Thread: Beck as leader: Preaching to the choir?

Beck as leader: Preaching to the choir?

How's this for a contradiction? One day after his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Glenn Beck said of President Obama that "people aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," and has referred to the president's beliefs as "liberation theology."

But there are plenty of people who don't recognize Beck's beliefs as Christianity, either. The conservative media figure is a Mormon, an adherent of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some 30 percent of Americans, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, do not believe Mormons are Christians. Mormons, meanwhile, strongly defend their place within the Christian tradition.

As a result, it's more than a little perplexing that after the rally, talk radio hosts were debating whether Beck may have "seized the mantle of the religious right," as this story in today's Post notes. "In a matter of hours, Beck went from a hugely popular media figure .... to a spiritual player," writes Michelle Boorstein, "embracing a new and overtly religious rhetoric that made him sound like an evangelist." She raises a fascinating question: Could a Mormon end up the unlikely leader of the religious right?

Religious leaders seem mixed on Beck's role. Boorstein reports that Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, says he does not believe Mormons are Christians, but compared Beck to Billy Graham and agreed to be part of a group of more than 200 clergy members he is calling his "Black Robed Regiment." Meanwhile, evangelical bloggers and organizers have criticized Beck's emerging influence, while prominent pastors have defended him.

The idea of a Mormon leading the Christian right may have seemed impossible not too long ago, given the roles we usually ascribe to leaders.

We tend to think of those who've developed a following as some kind of blend of their disciples. They are, we imagine, one of us, a mirrored manifestation of our values and our beliefs, albeit typically with more ideas, more intelligence or a more compelling way of articulating a shared vision.

Or in Beck's case, the powerful platform of Fox News from which he can attract already willing conservative devotees. Beck is a reminder that people see what they want to in the people they follow, especially if they already identify with them in ways that may be more powerful than their differences. With his own brand of fire and brimstone, the conservative media figure is preaching to the choir, so to speak. And the media pulpit has arguably become the most powerful one of all.

http://views.washingtonpost.com/leaders ... martliving

Remember, the anti-christ will rise to power with the help of christians blindly following their false messiah. We saw how well that worked when Bush used religion for votes, and now we are suffering the consequences. I wish christians were more careful about who they follow.