Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Who's afraid of Glen Beck?

Making my rounds through the blogosphere and Visiting a leftist Episcopal Blog, I saw that Mr. Glen Beck has retained his Boogieman Du Jour status. Though I don't find this surprising as Episcopal blogs of this stripe are as scripted and predictable as the tide, I do find it interesting. Like Ron Paul, Walter Williams, Ilana Mercer, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell or a chorus of others; anyone who makes enough noise through cogent, incisive statements will be noticed and predictably reviled.

But who the heck is Beck?

After reading Glen Beck's bio, its clear that he has experienced a lifetime of tragedy and was wrenched back from the brink of hell. He found solace and meaning through a relationship with his redeemer and the LDS church. Personally, I'd like to have a meal with Glen and introduce him to Anglicanism, but that's an essay for another day... Anyway, I'm starting to digress. His LDS sympathies aside, Glen Beck is a good guy, and an honest broker. He speaks from a passion that can't be faked or feigned. His words are the hearts cry of a man who loves his country, and loves his countrymen.

There are some things that, however, are missed in the mix. Out of the gate, Glen Beck is clearly a Christian Libertarian/Constitutionalist. This is to say that he clearly holds to a line of thinking that is rooted in a Judeo-Christian consensus and is very similar to the zeitgeist of our founding fathers. He has no time for the revisioning of the American dream by the far-left. Equally, Glen is no cheerleader for neoconservatives or the spendthrift republicans who bastardized the party of Lincoln and Reagan.

In a real sense, Glen Beck is the young man with the audacity to say that the Emperor is naked, regardless of whether the Emperor is riding an Pachyderm or Jackass.

My personal thoughts concerning the man are relatively simple. Like Ed Rendell, Glen is a good guy; he loves his country and wants the best for his progeny. Like me, Glen is fallen and in need of a redeemer. His statements are neither anathema nor infallible. Take what he says and weigh them in the balance of common sense and plumb them against the straight stick of Scripture.

Some grist for your mill.

1 comment:

maddy said...

i for one, love glen beck...josh sells hundreds of his books here...and is definately on the money about much. he is a man who has genuine compassion and absolutely cares about where this once great nation is headed.
let it be known...i love glenn beck.
:)