Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. The human mind will not have it any other way. It is for this reason that the folklore of virtually every society and every religion includes a “beginning of the universe” and “an end of the universe” to satisfy the curiosity of its people within the framework of its environment. These stories often begin with order coming out of chaos and end with an eventual return to chaos. It is the belief in a return to chaos that has often caused people to lose control of objectivity and take ill advised actions to either stem or to bring about “the end of the world”.
An end of the world scenario is at the heart of Islamic extremism. It is misused to convince suicide killers that their lives are already as good as over and that they should sanctify themselves to Allah through martyrdom as a way to help in His plan to destroy the imperfect world of the infidel. On the other hand we have global warming; a religion for the non-religious. It contains an end of the world scenario that perfectly reflects biblical images of famine, flood, hurricane and disease. Global warmers are not devoted to bringing the “end”; they are concerned with preventing it. We can save ourselves by wiping with a single sheet of toilet tissue or by killing off all our cattle and becoming vegetarians.
True Armageddon, however, has always been the great mainstay of Christianity. Most Christians deal with this threat at a personal level. They lead moral lives and aim to be prepared at all times for Judgment whether it be at their individual deaths of in the ultimate cataclysm of the “second coming”. For the most part these are fine people who make up the core of American society. A second type of Christian deals with end prophecy in a congregational format. They see themselves and their fellows as elect among God’s people. When the rest of the world is destroyed God will have a special reward for the members of these chosen sects. “Chosen People” sects, which can include cults, only rarely present a threat to anyone but themselves.
All in all the three end time groups that I’ve mentioned above break down this way:
> Islamic extremists: Actively slaughtering innocents by the thousands in a frantic effort to bring on the end of the world.
> Global warmers: In a state of alarm that inhibits reason and is presently being driven by its adherents to panic levels.
> Judeo-Christianity: Presently maintaining its belief in end times at a subliminal level.
Now it seems to me that the last thing you want to do in this situation is turn up the fear levels among Judeo-Christians. Yet there was Glenn Beck on Friday evening doing exactly that – blowing the ram’s horn of the second coming. He devoted his entire hour on CNN to a couple of “Left Behind” doom-sayers who combed the Bible for its most dire predictions.
Isn’t that special?
I personally believe that Judeo-Christianity is the moral backbone of this nation so don’t get me wrong. They are entitled to believe anything they want. What I’m saying is that we don’t need anyone, least of all a media mainstreamer, pushing people’s panic buttons. My God, let’s not make Rosie O’Donnell into a prophet. Let’s not make Christians actually as dangerous as Muslim fanatics.
Bending the human mind into irrational and dangerous shapes is shamefully easy. We only have to look to recent events to see how easily individuals can be coaxed to the extremes of murder and suicide; a thousand dead at Jonestown by their own hands, three thousand murdered by suiciders on 9/11, murder and suicide every single day in Iraq. These are only the main events that media has picked up on and passed on to us. Others of lesser shock value are soon forgotten or never reported; an abortion doctor murdered in the name of God, a logger killed or maimed by an environmental activist. These behaviors reveal a genetic weakness in the human mind’s ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. And when we cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy it becomes impossible to know right from wrong.
Glenn Beck has done a serious disservice to society in trying to alarm Judeo-Christians. I do not doubt that Mr Beck’s fears are real in his own mind but he has enough control over his faculties to know that that kind of alarmism may be fine at Sunday services but it has no place in mainstream news/commentary. The same needs to be said about conservative talk radio. Conservatism is not inextricably linked to Judeo-Christianity. Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller and numerous others in the media bring conservative issues to the public airwaves with no detectable religious bias. The separation between the two needs to be maintained otherwise the complaints of the Rosies of the world are given legitimacy.
My point, then, is directed to the media spokesmen for conservative commentary. I understand that your religious views are real for you; just as they are real for Islamic fanatics. But to people who are not religious your views are as suspect as those of Islamic fanatics – Rosie has plenty of company in that belief. And, in fact, there is a potential in any religious belief system to push people to violent extremes. It is to the advantage of every commentator and to the society he addresses to keep his religious beliefs separate from his commentary.
27 comments on Glenn Beck's End Times (Phone In)
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Generally my “beliefs” [ insert your own synonym: acceptance, admission, assent, assumption, assurance, avowal, axiom, certainty, conclusion, confidence, conjecture, conviction, credence, credit, deduction, divination, expectation, faith, fancy, feeling, guess, hope, hypothesis, idea, impression, intuition, judgment, knowledge, mind, mindset, notion, opinion, persuasion, position, postulation, presumption, presupposition, profession, reliance, supposition, surmise, suspicion, theorem, theory, thesis, thinking, trust, understanding, vie] are empirically based.
For example, just by visiting the Soviet Union, on many occasions, and seeing the effect communism had on the lands and inhabitants over seven decades was sufficient input for my meager mind to “conclude” that their form of governing was evil. I truly “believe” from witnessing their effects, on different nations, that socialism and communism are evil. One cannot define the disastrous consequence on the human spirit by any other word, but evil. It destroys that which is good in those societies that embrace it. Consequently, by deductive reasoning alone, not religion, I submit to you that such forms of leftist “philosophies” are morally wrong.
Good to hear from you.
Certainly sounds "socialistic" to me. I guess that means that "Christianity" is evil in your book.
Ol' Karl did believe that capitalism would evenyually be deluded by socialism to such an extent it would become communism... he sure may be proven right on that point. Greed coupled with a few other sins has more and more voters selling their vote for a spot at the government's trough.
Before the turn of the next century the USA will be just another has been socialist country and China will be the lone superpower.
And, just think Dan & Perci.... your votes will help make it happen. You've got to be proud.
As for Glenn Beck; I wish him a gruesome death[OHMY] (the same gruesome death he wished on Kucinich) [WINK]
Cheers
Dan
Cheers
Dan
A.) I thought we were talking about religion.
B.) My statement that virtually all terrorism in the world today is Islamisc cannot be challenged by any of the tiny incidents you can find or imagine.
The JDL (Jewish Defence League) has a recognized terrorist wing FACT!
To corner the term Terrorism to Arabs is Fascist, if were going to fight terrorism lets fight terrorism not Islam.
You can bury your head in the sand and watch FOX news all day but it wont change those facts. For the record we can fight terrorism forever and we will never win, Bush doesnt even think we can win the war on terrorism. But you know what, we can win the war on Al-Qaeda if we put some effort into it, unfortunately our leadership is to busy trying to win an occupation then to try and deal with our own problems. Here is a good question throughout history how many occupations have been peaceful and sustained?
Thats the real problem with your wingers you truly believe were fighting Islam if thats the case should we set-up concentration camps and begin a "final solution" do you even know any Muslims Foghorn?
Cheers
Dan
Cheers
Dan
[THUMBUP][HEART][THUMBUP]
Ancient1 has made another viseral jump unhampered by hampered by data. Communism and Socialism are political/economic philosophies and are not living, acting, human entities. They cannot be impirically evil. If you say that some of the practitioners of these philosophies make these philosophies "evil," then you would also have to say that Christianity is "evil" as a result of the Inquisition and Jone's Town.
From my POV, your position is untenable and full of holes.
Need I say more.
Thanks for dropping in.
You're right that he's not a journalist. That's why I called him a commentator.,