A few very clear differences...

You have to give Glenn Beck and his crowd credit for tapping into both the economic fears and social anxieties that are ripe in the United States in 2010. There is no way to fake bringing 300,000 people out to the Lincoln Memorial as Beck did this past Saturday no matter what conspiracy theories you employ. And it should be abundantly clear that, once again, the United States is wrestling with one of our fundamental conundrums: shall we be a republic that truly values freedom of and from religion, or, shall we slip towards theocracy?

To be sure, Beck et al have TONS of right wing money at their disposal to rally the disaffected. Both the NY Times columnist, Frank Rich, and a writer for The New Yorker, Jane Mayer, have written responsible and insightful articles making it clear that amidst the sea of so-called populist angst and libertarian spontaneity lies:

... the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are. Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might. (For more information see both: The New York Times @ www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=1&ref=frankrich and The New Yorker @ www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer)

Money and media connections are part of this social tumult - to be sure - but not the whole story. And while the right-wing ideologues have been brilliantly successfull in exploiting middle class American fears, they are not the cause of these fears. Take, for example, the description of religion offered - and widely affirmed - at the Beck rally and the lies he tells about those who hold different insights.

+ Christianity is about personal salvation. Period. Nothing more, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. And let's be clear: by personal salvation Beck and his crowd means that your soul has been redeemed from hell and you are guaranteed a place in heaven for ever. (Please don't ask Beck to describe what personal salvation means to a Mormon - which he is - because it is extremely complicated and not at all grounded in anything resembling Christianity. See, for example, http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com/2008/11/lds-view-of-heaven.html or perhaps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory.) To be sure, faith has a personal - that is, inward - dimension as well as a social - or public - reality. To focus only on a narrow and privatized theology of salvation is not only duplicitous and destructive, but it violates the very word salvation which is grounded in salve which means to heal.

+ Christianity has NOTHING to do with social transformation. Those who teach that God holds a special compassion for the poor and oppressed - as the Hebrew prophets of Israel and Jesus clearly teach - are either socialists or morally corrupt or both. In fact, Beck has been on a rant for months opposing any spiritual talk about "social justice."

No matter that Jesus ANNOUNCES his public ministry with these words in Luke 4: 16:

God's Spirit is on me;
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

No matter that when the prophet Micah was asked to summarize the essence of his spiritual tradition he wrote in Micah 6: 8: God has shown you what is good - do justice, love mercy and walk in humility with the Lord your God.

So when Beck talks about restoring America - or redeeming America - be clear: it has nothing to do with caring for the poor, setting free those who are imprisoned or binding up the wounded. No, his restoration - irony of all - is much more Darwinian than the progressives he demonizes because he favors the survival of the fittest with perhaps individual acts of charity and pity.

The way of Jesus that I learned speaks of caring for the weakest among us - not only because such is at the heart of the Lord - but also because this is most likely where we will meet God. God comes to us hidden as a Palestinian infant in a peasant's cave. Or nailed to a cross among two thieves. Or walking beside me when I am filled with grief and confusion until my eyes are opened by the breaking of bread.

The God Beck preaches and celebrates is completely unknown to me - and most of the Bible.

Yet Beck's way - financed and fueled by some of the most ruthless right wing players in contemporary America - is gaining traction. This is a dangerous - dare I say an unholy - alliance that will only bring greater damage, fear and anxiety to those who are already hurting. So, while I respect those who say we should simply ignore Beck and his ilk, I think such talk is equally dangerous. Dr. King was clear: when evil men (and women) plot, people of compassion and justice must plan and organize.

I am convinced that there is a choice to be made in this generation - and it is very clear - we can stand with Beck and his fear and privatized heresies - or we can stand with God as Bono said so clearly at President Bush's prayer breakfast.