Category: Culture

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.

“Paul begins his letter to the church at Corinth by reminding them of this same truth. Here was a group of believers caught up in worldliness. They were prideful, arrogant. They were powerful. But Paul, before explaining their poverty and nakedness explains how God works- “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (I Corinthians 1:26-27). That’s how God changes the world. Not by a long march through the institutions, not by preparing ourselves for positions of power and influence. Not by raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning. Instead He uses those who beat their worthless breast, crying out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

We have a world to conquer. We are to be about the business of being a help to our Husband as He brings all things under subjection. The first thing we must conquer is our own foolish pride. The first things we have to consign to the flames of hell is our strategies. And then, let us be followers, walking in His footsteps who set aside His glory for us.”

Observation by Bret

1.) Yes, God’s strategy begins and even continues with people crying out “God be merciful to me a sinner,” but then what? Does this reality that people must see their sin negate that upon seeing their sin God will require of His people to do their own long march through the institutions? Does the reality that we must constantly face our own sinfulness negate the necessity to be Sons of Issachar who know the times and what must be done? Is not the knowing of our times and what must be done naught but a preparing of ourselves for whatever position and influence God might grant us? Should the reality of rightly assessing that we are nothing but sinners keep us from raising our children to seek to extend the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life?

Look, I agree that part of the problem of the Church is that it hasn’t come to grips with its sin but should it ever come to grips with its sin, it won’t be wrong to engage in a long march through the institutions, or to prepare ourselves for positions of influence and power or to raise a postmillennial seed. I agree that we have tried to do the latter (i.e. — long marches, carnal power, looking for success from un-catechized seed) apart from doing the former (being aware that we are sinners) but if, by God’s grace, we ever do the former we will still have to do the latter. God’s Kingdom will not be extended by a pietistic people who only beat their breasts and cry out “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

2.) If the first things we have to consign to the flames of hell is our strategies should not the strategy of the writer above be consigned to hell? I mean, all that is being done here is giving us a more superior strategy. Truth be told, I agree with him, but for him to suggest that strategies are in themselves wrong is for him to affirm a self defeating proposition.

For example, what if a person wanted to start a Church in rural Wyoming where people could come and live a life that is uncomplicated, distinct, and well thought out. Would it be wrong to strategize in such a way so that community would become a reality or should such a person’s strategy only be to cry out, “God me merciful to me a sinner?”

I agree that God only uses those who beat their worthless breast, crying out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner,” but as they are beating their worthless breasts He uses them to do long marches through the institutions, and He uses them by preparing them, much like He did Daniel, for positions of power and influence, and He uses them by their raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning.

Naturally, a sense of God’s grandeur and our sinfulness is the perquisite for any Kingdom use. I thoroughly agree that there are often times when people who call themselves Christians are carnal in the pursuance of influence. I agree that a proper estimation of God and self must precede strategy to take over the world. What I don’t agree on is that it is ever possible to be done with our own foolish pride and I don’t agree that we must wait till our foolish pride is finished before we begin to strategize or act. Were we to wait until our foolish pride was finished we wouldn’t do anything for the root sin of all creatures is pride and that root sin won’t be finished until we see Jesus as He is.

We are proud sinners. Regardless of how much sanctification we are given we will remain proud sinners. The palliative care for that is a vision of God’s Holiness but that vision of God’s Holiness and that palliative care must come in the context of long marches through the institutions, and preparing ourselves for positions of power and influence, and by raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning, and by developing strategy on how we may assist in the subduing of all things.

Well, we are coming up on a week since the Glen Beck “American Rorschach Rally,” held in Washington DC last week. I offer a few observations below.

1.) I call Beck’s rally the “American Rorschach Rally” because like the Rorschach test it is a ink blot that has not objective meaning. No one knows what the rally really means — not even Beck — but each and every member of the punditocracy is convinced that it means whatever they see in it.

2.) So, what I am about to say, does not presume to suggest that I have the inside skinny on what the ink blot rally objectively means. I’m just one more patient telling what I see in the ink blot rally.

3.) What I see first is classical Americans — those Americans who still retain a shadow of a remnant of a memory of original Americanism — coming together to articulate some primeval instinct that something is wrong with their nation. However, though the primeval instinct remains, it is a instinct that is both unformed and uninformed, and as such, is easily led astray by the vacuous Beck and the silly Palin.

4.) The fact that the instinct of many of these rally goers is unformed is seen in the ridiculous contradictions. Here we have people gathered who have been energized largely by the passage of socialized health care who would and so are demanding their “country back.” And yet … many of those attending doubtless would be outraged if their socialized Medicare, or Social Security were deleted in order to remove the stain of socialism from their country. Doubtless many of them with the deepest desire to have their country back would have kittens if it were suggested that government schools be abolished since government schools are the very essence of state socialism.

5.) The fact that the instincts of many of Beck rally cheerleaders is uninformed is seen in the people they keep cheer leading and voting into office. These rally goers want their nation back and yet this November all indications are that they are going to vote into office a party that is pro-war, pro-Empire, pro-mega Corporations, and pro New World Order. The American electorate wants their country back and yet they do not realize that the very people they are looking to in order to get their country back are the people who are in bed with the people they hate. The current contest in American party politics is between two parties who desire to sustain the incestuous relationship between the Big Money interest (Corportism) and the Big Government interest (State run socialism). The only disagreement between these two interests is who gets to be on top. Neither of these interests gives a tinker’s damn about America as a unique sovereign nation. Beck is a cheer-leader for the Big Money interest and he is serving to channel the frustrations of many Americans in a direction that is against their interests.

6.) The Rally was, at its heart, a rally to support multiculturalism, which is the very cultural philosophy that is killing America. There are a couple ways in which this reality could be clearly seen. First, that the rally was given to the advance of multiculturalism could be seen by the countless numbers of Faith leaders that Beck paraded before the rally. Beck’s message was clearly the necessity to turn to god, regardless of which god one turns to. Clearly this is an example of multi-faithism. Now, as faith is one major component that creates culture, it simply is not possible to throw your passion behind multi-faithism without at the same time throwing your support behind the multi-cutluralism that multi-faithism always inevitably creates. As long as Americans continue to believe the elite created myth that there is something uniquely Christian about allowing other faiths to have equal standing in the public square the whole notion of “getting their country back” will be just an inconvenient fiction.

The second indicator that the rally was in support of multiculturalism was the “in your face” support of multiculturalism. First there was the unthinking homage to Martin Luther King who was a man who was instrumental in continuing the work of moving America’s cultural identity from an already diluted Christian base to a country torn between cultures that would forever be at war with itself. The success of King, both in life and in death, guaranteed that America would struggle with multiculturalism. Only the removal of King from the American pantheon of heroes will make it possible for Americans to take their country back. Second, there was the unthinking homage of Abraham Lincoln, the man who is responsible for beginning the work that King continued. The problem with Lincoln and King is not their advocacy for black people but their advocacy against black people. Both of them, guaranteed that a parasite culture, characterized by socialism, supported by the belief system necessary for socialism to thrive, and employing and abusing American blacks as the pawns to overthrow classical Americanism, would become part of the American identity that the original American identity would be at war with. Lincoln, like King, must be removed from the American Pantheon of heroes before anybody living gets their country back, for Lincoln marks the beginning of multiculturalism just as King represents the most recent successful purveyor of multiculturalism.

Until the well intentioned, but misled, minions of Beck completely turn their backs on multiculturalism, and the multi-fiathism that drives it, as well as the heroes of multiculturalism, the flag waving, “God” fearing, country loving Rorschach rally roadies will die wondering what happened to America.

And as a kind of post-script lets be clear and say that the God of the Bible does not honor a movement that desires that He be only one of the gods of the people. God is a jealous God and does not take kindly to sharing a pantheon or platform with any other god. I don’t doubt that there are many Christ loving Christians who were a part of the Beck rally, but I can promise them that no long term good thing will come in any success of this movement.

““Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Sir Winston Churchill

At the heart of Marxism has always existed the drive for “equality.” Now, this equality, as it worked itself out beyond theory, ended up being redefined as “sameness,” as equality became redefined to mean “the destruction of economic distinctions.” The Marxist theory has always been that with the final dissolution of all economic classes and distinctions there would result the Utopian highlands where all men are both perfectly equal in abundant wealth and perfectly happy. The Marxist economic reality instead has always been that with the increasing dissolution of bourgeois class and economic distinctions the result has been a Dystopian nightmare where all men are perfectly the same in poverty and perfectly miserable. So, we see that in economic Marxism, whenever it has been pursued, the results, as Churchill put it, has been “the equal sharing of misery.” Marxism has, without fail, destroyed economic distinctions and delivered “equality” to the population but it has always been the equality of the damned.

However, this Marxist drive for economic equality that leads to the same economic misery for everyone wherever it is implemented has set up franchises in other disciplines. With the rise of Antonia Gramsci and then later the Frankfort school, Marxism has taken its equality show on the road. Gramsci insisted that the Utopia that all Marxist were reaching for would not be gained merely by the means of economic leveling. Gramsci insisted on, and the Frankfort school later implemented, a leveling effort that was to take place not only in the economic realm but in the broader culture as well.

And just as wherever economic Marxism has been pursued with vigor has resulted in the loss of economic distinctions and the reality of economic leveling so it has been the case that wherever cultural Marxism has been pursued there has been a loss in preexisting distinctions and a discovery of a leveling that leads to a miserable sameness.

Take the application of Gramscian Marxism as it has been brought to the realm of education. What we currently have in our government schools is basically the working out of economic Marxism as it applies to education. Just as with economic Marxism where there is the insistence that all distinctions of wealth must be eliminated so that people can be economically “equal” so there is, in our educational Marxism, the insistence that all intelligence distinctions are not fair and the demand is that everyone must be equally “smart.” And just as it is the case wherever economic Marxism is implemented the result is that everyone is equally poor so it is the case wherever educational Marxism is pursued, as it is in our government schools, the result is that everyone becomes equally dumb. The inherent virtue of Marxism, whether in economics or education, is the equal sharing of misery.

Now extend the example from the effects of methodological Marxism on economics and education to Western culture in general and you begin to understand why Western Culture is deteriorating so rapidly. Just as with economic and educational Marxism, which are subsets of cultural Marxism, cultural Marxism as a whole seeks to destroy distinctions, characterizing those distinctions as an “unequal sharing of blessings.” Cultural Marxism then markets fairness with unexamined 60 second sound bites and convinces a dumb people (see previous paragraph) that cultural distinctions are not fair. The result is the destruction of all distinctions which yields the happy highlands of a equal sharing of misery.

However we need to push and see the consequences of cultural Marxism as they work themselves out with an terrorizing consistency.

Remember, that what Cultural Marxism does is that it eliminates all distinctions in pursuit of its promise of Utopia. Also keep in mind that culture is defined as what a people believe as that belief is poured over their ethnicity. So, if Cultural Marxism must eliminate all distinctions in pursuit of its promise of Utopia distinctions that cultural Marxism must eliminate not only distinctions that one finds in economic status or intelligence strata but also Cultural Marxism must seek to eliminate the created order distinctions that exist between different faith systems, different ethnicity and even different sexuality. If economic Marxism ends up working to make everyone share in a equal and miserable impoverishment, and if educational Marxism ends up working to make everyone share in a equal and miserable stupidity, then Cultural Marxism, taken in it’s macro effect, seeks to make everyone share in a equal and miserable belief system (faith), works to make everyone share in a equal and miserable ethnicity, and works to make everyone share a equal and miserable sexuality. In order for cultural Marxism to be successful it must destroy distinctions in every aspect of mankind’s existence.

Given that this is the context that the Church of Jesus Christ now exists, her battle as the Church militant, is to stand against the cultural Marxist attempt to eliminate the God ordained distinctions and hierarchy. For those who need an explicit tie in to the Gospel we must keep before us that this drive to eliminate distinctions is at the same time a drive to take from the Lord Jesus Christ His distinction as the reigning sovereign of the Universe. For those who need an explicit tie in to the Gospel we must keep before us that this drive to eliminate distinctions is at the same time a drive to take from the Lord Jesus Christ his sui generis reality as the alone mediator between God and man. In the reality that cultural Marxism is trying to create all Messiahs, as well as all religions are equal because all Messiah and all religions are the same.

Because cultural Marxism is the false belief system that our age has embraced to oppose cultural Marxism involves us in the latest incarnation of the Battle between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman. As such, for any expression of the Church to cast its lot with those who would erase God ordained distinctions (i.e. — Women Elders, Allah & God are the same, denial that people groups differ, etc.) puts them on the wrong side of the battle.

This whole Mosque argument is nothing but a episode out of The Outer Limits.

1.) As I follow this Mosque story it becomes quickly evident that pagans are self righteous whether on the left or on the right, and whether Jewish or Muslim. This self-righteousness is encapsulated in the contest of who is the greater victim or martyr. Who ever can prove they are the greater victim or martyr is the person who gets to be self-righteous.

2.) Many Americans are incensed at the idea of Muslims building a Mosque at the location where Muslims attacked their country but all indications are that most of them are perfectly fine with the same Mosque being built in Albany, Scranton, Toledo or anywhere else in America including elsewhere in New York City. This provides a great example of how Americans are a bunch of sentimental pietistic preacher types. Stopping a Mosque being built at ground zero because of sentimental symbolism while allowing Mosques to spring up all over the country makes as much sense as being on a diet while you’re around the refrigerator while your gorging yourself in the dining room.

Come on people, if the pagan Mosque doesn’t belong at the attack site because it is a sign of victory over the nation and it is disrespectful of the Americans who died on 9-11 then Mosques don’t belong at any site in the country for the same reasons. After all, it was American that died on 9-11, not merely citizens of New York.

3.) I heard a interview today of an American Jew and an American Muslim. The interview quickly descended into shouting and accusations from each of the interviewees whereupon they each accused the other of being “Jew-hater” and “Muslim-Hater” and “Nazi” and “Palestinian Baby killer.” As I listened to this interview I thought to myself, why in the world has America (a largely Christian nation) gotten itself in between the ancient hatreds of Jews and Muslims? Why don’t we develop our own energy resources and tell those people, with their ancient hatreds, to “eat sand.” Isn’t it preferable to throw them both out of this country rather than allow them to drag us into their bloodshed, recriminations, and pagan religions?

4.) Typically the left is siding with the Muslims on building the Mosque, but it is not really because the left likes Muslims. They don’t. The left is siding with the Muslims because the building of the Mosque is currently the nearest stick with which they can beat Christianity over the head. Does anyone really believe that if it was a Church they wanted to build next to ground zero that the Left would be screaming 1st amendment rights? No, the left wants the Mosque at ground zero because it serves to make the country less Christian. The left hates with a vampire hatred of Crosses Christianity and anything that will put a stake through the heart of Christianity in this nation the left will support.