You know, its funny. Mormons are our allies in the cultural and political wars 98% of the time. Our evangelical and catholic brothers aren’t even that reliably consistent on political issues.
What I think is that we are going to be seeing a lot of stuff like this, where supposed conservatives sharpen their knives for Beck precisely because he’s effective. Rather than try and refute what he says (no one is right 100% of the time, so a serious discussion of anyone’s views, even mine, should be able to find at least some flaws in facts or reasoning)... rather than refute what he says they’ll try to discredit him personally.
Thats what is happening here, I think.
Not that high of a %. They promoted Bill Marriott to a top leader within the church even though as a CEO he's profiteered off of porn for 20+ years. Even though grassroots Lds are largely pro-life, the church has rarely taken public stances on abortion.
The Lds church has done commendable work on two CA propositions in 2000 and 2008 to protect marriage...but does that really offset what they did to try to destroy one-woman marriage for 80 years?
Politically, many of the Lds politicians are much less than conservative (Reid, Romney, etc.).
What I think is that we are going to be seeing a lot of stuff like this, where supposed conservatives sharpen their knives for Beck precisely because he’s effective.
Hey, I like a lot of what Beck says. I like his targets. He's superb at sarcasm and getting to the political point of things. But I've disagreed on FR with some of the things Hugh Hewitt has said. I don't see a Personal Fan Cult of Hewitt coming out of the wings to condemn me for critiquing Hewitt or claiming I'm an "anti-Presbyterian."
If folks would show more discernment -- praise the good components of Beck -- and critique his vulnerabilities so that they don't unwittingly steer people to follow in Beck's spiritual pathways...then perhaps some worthwhile critiques of Beck wouldn't be treated as if they should be subject to the censorship bin simply because they run afoul of the Beck Fan Cult Club. (That's hardly the Free Republic we live in)
nail on head