Do you remember back in late 2008/early 2009 when Focus on the Family ran a short interview with Glenn Beck about his book “The Christmas Sweater,” only to yank it down shortly thereafter because people started complaining that Beck is a Mormon and Mormonism is a cult?
Do you remember how Beck responded? With a plea for religious tolerance:
The Christmas Sweater is a story about the idea of Christmas as a time for redemption and atonement. Whatever your beliefs about my religion, the concept of religious tolerance is too important to be sacrificed in response to pressure from special interest groups, especially when it means bowing to censorship. I’m humbled and grateful that hundreds of thousands of people from different faiths have read the book and have appreciated its uplifting message for themselves. At a time when the world is so full of fear, despair, and divisions, it is my hope that all of those who believe in a loving and peaceful God would stand together on the universal message of hope and forgiveness.
That would be the same Glenn Beck who is now actively engaged in the right-wing campaign against Park 51.
Amazing how the book Beck wrote was an opportunity to bridge gaps and bring hope, forgiveness, and understanding, whereas hoping to bulid an interfaith center is spitting in people’s faces.
