Beck Goes Over The Line

Of course, he always does. But in the back story to Glenn Beck's emergence as a revivalist preacher is how he has offended his new religion--The Church of Latter-Day Saints or the Mormons. He went over the line of what Mormons believe is permissable--he questioned the content of President Obama's religion. Mormon missionaries are taught never to do this and Mormons have made a practice to refrain from questioning others' religious beliefs. They have spent the last century trying act as a normal Christian church and to be accepted as such. Beck's attack on President Obama as someone who believed in "liberation theology" was not only ignorant about the subject but opened the floodgates on Beck and his Mormon religion. The hot button line was "Most Americans do not recognize the Christianity of Barack Obama."

The Mormons actually produced a DVD of Beck talking about his conversion in typical emotional style as if they had netted a big fish. I remember the days when Beck was a Neil Boortz' libertarian and he talked about his conversion and his fondness for all the Mormon businessmen around Mitt Romney.

But once Beck got his Fox television show, the Mormon romance with him showed signs of cracking. For example, Beck famously attacked proponents of a "social gospel". He urged everyone to run from any church that talked about "social justice". Progressives noted the response of people like Jim Wallis of the Sojourners and Union Theological Seminary, which sent Beck a syllabus on Christianity. But little noticed was the statement by the head of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which emphatically proclaimed that Mormons believed in a social gospel.

I noted this past week that the Mormon church again issued a statement criticizing radio and television commentators about slandering politicians as corrupt and laying doubt about our political system. I tend to think part of the so-called apolitical tone of Beck's rally was directly related to this admonition.

But he stepped in it again on the Chris Wallace interview following the rally when he "amended" his statement about Obama being a racist by saying he misspoke. The President ,he claimed, was steepedin "liberation theology", which he said Pope Benedict said was "demonic". Perhaps Beck was trying to make up for the lack of Catholics (or any other mainstream denomination) at his rally. But the "liberation theology" of the black church is not the "liberation theology" of the Catholic Church, which emerged in the late 1960s in Latin America. They have similarities but the black liberation theology is not based on Marxist categories.

LDS has tried to keep a low-political profile as witnessed in their attempts to try and fight the the release of the names of those who funded Prop.8 in California. LDS members were assigned to every district of California to coordinate behind the scenes the anti-gay marriage proposal with strict instructions to appear behind the scenes. Ironically, Glenn Beck told Bill O'Reilly he didn't oppose gay marriage, a statement that brought criticism from evangelicals.

But consider the basic demeanor of Mormons in political life--Harry Reid, the Udalls, Mitt Romney, Orrin Hatch. They are pretty low-key and try to avoid raising religious issues. The reason for this is the history of persecution of Mormons in this country. That's why I take Orrin Hatch's support for the Park 51 Islamic Center and for islam in general as a shot across Beck's bow since he railed on against the "mosque at Ground Zero"--"How dare you build a mosque after you murdered thousands on 9/11".

Mormons had blogged about why Mitt Romney didn't support the Islamic Center since LDS members were sensitive to issues of religious freedom. But also they were sensitive to some of the core religious issues surrounding islamophobia. Like Mormonism, evangelicals consider Islam an "apostasy", because the final word is Jesus Christ and there are no prophets after his coming--the book on revelation is closed. A leading American evangelical called Islam, "the perfect religion for pedophiles". an accusation made against Mormons in the 19th and early 20th century in America. Mormons are considered by many American Christians a cult because they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and they continue to have prophets in their hierarchy. Like Beck's "Restore America's Honor", Mormons believe their mission is to restore a form of pure Christianity that has been lost, misunderstood or bastardized over the centuries. While theyaccept the Bible, they supplement it with the Book of Mormon, which tells that story of Jesus' time in North America and the lost tribe of Israel--the American Indians. For Mormonism to be true, it is axiomatic for the Book of Mormon to be true--which becomes a problematic issue.

So when Beck opens questions about the nature of President Obama's Christianity, he invites questions of his. What Beck neglects to tell his listeners is that, according to LDS, President Obama, his wife and children and all his grandparents and great-grandparents are "saved" because the Mormons baptized them by "proxy" shortly after the President's election. I will defer to my old professor Dr. Krister Stendhal, the late dean of Harvard Divinity School, who thought that the practice of "proxy baptism" by Mormons was a lovely tradition to confer on someone the gift of your tradition.

However, LDS got into trouble with the Jewish community when they started proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims as a tribute to those killed. One of the little mentioned aspects of Mormonism is its homage to Jewish traditions both in its sacred literature and its tradition of temple building. Joseph Smith was well-known for his almost fanatical love of Judaism.

The response to Beck from evangelicals not linked to his choir at the rally was blistering. They warned Christians not to accept Beck's Jesus or face eternal damnation. Others spoke of the false prophets Jesus warned about when referring to Beck's religion. And still others weighed in that Mormonism doesn't recognize the Trinity and believes Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. That's why some evangelicals during the 2008 Republican primaries said that a vote for Romney was a "vote for Satan." Pretty tough stuff. If Romney ever did get to the presidency, you can bet that Tim Lahaye would invite a new anti-Christ in Mitt Romney, having failed with Mikhail Gorbachev.

One of the most fascinating responses to Beck has been from progressive Mormons (yes, there are such people.) They recoil from the attacks on President Obama as a socialist. They point out that all of the early Mormon experiments in Utah territory started as socialist and that communes were the ideal form of social organization. They also note that all the major businesses in Utah started as cooperatives and that the largest department store in Salt Lake City was a cooperative until it was privatized in the 1990s. Early Mormon economic experiments also included a sensitivity to the environment. Hence a Stewart Udall could emerge from their ranks.

It remains to be seen whether the Mormon hierarchy cracks down on Beck as some Mormon bloggers are suggesting they do. But it's clear Beck crossed the line with his co-religionists.