The Tillinghasts Panama Update - July - August 2010

BEING GOOD AINT GOOD ENOUGH “Glenn Beck as spiritual advisor, huh???”

By Todd Tillinghast

For months I have been trying to wrap my head around and figure out this force of nature that has popped up on the radar screen seemingly out of nowhere.  Glenn Beck!!!!

Let me just be very clear right from the outset.  In many ways I like Glenn Beck.  I think his honesty is a refreshing breath of clean air in a media that is to say the least less than objective.  I think that if he ran for president considering our current choices I would probably vote for him.  I agree with many of his “political” precepts such as small government and low taxes to name a few.  I even think that he is doing a great job as “the man shouting from the watchtower” warning us about the coming storm.  I think that we are in a place in the U.S. where we need a Glenn Beck on the political landscape.  Whether you agree with him or not you have to admit that he is very influential and he has certainly caused us to stop and think.  He demonstrated that incredible level of influence last Saturday when he generated a crowd of nearly half a million people to the mall on the 47^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech.”  Politically we, Glenn and I, see eye to eye. 

My problem (or discomfort may be a better description of the way I am feeling) is in his growing status as a Spiritual leader in the U.S.  He himself seems to be most comfortable with this characterization.  He made it very clear that the “Restoring Honor” celebration in Washington on August 28^th was not political.  He discouraged people from brining signs and he strove not to allow any of the speakers to make political comments.  Some would argue that the mere presence of Sarah Palin regardless of what she said broke this oath.  What he did proceed to do was to create a church like service in which there was singing and open prayers.  He was flanked on stage with what he is calling the “Black Robe Brigade” which is a group of inter- faith ministers.  Now here is where I get uncomfortable.  

To many Christians this rally and the formation of this Brigade may seem like a huge step in the right direction.  I couldn’t disagree more.  I respect Beck and the many attendees of the rally for their recognition that there is a problem in our country.  I also can appreciate the desire and the readiness to assemble and organize.  I think that those two aspects are steps in the right direction.  My fear is that while trying to move away from the wrong things that are beginning to transpire in our nation (the move toward socialism, the loss of individual rights) that we may be taking a wrong turn trying to right the wrong.  

Beck courageously, emotionally and very effectively totes the rights of the individual.  He talks about how this country needs to be restored.  He talks about how things like honor, faith and charity will bring our country back.  And he probably is right it will restore our country.  But the question is, restore it to what?  His faith in the “every man” is admirable until it crosses the line into humanism where the individual not the collective becomes god.  It’s a fine line. 

He also talks about how we need to be in unity, that people from all faiths need to unify under the same banner.  Again, this sounds wonderful but the question is what banner will we be unified under?  Let’s not forget that Beck is a Mormon.  As Christians we need to decide if faith, hope and love are what we stand for or if we stand for Christ the only true generator of Faith, hope and love. 

People deride Beck for being extreme and radical.  I don’t think he’s extreme enough.  I think that he is simply positing another version of tolerance and modernism dressed up in conservative rather than liberal clothes.  

No, faith, hope and charity will not save this country.  Unity will not save this country.  These things are important to be sure but they are results of something else.  They cannot become an end in and of themselves.  They need to become the fruition of something else.  Something more primary needs to happen first and if this happens then these elements will result.  And it doesn’t start in the media or in the political realm.  It begins with the real Church of Jesus Christ.

And it doesn’t start with picketing lines, or town hall meetings.  It starts with repentance.  2 Chronicles 7:14  says “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  ESV   

We are all responsible for the state our country is in not just the Liberals and Progressives.  We have all sinned and we have all dishonored God (RM 3:23).  As the church we would do better to get on our knees and pray first before we even go to the voting booth or the political rally.  The truth is the only hope for the United States now as it has always been is God.  Good works aren’t good enough.  It has to start with us His people.  We need to turn off the Fox News channel just for a couple of minutes and look in the mirror and ask ourselves “what wicked ways do I have in my life?”  “What wicked websites have I been visiting?”  “What wicked thoughts are there in my heart?”

Church, Glenn Beck is not the Spiritual leader we need in this hour.  He definitely is a political leader and I rather hope he runs for office.  But we do not need to get our Spiritual advice from him, especially when we have the greatest source of wisdom ever written, The Holy Bible. 

Unity only becomes an agent of good when the source of that unity is right.  The Nazi’s were also unified in 1930’s Germany.  Does that mean their cause was right?  Unity for unity’s sake at the cost of truth is not the right kind of unity.  Unity is important but it is not the first step.  We need to call ourselves and our world to repentance and to come back to Christ and Christ alone.  And then we need to demonstrate that by getting down on our own knees.  While we are there on our knees crying out to the one and only God, Jesus Christ and we look around to see who is with us then we should join hands with those who are doing the same and let that be our unity.