Who Is the 'Real' Christian?

Inside Catholic ^ | October 5, 2010 | Mark P. Shea

[ansel12]

Most of what he says about Beck is about his Mormonism, which is a non-Christian religion.

Beck is widely criticized for his history lectures, and especially by some Christians, for working bizarre Mormonism teachings into it.

[jobim]

At the risk of seeming argumentative, Shea dismisses Beck across the board, and the Wilson digression is an example of this. On his site, he continually dismissed Beck as untrustworthy, and yet admitted only to having watched him a couple of times. Do you consider that grounds for dismissing someone who is on air 4 hours daily?

[ansel12]

Beck is untrustworthy, look at post 21 again.

[markomalley]

I will never understand why any FReeper, regardless of religion, would ever post anything by Mark Shea...unless, of course, the purpose was to generate a *barf alert* thread...(did you forget that tag on the thread title, NYer?)

[jobim]

Most of what he says about Beck is about his Mormonism, which is a non-Christian religion. Beck is widely criticized for his history lectures, and especially by some Christians, for working bizarre Mormonism teachings into it.

I had read your post, but let's revisit it. You say most of what Shea says about Beck relates to Mormonism. In the first place, because I had been referring to Shea's site where he had a few long threads about Beck, most of what Shea says is not about Mormonism. In this post here on FR, I agree that the topic is about Beck's Mormonism. So why does he bring up Wilson? Why does Shea bring up Beck?

I don't get your pointing out Mormonism as non-Christian.

OK, so now to your shared opinion with Shea: you both dismiss Beck. What bizarre references do you mean? In Shea's case, he was dismissing Beck across the board, giving no merit to the 95% he gets right night after night, plucking out a couple of things to hang him on. I'm not sure you're defense of this.

[ansel12]

I don't get your pointing out Mormonism as non-Christian.

Beck left Catholicism and Christianity, to become a practitioner of Mormonism, what the Catholic church calls a polytheistic, non Christian religion of it's own creation.

That definitely hurts his credibility, especially as he becomes largely a national preacher.

As far as him working Mormonism into his show and history/religious lessons, you only have to look at the Beck threads here at FR, for information on that.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2601419/posts

[jobim]

It doesn't hurt his credibility as far as his expose on Van Jones goes. And everything else he exposes.

The nation is under heavy fire, and your ilk wants to denigrate someone who, with more detail than anyone else, is showing us where the enemy is encamped. You have your priorities discombobulated.

[ansel12]

Gosh, what did I do or say to you, to become an “ilk”?

[ansel12]

Let me ask you, were you under the impression that Glenn Beck is a Christian, and do you think that other people are under that impression, as Beck teaches America about faith, and the founding fathers, and our nation’s Christian roots, and so on?

[FourtySeven]

I don’t know much about Mark Shea. What is “barf worthy” about him, in your opinion?

[markomalley]

His politics experienced an “awakening” after the invasion of Iraq. He turned from being fairly middle of the road to being out-and-out a leftist on economic and national security issues. (Having said that, from what I’ve read, he is pretty well in line with the Church on marriage, school, family, and homosex issues)

[jobim]

Did you watch Glenn Beck yesterday and today? He is covering material that no one else is. He has a team researching, and it is a crucial, timely education for all of us. Do I care that he believes weird Mormon tenets? Or that Shea got a bug up his scrotum because Beck was wrong on the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls? There’s simply too much at stake to be taking shots at the man doing more than any other to bring important matters to light.

[ansel12]

Here is the question that you ignored.

“Let me ask you, were you under the impression that Glenn Beck is a Christian, and do you think that other people are under that impression, as Beck teaches America about faith, and the founding fathers, and our nation’s Christian roots, and so on?”

[jobim]

I am not ignoring it, but attempting to convey its unimportance in light of a larger picture. But if you insist, I said that I am a Catholic, and the Catholic Church teaches that Mormonism is not a Christian sect, as their Trinitarian formula for Baptism signifies something different for them than for Protestant & Catholic Christians.

Having said that, I am not prepared to speak to Glenn Beck's claim to being a Christian, as he may believe as we do and reject some Mormon doctrine. Like the New Land sect of Buddhism that came later and teaches of a heaven to the west, and so is not atheistic as traditional Buddhism is.

I listen carefully to what he presents, and if I detect a drift, I note it, realizing he is not speaking with the fullness of faith that we Catholics claim. Beck to me is calling Americans to take faith seriously; he is not espousing a particular doctrine or sect. There is great merit in finding what binds us as believers, and we see this most acutely in the public square.

I have headed a prolife organization for 10 years, and it is no secret that Christians can and do rally together around this issue. Beck is attempting to bring Americans together, prayerfully, around issues that we all share.

Whatever he gets wrong as a Mormon does not color everything else that he says. What he gets right, he gets right. And it behooves us to pay attention to the matter of greater importance.