Questions for Glenn Beck

[GlennO]

Questions for Glenn Beck
By Bill McKeever

Politically there is probably much that I share with conservative commentator Glenn Beck. The problems he sees plaguing our country I also see, and much like him, I want America to open its eyes to see the dangerous path down which we are heading. Beck is also an entertainer, an erudite one, and for me, this is what sets him apart from many of the less-than-stellar entertainer pundits I hear coming out of Hollywood. It is no secret that Beck is unabashedly Mormon, and while I can agree with him on political and social issues, when he calls on me to join hands with him to invoke the Almighty, I have to draw the line. It isn't because I don't like Glenn Beck, it is just that my biblical worldview prevents me from uniting with him spiritually. Despite his LDS membership, experience tells me to be cautious regarding what he might personally believe. For me, Glenn Beck is still much of an enigma, and because of this I have many questions I wish he could answer for me. Below are just a few from among others on that list.

*At your Restoring Honor Rally held in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 2010, you called on Americans to turn back to God and restore the honor we once had. Which God should we turn to? The eternal God of the Bible who was always God, or the God of Mormonism who was once a man and became God at a designated point in time? Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball claimed the God of the majority of professing Christians in America was "invented" at the Council of Nicaea (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.426). Does your God honor those who believe in an "invented" God?

*If a Muslim imam called on our country to get back to the faith it had in the beginning, wouldn't you remind him that Islam had no discernable influence in our religious heritage? That being the case, can you provide any evidence that shows Christians who fought and died to found this great nation believed like Mormons?

*On your July 13, 2010 broadcast, you stated mankind was saved by "grace alone." Yet, James Faust, once a member of your church's First Presidency, said, “Many people think they need only confess that Jesus is the Christ and then they are saved by grace alone. We cannot be saved by grace alone, ‘for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do’” (James Faust, Ensign (Conference Edition), November 2001, p.18). Was James Faust leading people astray when he made the above comment?

*You also claimed on July 13, 2010 that you have the forgiveness of sins. Why do you think the majority of Mormons don't share that same assurance?

*While I applaud your efforts to expose socialism as an evil system, are you not aware that Joseph Smith not only instituted socialism via his "Law of Consecration" and "United Order," he claimed God ordained it (See D&C 104)? If you lived during the time of Joseph Smith, do you think you would have been as vocal about this socialistic system as you are about modern socialism?

*In your DVD, An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck, you mention reading Bruce McConkie's Mormon Doctrine while you were investigating the LDS Church. I assume you read page 578 where he references polygamy and says, “Obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium." How comfortable are you and your wife Tania with the notion that you can take on more wives in the afterlife?

*You have asked professing Christians to join you in asking God to restore our land, yet your church officially declares that all professing Christians outside of the LDS Church are part of a "great apostasy." McConkie even went so far as to say the "church of the devil" (1 Nephi 14:10) included "modern Christianity in all its parts" (The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man, pp.54-55). Do you believe God hears the prayers of alleged apostates, especially those who are quite content to attend what your church calls the "church of the devil?"

*McConkie also said in Mormon Doctrine, “And virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit” (pg.269). Do you think the Christians that you are trying to recruit should know this? Do you support what this apostle of your church said?

*In your conversion story you also likened investigating the LDS Church to that of buying a car. Basically you said if seeking a Ford you should rightfully ask the Ford dealer about their car, and "then you let the Chevy dealer tell you about the Ford, but then you go back to the Ford dealer and say, 'what about this stuff?'" and you let the dealer explain it. "You don't go to some fourth source and let them sell you down the river."

*While I certainly support the idea of hearing both sides of the issue, does that analogy also work for a person considering smoking? Should such a person go to a tobacco company to hear their story, and then to a doctor, and then back to the tobacco company, assuming the doctor was selling them down the river?

*You also said that a person's agenda in asking questions should be truth. In saying this, don't you imply that all those who don't reach your conclusion (that Mormonism is true) somehow have a different agenda and aren't really seeking truth?

*You often tell your listeners that they should "question with boldness." In your conversion story you explain how you had many questions and concerns about LDS doctrine and ran Mormon missionaries "through the ringer" before becoming a member. Have you ever been so bold as to personally bring those same questions to a person who is not LDS, but who has studied LDS history and doctrine, to hear their side of the story? If not, please allow me the honor of taking you to lunch. The meal will be on me.

http://mrm.org/questions-for-glenn-beck

[mattfivefour]

Excellent!

[DGB]

Have you emailed him those questions? Maybe he would read them?
glennbeck@foxnews.com

[anath]

Thanks, Glenn, I agree with McKeever
DGB, I have emailed Glenn Beck with most of these questions. Don't know if he read it as I didn't receive a response.

[GlennO]

Same here...he employs more than 40.

[billiefan2000]

Glenn Beck’s Trojan Horse.
4 Comments Posted by The Pilgrim on January 28, 2011
Last year, Mormon radio host Glenn Beck swept the conservative political movement off its feet (and many Evangelical Christians as well) with his Divine Destiny rally.

At that time (and since) many non-discerning Christians have embraced Glenn Beck as a brother in Christ and have even made excuses and justifications for his Mormon theology (a theology that’s antithetical to biblical Christianity).

But now, while Beck’s Trojan Horse sits benevolently within the walls of Evangelicalism, the trapdoor on the underbelly of the wooden horse is opening to reveal its contents . . . and it isn’t pretty.

Brannon Howse has written an article on Beck’s new book (co-authored by Keith Ablow). The book, entitled The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life, has revealed Beck’s New Age leanings. And judging by the quotes cited from Beck’s book, it makes Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now look like a doctrinally sound tome of deep Christian theology.

Below are some of the quotes from Beck’s book that I obtained from Brannon Howse’s article (you can read the entire exposé here.)

I can’t help but wonder if the Mormon organization is going to publicly renounce the New Age teachings in Beck’s book (and discipline Beck), and I wonder if the Christians who supported Beck–claiming that he was indeed a Christian–are going to retract their support (or at least distance themselves).


Page 154:

“As Keith likes to say, ‘There’s no original sin left in the world. Everyone’s just recycling pain now.’”

Page 165:

“People are inherently good.”

Page 157:

“Finding what worked for me made all the difference. Finding what works for you will do the same.”

Page 162:

“There is no infant delivered evil, out of the womb. There never has been. Not even one…Charles Manson was not born evil. Ted Bundy wasn’t. The BTK killer wasn’t. Hitler wasn’t.”

Page 149:

“Latter-day Saints do not believe that your chances ever cease, even with death. They end only with the full understanding and denial of truth by your own exercise of real free will. And even then there is no ‘lake of fire.’”

Page 149-150:

“I questioned everything I could think to question about the faith. I went over my doubts again and again with the church bishop. I read everything there was to read on their website and every word of Mormon Doctrine…I went to anti-Mormon literature for hints, but I found most of it to be unfair or just plain wrong. I tried every trick I could think of to find a contradiction. The problem was that I couldn’t. Mormonism seemed to explain the world and my place in it better than any other faith I had looked at.”

Page 132:

“Pray to whatever higher power you believe in…Praying that God or Nature or the Cosmos or your own internal, immeasurable reservoir of spirit allows you the courage and faith to find and then face the truth…”

Page 74:

“Just be sure you visit with a minister or therapist from a religion or healing discipline you actually have affinity for, or suspect you might.”

Page 57:

“The third chapter of Exodus helped me start to understand how crucial it was that my focus be on finding God not just in the seas or the cosmos, but in myself.”

Page 58:

“If God is everything and everywhere and inside everyone, then I figured He had to be inside me, too…”

Page 71:

“Divine power is still inside you.”

Page 283:

“Reach out to people to steady them and enrich them and reflect back to them the light that comes from God inside them.”

Page 254:

“You won’t doubt your ability to achieve what you want to achieve in this life because you won’t doubt that God is not only by your side, but inside you.”

Page 79:

“You have a polestar inside you. It is connected with all the energy in the universe. When you begin to follow that star you align yourself with immeasurable, inexplicable forces that will actually help you manifest your best intentions.”

Page 85:

“As you commit to unlocking and bringing forth the truth inside you, don’t be afraid to pray for help. Don’t be reticent to sit with yourself in silence and meditate. Connect with the miracle of spirit, of God, that has lived inside you from long before you were born.”


Brannon Howse also aptly observes Beck and Ablow’s common application of terms of subjective truth:

Beck’s book uses the phrase “Your truth” or “your true path” or “my truth” at least 23 times. Here are a few examples:

“It is never too late to embrace your truth.” (Page 124)

“What is your truth whispering?” (Page 130)

“Use compassion to stay on the path to your own truth… (Page 161)

“…determination to unearth and embrace my truth.” (Page 215)

“The fact that I am always attempting to honor my truth… (Page 216)

“There is only your truth.” (Page 220)

“You must use courage and faith to empty the hard drive of your soul and then fill it with your truth.” (Page 288)



Glenn Beck’s Trojan Horse. « Defending. Contending.

[GlennO]

Went to his Rally in Glendale AZ. and used to be a fan.

Beck lost me with his collaboration with New-Age shrink /psycho/oligist Keith Ablow. I held out hope that David Barton would be used by the HS to woo Glenn out of the cult of Mormonism.

Come to think of it Mr. Barton has not been on the show for quite a while............

I still record the show occasionally and play it on fast fwd, but haven't seen anything worth my time lately

We'll probably end up with a Morman President in 2012