded Dr. King.
Interestingly, Alveda King issued a separate statement announcing that she would be joining Glenn Beck's upcoming "Restoring Honor" rally, where Sarah Palin will also be speaking, as did Gardner ... so maybe they will get a chance to voice their displeasure with Palin in person.
But honestly, I can't think of a better example of the absurdity of Beck trying to claim Martin Luther King's mantle by hosting his rally on the anniversary of MLK's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech than this decision to include the one member of MLK's extended family who least represents his legacy.
I just might have to pick up the book "Jesus and Gin: Evangelicalism, the Roaring Twenties and Today's Culture Wars" because it sounds pretty interesting.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 20, 2010 - 2:43pm
At regular intervals, the Family Research Council sends out updates to its "Prayer Team" listing a variety of political issues that team members should make the target of their prayers.
A recent update called upon FRC's prayer activists to focus on the upcoming election because for too long America has elected politicians who lead "flagrantly godless personal lives" and "pass ungodly laws":
The American electoral process has the potential to produce qualified candidates, yet year after year we elect men and women who enter public office and pass ungodly laws. Some lead unwholesome, even flagrantly godless personal lives. Yet far too many of our pastors and Christian leaders have remained uninvolved, failing even to teach and preach about responsible Christian citizenship ... It is our duty to select leaders who respect the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage and family, and religious liberty and who oppose pernicious efforts to advance abortion, sexual immorality, socialism, profligate government spending, and now, Muslim Sharia law. Praying, fasting, speaking out and taking extraordinary action during the next 81 days, Christians must follow biblical principles (e.g., Exodus 18:21) in voting their values.
And FRC listed a specific set of issues on which the prayer team was to concentrate in order to reverse this trend - namely the Values Voter Summit, the Prop 8 ruling, Rifqa Bary, and Park 51:
- Pray that God will pour out his Spirit upon this year's [Values Voter Summit]; that it will be the best yet -- life-changing and nation-shaking.
- May God give our lawyers wisdom and may He superintend a complete reversal to vouchsafe Biblical marriage in U.S. federal judicial precedent.
- May God protect Rifqa's health. May U.S. officials help her along the road to citizenship. May God guide her education and her promising and needed ministry!
- May America reject this Mosque and the wider Islamist political agenda! May the Church stand against all false religion, while reaching out to Muslims with love.
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 20, 2010 - 1:00pm
Does anyone else find it at all suspicious that "The 700 Club" would approvingly profile Andrew Marin, a supposedly gay-friendly minister evangelizing in Chicago's gay neighborhood of Boystown?
Andrew Marin is trying to bridge a gap that has widened remarkably in recent years.
It's the gap between conservative Christians and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community.
Marin's vision is bold and his commitment is deep. The evangelical and his wife recently bought their second home in Boystown, Ill., -- Chicago's official gay neighborhood.
Stroll down the streets of Boystown and you'll find a multi-faceted gay world -- low-key couples carrying groceries and dining out in trendy restaurants -- to the more flamboyant types and rainbow themes that abound everywhere.
Marin has lived in Boystown for 10 years. The densely populated neighborhood is the home to many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people and all the businesses that cater to them.
It's not your typical ministry setting. However, Marin is about as comfortable here as any straight, fresh-from-the-suburbs type evangelical could hope to be.
When exactly was the last time you saw Pat Robertson's television network dedicating this kind of coverage to a gay-friendly minister?
If this all seems rather suspicious, that is probably because it is. In fact Michelangelo Signorile was warning about Marin just last month:
If Andrew Marin has lied about The Advocate having "retracted" my 2006 expose of him, what else is he lying about? And shouldn't LGBT people be concerned about that?
I've written about Andrew Marin and his surfacing again, with his group, The Marin Foundation, showing up at Chicago Pride last month, and "apologizing" for Christians. His group claims to be a "bridge" between Christians and gays but in fact he refuses to say homosexuality is not a sin and tells gays and Christians both whatever they want to hear while he tries to promote himself. Below are some audio clips which we played on the show two weeks ago when his group received some attention on the blogs for the Pride "apology." The audio is from a 2008 seminar where he counsels youth pastors on how to deal with gays, and I think you'll agree -- though I'd like you to judge for yourself -- that what he says is very disturbing and ultimately antigay.
...
I think it's important to refute the lies and distortions of Andrew Marin ... I worry about young LGBT people, many brought up in very religious homes, who really want to believe Marin is a "bridge" between gays and evangelicals. Because it seems to me, from the audio clips below, his goal, beyond promoting himself, is to try to get to young LGBT people before they come out, so they can find his version of Christ and take a different route -- and one decidedly not about being out and proud or within the LGBT community. His disdain for the LGBT community and LGBT culture is evident here and his disdain for those who "come out" is obvious.
We can now add FRC's Tony Perkins to that list, as he has recorded his own video warning that "the future of our nation literally hangs in the balance" and that only Christians can save it:
Coulter justifies her Benedict Arnold impersonation by saying she speaks all the time in hostile environments, such as Harvard. Okay, Ann, how exactly is this a hostile environment? You’re being welcomed as a heroine, as the Joan of Arc of homosexuality, literally the poster child for “Homocon 2010.” You are the goddess of gayness for the moment.
You will be received with a standing ovation for pandering to a group that wants to put open homosexuals in the same showers and barracks with sexually normal soldiers and is fiercely opposed to any attempt to elevate protection for natural marriage to the Constitution.
You are taking money from people who want to destroy the U.S. military and destroy the institution of marriage. Good luck getting us to believe that’s a good thing.
You accuse Joseph Farah of being a “publicity whore.” But who is the one here literally selling out her moral principles for a hefty wad of cash? If Homocon is Elliott Spitzer, you are in danger of becoming the Ashley Dupre of the conservative movement.
...
Now you can redeem yourself by taking a strong stand at Homocon 2010 against open homosexual service in the military and against gay marriage. If you take this opportunity to demonstrate your much-vaunted fearlessness by getting right in the face of your hosts, all is forgiven.
Glenn Beck has completely and shamelessly surrendered on the issue of gay marriage, and did so on Bill O’Reilly’s program, only the most watched cable news program in all TV land ... You can retract your surrender at your “Divine Destiny” event at the Kennedy Center on August 27. If you do, all is forgiven.
Bottom line: August 27 is the Rubicon for Glenn Beck, and September 25 for Ann Coulter ... Here’s hoping - and praying - that both of these two former stalwarts in the cause will come to their senses in time to return to their posts on the wall instead of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
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