Beck Defines His American Civil Religion

Glenn Beck quoting Benjamin Franklin in order to support his (Beck’s) thesis of what the American Religion is

Benjamin Franklin writing Yale President Ezra Stiles,

“You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it. Here is my Creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever Sect I meet with them.”

Beck stops with this segment of Franklin’s quote without giving what Franklin immediately wrote in the next sentence,

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho’ it is a Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it…

Beck, then summarizing Franklin, says on his national television show that the American religion that he is all about can be reduced to these four Franklin inspired points,

1.) There is a God
2.) God is going to judge us
3.) We should be good to each other
4.) Cause Daddy is going to be pissed in the end if we are not (good to each other)

Beck goes on to say that the reason that he had all faiths (Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons) represented on stage at his Rorschach Rally on 8/28 is that they can all agree on these four big principles.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/glenn_beck/

Start at about the 5 minute mark.

So, there you have it.

Of course this is utter nonsense that any Historic Protestant Christian would find reprehensible. God is going to judge us but if any of those who are going to be judged really believe that the success of passing that judgment is dependent upon our being good to each other then they are certain to be forever damned. Glen Beck will be forever damned if he thinks that his eternal judgment is based on his four principles.

It is precisely what Beck left out of Franklin’s quote that is the core of the matter. If man does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ he is lost because a non-divine Christ can not save anyone from their sins. Notice in those four principles there is no mention of Jesus Christ. Yet, any Historic Protestant Christian would tell you that without Christ there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. If Evangelicals, in advance, knew that these four principles were supposed to be some kind of common ground on which all faiths in America can stand and hold hands on then they never should have participated in this blasphemous Rorschach rally.

Historic Protestant Christians you need to run away from Glen Beck and his syncretizing efforts.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane