Posted on 09/18/2010 2:14:01 AM PDT by Colofornian
After Fox News host Glenn Beck led his spirit-filled "Restoring Honor" revival on the Mall last month, he seemed to be reinventing himself as an American Moses delivering America back to the Promised Land -- or perhaps the next Billy Graham, as Southern Baptist leader Richard Land suggested.
Yet a new poll shows that Beck isn't quite yet a figure of biblical proportions, with 17 percent of Americans believing Beck "is the right person to lead a religious movement" and 50 percent saying he's not.
Even among Republicans and white evangelicals, a highly motivated cohort of conservative voters who view Beck more favorably than other Americans, fewer than one-third say he is the right person to lead a religious movement.
The poll, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, also showed that a majority of Americans (57 percent) don't know Beck is a Mormon, and those who do know he is a Mormon -- especially conservative Protestants who are particularly suspicious of Mormon beliefs -- are less likely to trust him as a religious leader.
Those results are in line with other surveys on Mormonism, John Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron, told RNS. "Because other surveys show that Mormons are not especially popular with Americans, as a rule, then it's likely that if more people found out Glenn Beck's religious background, that would inhibit them following him," Green said.
On the other hand, it's hard to think of any public figure in the United States -- other than Billy Graham, who is in his 90s and infirm -- who would poll higher numbers as a candidate to lead a religious revival. The religious right seems to be in decline, eclipsed by the fervor of Tea Partiers, and with few serious marquee names.
Then again, Jesus started with just a dozen followers, and even most of them didn't stick with him at the end.
The PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll was based on telephone interviews conducted of 1,007 U.S. adults between Sept. 9 and 12, after Beck's Washington rally. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
OK. Most of the Mormons I know are fairly "nice" people; which also tells me that if, as John Green says, that "Mormons are not especially popular with Americans as a rule," it can't just be due to their generic personality or temperament...it's gotta be about their "belief system."
They object more to the "ISM" of MormonISM" than the people themselves.
Therefore, as more people come to understand the underbrush of Beck's belief system, their 'tudes 'bout him will be altered.
I mean, let's face it, when South Park harpooned Scientology on its show, it wasn't simply because Scientologists or L. Ron Hubbard's Sci-Fi novels were offensive. It was simply when such Sci-Fi masquerades as "faith" in alternative realities that it wound up subjecting itself to ridicule.
1. I am not a “follower” of men. Althought I have some who I respect a lot.
2. I am not a Mormon, but have known many over the past 40 years. Most I respect on a personal level.
3. Beck is doing the country a service, but he is NOT a Billy Graham. His message is about recovering the foundation of the country. Some of our founders were ridiculed for their religious beliefs.
4. We need all the help from Patriotic Americans to defeat those who wish to destroy us.
5. Beck is right, the battle we are fighting is about moral values as the bedrock of the Republic. Moral values are based in religious beliefs. Some religions are for appearances (liberation theology- Marxism in a religious wrapper) only and as such always suspect.)
6. God Bless the United States of American and long may she be a free nation.
I guess the author needed to write something, anything, for a paycheck.
Beck isn’t attempting to lead a ‘religious movement’. He is leading a moral awakening with help from Jewish, Protestant and other members of Judeo-Christian based faiths.
Enough with the Mormon bashing! We need patriots of all faiths to work together.
So is this the "new" Bahai -- version 2.0?
Or is it a movement like Masonry? where some people would be both masons and members of churches -- despite certain denominations frowning upon it?
We need patriots of all faiths to work together.
(Are you going to ask the Mormons to stop calling all Christians "apostates?" Are you going to ask the Mormons to remove verses 18 & 19 out of their "scripture" the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith - History -- which describes ALL Christians as "corrupt" and 100% of their creeds as an "abomination" to their god? Or does your self-appointed traffic cop role only direct traffic in one direction?)
This is why I’d like to see Gov. Palin establish some distance between herself and Mr. Beck.
She does not need the headaches that GB will surely deliver. I’m an agnostic on most things GB. I also know that, despite his insight, we can expect a mental breakdown in his future and I want Palin as far away as possible. Before beating me up, understand that my background involves working at a psychiatric hospital. I have a different set of eyeballs than most.
The fact that she has not done so makes me nervous. And I am prolly one of the biggest SP fans on Free Republic.
Beck is encouraging people to return to their own faiths.
This sort of petty sniping at Beck is misdirected. The enemies of the Republic are many, Beck is not one.
Unlike you, he is not pushing his beliefs on others nor attempting to undermine their faiths.
Focus on the elections.
If it's not a Christian faith-based movement, what is it then? Conservative humanism? Moralism from the outside-in (which is essentially what Mormon legalism is)?
Anything other than Holy Spirit rebirth and inward renewal (inside-out) is destined to fail, because "trying-to-be-good 'morality'" isn't rooted in God's power being made perfect in man's moral weakness and it isn't rooted in a Holy Spirit who indwells us & is therefore able to transform us. Any such "moral awakening" will be short-lived.
What's surprising to me is just how few Christians & religious people have failed to ask Beck the basic Q that needs to be asked of all temple married Mormons: Do you believe you are a "god-in-embryo" (Lds descriptor of Mormons; not my phrase)? Do you believe you will grow up into a full-grown god?
Don't you think you'd better ask the pied piper if he thinks he's already divine -- or will be?
If you want to anger Christians, lie to them. If you want to anger MORMONs, tell them the truth.)
Good post. Beck is also a very good example of a good Mormon, which could also help Romney with some voters. (Not my first choice candidate.)
I don't know anything about psychiatry, and we don't have TV, so I have hardly ever seen GB. But I have some kind of gut feeling that he may have some sort of dramatic embarrassment in his future. Maybe I'm way off base. But you are stating something I have felt.
Sure he has. He did so in the very first four minutes of the rally. He's pushed Lds author Cleon Skousen on the air.
Off the air, Mormon Church-owned Deseret Book Company produced a DVD An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck (2008); Mormon fansites invite visitors to learn more about Beck
When you go to http://deseretbook.com -- which is owned by the Mormon church -- to find its description of this Lds resource here's an excerpt of their description of GLENN BECK's PRESENTATION that GLENN BECK APPROVED for his religious body to circulate worldwide!
...In this presentation, Glenn Beck tells an audience of nearly 7,000 about his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...Glenn bears his testimony about home teaching, tithing, and the transforming power of the Spirit....Glenn's story will strengthen the testimony of any Latter-day Saint. In addition, An Unlikely Mormon will be an ideal missionary tool.
And as for undermining beliefs, he tithes to the Mormon church, doesn't he?
Doesn't the Mormon church reference all Christians as "apostates?"
Doesn't that church call all non-Mormon churches as operating under the single umbrella of the "church of Satan?" (see Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:9-10)
Haven't Lds "prophets" and "apostles" made some of the worst comments imaginable about the Christian church?
Are these comments still circulated in other languages by the Mormon church? (And placed online; and circulated in curricula?)
All because we have Lds grassroots people who tithe to ensure that slander gets spread in over 100 languages worldwide?
But, he has CHOSEN MORMONism - and that is what IT does!
The 52,000 'volunteers' (no, Nana - not Tennesseeans) who WILLINGly give up a year or so from their lives to pound on doors are NOT pushing Conservatism (but it IS a selling point) but the supposed FACT the CHRISTIANITY has drifted away from what is was supposed to do, and ONLY Mormonism can get a soul to heaven.
No; MORMONs are NOT cutting off heads like some radical Muslims, but their message is the SAME:
WE have a 'prophet' who speaks for GOD!
People are starving for leadership. Any public figure willing to tell the truth about the Communists is going to have support.
I want her to be distant from his “meltdown”, so as not to cost her the next thing. And it’s coming, this thing with GB.
I believe he is a good man, sincere in his intentions. But I also believe he is unstable. For this reason, I hope SP enjoys a friendly, but not cozy, relationship with GB.
I’ve seen this movie before, folks. And it’s no fun, I’m tellin’ ya.
I have never known Billy G. as anything other than an Evangelist. I have known Glenn Beck a much shorter time
but always as a radio talk jock/political commentator.
It would be inconceivable to me for it to be otherwise—
Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin-or the
leopard his spots?-as it is written. Franklin Graham would be
the most reasoned next Billy Graham—if there is to be one.
But God raises up whom He will -in His time-and mere men can
only sit and contemplate the dust bunnies in their naval.
I spent nearly eight years as an Army Medic. I am diagnosed by the VA as Bi polar-and have a seizure disorder and something called a personality defect. For nearly eight yrs I saw every alcoholic—and substance abuse type soldier seen in the Army that preserved the fighting strength in ‘Nam.I see things differently and find those who most often predict mental
breakdown in others most often wish they could afford to have one themselves.Am I practicing head shrinking or merely making a personal observation based on experience?
“Any public figure willing to tell the truth about the Communists is going to have support.”
He should take his own advise and quit pimping the so-called ‘wisdom’ of Communist Martin Luther King.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Glenn Beck. He’s just wrong about MLK.
advise = advice
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.