Glenn Beck chases "far left radicals" in White House, but loves right-wing radicals himself
The centerpiece of Glenn Beck's incessant attacks on "White House czars" like Van Jones, as well as his attacks on ACORN, is his claim that this is all about rooting out the deep-seated radicalism within the Obama White House -- and ultimately, the deep-seated radicalism of Obama himself. He's been quite explicit about this.
But what about Glenn Beck himself? Beck has shown a powerful affinity for right-wing radicals dating back at least to his days at CNN's Headline News, when he declared his sympathy for the John Birch Society (in its campaign to stop the non-existent "NAFTA Superhighway") and warned that Al Gore's real purpose behind his "global warming campaign" was to install a global government. (Back then, it was Gore, not Obama, who was just like Hitler.)
It's only intensified since he left CNN for Fox. Given the freedom to let his fetid imagination run amok, has quickly amassed a massive record of mainstreaming ideas and talking points from the genuinely radical right of American politics. (The accompanying video gives you a 17-minute compendium of Beck's extremist rhetoric.)
We noticed this back when it first surfaced amid a raft of other Beck wingnuttia. This week, Alexander Zaitchik in Salon published a devastating rundown of perhaps the foundation of Beck's radicalism: His ardent adoption of the ideology espoused by W. Cleon Skousen, one of the most radical of the old "Church-Birch Connection" gang of LDS elders who spread Bircherirsm throughout Mormon-land. (I remember seeing The Naked Communist on the bookshelf of many of the Mormon homes I grew up around in southern Idaho, including several in my family.) Salty City Sinner noticed the Skousen connection back in March too.
Skousen, as Zaitchik explains, was so far out on the fringe he even made the Birchers nervous:
W. Cleon Skousen was not a historian so much as a player in the history of the American far right; less a scholar of the republic than a threat to it. At least, that was the judgment of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, which maintained a file on Skousen for years that eventually totaled some 2,000 pages. Before he died in 2006 at the age of 92, Skousen's own Mormon church publicly distanced itself from the foundation that Skousen founded and that has published previous editions of "The 5,000 Year Leap."
Beck not only avidly endorsed The 5,000-Year Leap on his program -- it was one of three texts he told everyone who watched his show to read as part of "The 912 Project," since the very phrase "912" came from Skousen (whose book details the "9 Principles" and the "12 Values" Beck employs). He also wrote the foreword to is newest edition, in which he told readers it was "divinely inspired" -- something repeated in his blurb for the book:
"I beg you to read this book filled with words of wisdom which I can only describe as divinely inspired. You will find answers to questions plaguing America, and more importantly you will find hope. I know I have!"
Beck also promoted The 5,000 Year Leap on the 912 Project Blog, and listed his "12 Values" on the Fox News site. Lawdy, when the first "912 Project" aired, it was truly a sight to behold.
The result, of course, was that Skousen's book shot up the bestseller charts:
On Friday, after several days in the top 10, "The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World, Principles of Freedom 101" leaped to No. 1 on Amazon.com's list of Bestsellers in Books.
"Everyone should read this book," the conservative talk show host said as he passed out copies during a recent broadcast. On his radio program Friday evening, Beck touted the book's climb to No. 1.
Skousen published "The 5000 Year Leap" in 1981, nearly 25 years after he published "The Naked Communist," a national bestseller that has sold more than 1 million copies.
Just how far out on the far right was Skousen. As Zaitchik explains, some of movement conservatism's leading poohbahs fled screaming from him:
"The Naked Capitalist" does not seem like a text that would be part of the required reading list on any reputable college campus, but some BYU professors taught it out of allegiance to Skousen. Terrified, the editors of Dialogue: The Journal of Mormon Thought invited "Tragedy and Hope" author Carroll Quigley to comment on Skousen's interpretation of his work. They also asked a highly respected BYU history professor named Louis C. Midgley to review Skousen's latest pamphlet. Their judgment was not kind. In the Autumn/Winter 1971 issue of Dialogue, the two men accused Skousen of "inventing fantastic ideas and making inferences that go far beyond the bounds of honest commentary." Skousen not only saw things that weren't in Quigley's book, they declared, he also missed what actually was there -- namely, a critique of ultra-far-right conspiracists like Willard Cleon Skousen.
"Skousen's personal position," wrote a dismayed Quigley, "seems to me perilously close to the 'exclusive uniformity' which I see in Nazism and in the Radical Right in this country. In fact, his position has echoes of the original Nazi 25-point plan."
Hey, it may be that Glenn Beck is uncovering true radicals within the Obama White House -- though all we've seen so far is a McCarthyite smear job of Van Jones and his fellow "czars" and some videotaped corruption within a community-volunteer organization that has no official or other connection to the White House.
But what about the far-right radicals lurking in Glenn Beck's own closet? It might be time to take a longer and deeper look.
Everything about him is dweeb. So why give him attention? The funny thing about these guys, Beck, O'Reily, Rove, limbaugh, I bet anything they can't stand to be in the same room with each other.
Jeanne
Heheheheheh
Every time I see him he is crying.
I have never seen anybody cry this much on TV!
I think something is wrong with this dweeb (psychologically)
What a bore!!!
I wonder where he gets his weed...that's some strong stuff he's smoking
I refuse to even comment on anything concerning this guy any further!
to give this clown a paycheck?
The MSM knows that a good portion of Americans are dumb and believe what they are told...how else does one explain Beck, Hannity, Malkin, Wallace...
Lazy corporatist media
.
Beck will get his...eventually even the criminally insane will turn on this ignorant worthless ******* *******
{ Please scale back some of the profanity. Thank You.SM}
♥
Study the symptoms not the virus...
the only person who finds Beck hilarious. No one does self-parody with such oblivious elan. Not even Colbert.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
... until someone gets shot, and then things get interesting.
How about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICjyzxfBhvw&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Beck is a convert to mor(m)onism.
These magic underwearers believe in a religion that prophesizes the fall of the US government "when the Constitution hangs by a thread."
Then a big happy mor(m)on theocracy will take over!
And take my uisge away.
For the Mormons there really were a set of "good ole days" back when the LDS Church ruled Utah and parts of the surrounding states. Though I suppose "good" is in the eye of the beholder since organs of the church massacred a wagon train of emigrants and killed everyone over the age of five. The church covered up this atrocity and only allowed the ring-leader to be brought to justice 20 years later as a condition of statehood. The church also raised an army to fight against the US Army which was coming to govern the territory; backing up that army was a team of arsonists who were to burn down Salt Lake City in the event that the US Army was victorious.
Utah's approaching mainstream these days since Utah answers not only to its prophet but to its profit as well.
The Flying "J" Truck stop is owned by the Mormons of Utah, if you want real fun go to one of their open markets try to be mixed rece purchase something then watch and observe how they react and hand it to you if your prepared you can laugh in their face.
As a former Mormon (with family in Idaho), I can confirm your observation about the ubiquity of Skousen's books in LDS homes.
As the Salon piece notes, the church has officially distanced itself from Skousen's craziness BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE: The LDS church and most Mormons are firmly in the fundamentalist right wing christian camp.
I remember regular Christian kids being surprised when I was a Mormon. One was told by his grannie that Mormons have horns.
So the rest of the day whenever I saw him, I pulled my hair up into horns.
I was a smart-ass even when I was 8.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
of Utah and Idaho Mormons. The every-day Mormons I know and go to church with are just as disgusted with Beck as anyone on this blog.
There are a couple of issues that the Church takes a clear stand on, but for the most part, the Church itself has not taken political positions as most other Christian organizations have.
Additionally, just as you did not see the higher-level leaders of the Mormon church criticizing or persecuting Bush, Clinton, or any other president, you will not see them criticizing Obama. And just as they did with Skousen's organization--and, eventually the JBS--you can bet that, if asked, they will distance themselves from Beck's program.
I have yet to meet a Mormon who is looking forward to the dissolution of the United States, as That Mick Piobr insinuated.
when in 1845 he stated that there would be a terrible revolution in the Land of America. But the Mormon elders would come to the rescue and establish Zion.
Richard Abanes' book "One Nation Under Gods" is a real eye opener.
I became curious about Mor(m)ons as they were running me out of our last neighborhood in Mesa.
I had the audacity to have a bumper-sticker that said "Bush Lied Soldiers Died".
That's when we started getting our vehicles and home vandalized.
Then their kids started ganging up on my son and beating him.
Then we began to get "missionaries" five times a week.
This is what I know about Mor(m)ons.
I must remove myself from this conversation. I am not yet far enough away from this experience and I might say something unfortunate.
I assure you, I was insinuating nothing. "One Nation Under Gods" by Richard Abanes.
Recommended.
Maledictions, Mick
Actually, they believed in my church that America would destroy itself, and the Mormons would step in to fill the power vacuum.
It's not quite Dominionism or Christian Reconstructionism
But it is, however, rather Post Tribulation Millennialism eschatology.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That's some vocabulary you got there ysb......
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 18:23 — That Mick Piobr
Maledictions, Mick
___________________________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3R5vdxnMk
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Do you have any idea what the reason may have been for what I see as an uneasiness in this clip? Both faiths celebrate X-mas don't they? I mean it's not like my childhood friends family whom did not, as they were Jehovah's Witnesses.
What is the cause of this noted uneasiness at about the 2:10 mark?...
Glenn Beck: Prayer & Dr. James Dobson
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egk-Ii56jlI ](8:08)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
When it comes to understanding any religion in any comprehensive way, Abanes was a jack of all trades, master of none.
There is so much context missing, that it's not really worth your time. Trying to just jump in and write a book about LDS beliefs regarding godhood and eternal progression is like trying to teach someone how to cook a gourmet dinner when you haven't even begun to learn the basics of cooking yourself. You can try, and you may even be able to woo a few less trained than yourself, but it amounts to nothing worth eating.
It sucks that you had such a bad experience, but that doesn't stem from the actual teachings of the Church. I have all kinds of friends who see my "looney left" bumper stickers every day, and we have serious discussions about things. Those folks understand that there is room in the LDS Church for multiple sides of the political spectrum. They're good friends to have.
But aside from that, you look at the overall impact that the LDS Church has had on the world, and it's overwhelmingly positive. Believe its doctrines or not, it has been a force that has increased the level of humanity and humaneness in the world, in spite of some misled members.
So, you have chosen to take your experience and generalize it to the point where you think nothing of referring to all 13 million of us as "Mor(m)ons." It's unfortunate that you have allowed that experience to distort your view of the world. That is a serious personal issue--completely unrelated to what the Church actually teaches or practices.
BTW - Missionaries don't come back to a persons house five times a week unless they have reason to believe that person is interested in what they have to share. If a person simply says, "Sorry, I'm not interested," they'll scratch you off their list without thinking twice. Usually. So, acting annoyed by those visits is a bit disingenuous. I suspect they were coming back because you gave them a reason to come back.
So all those wake up knocks at motherf*ckin 8 in the AM every f*cking Saturday during my undergrad, by all those sharply dressed mormons must have been a figment of my imagination.
By the way, anyone trying to present the ramblings of an XIX con man as some sort of scholarly masterpiece needs to re-evaluate their educational status themselves.
And I was probably just asking for it when I walked out my front door and caught
the mom next door pitching stones at my van with two of her nine children.
My kid was probably asking for it, because he palled around with black and brown kids.
Hell, I'm probably just making the whole thing up.
Maybe "please go away" is code for mor(m)on "missionaries" to pester somebody silly; again - must be my fault, right?
Who am I to argue with squeaky-clean white boys who will grow up to be GODS of their own planets?
FY very much, tio peepee.
The LDS church and most Mormons are firmly in the fundamentalist right wing christian camp.
The funny thing is, the fundamentalist right wing Christians really would prefer not to have anything to do with the Mormons.
and militia "end of times," "the hurricanes are caused by the gays" types, the leadership of the Church has never held any close associations.
To equate the LDS Church, it's structure, leadership and belief system with the kind of fundamentalists who are hell-bent on seeing Obama destroyed is absurd.
aren't they? But believe me, most are full of the crazy! It just wears a happy face and isn't from crackerland.
Prop 8. Funded by mor(m)ons.
Lie much?
17 minutes of Beck?! I wouldn't watch that asshole for 17 nanoseconds.
Beck chasing lefties?
That fat-assed pasty faced doughboy Beck, couldn't run down a three legged turtle with asthma.
If he ran up three steps, he would probably run out of breath, and roll back down to the landing.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
For some reason my reply ended up way down at the bottom, but i laughed my ass off at this ;p
FB
99%
Oh, my Dog, it took me ten minutes to stop laughing at that.
GlennEdward R. MurrowBeck wouldn't bring something to us that's half-baked.
That is too effing funny. Beck himself is half-baked (or totally baked, depending on how you define it
The master of making it up thinks he a responsible journalist. Beck's problems must rise to the level of being clinically significant. A couple of decades ago this guy would have been involuntarily committed.
And, holy shit, when Beck and Bachman appear at the same time, surely that represents the greatest average insanity two people have ever represented.
We can cut the cost of healthcare reform by dropping all coverage for mental health and requiring that Faux News hire them on. The only drawback is that we might end up violating some international conventions against inhumane treatment of the mentally ill. But hey, we can just get a few GOPer lawyers to write us some memos and we'll come out smelling like roses.
I am continually dismayed and saddened that Glenn Beck is mentioned in the same breath as my cherished faith. There is so much good that my religion has done in the world, but it's obnoxious, unscholarly, and, yes, dangerous people like Beck and Skousen that get more attention.
Unfortunately, I have friends in my church who are card-carrying Birchers and love the kind of drivel that Beck spews. While they are an overwhelming minority of our church, I still don't understand how they can make the connection between our faith and the filth of Beck's program. In the meantime, they're being led to associate a faith that promotes all that is positive about Christianity with the hatefulness and paranoia that Beck espouses. And it ends up making them actually fight against the very principles that our religion holds dear. Namely, love, civility, tolerance, kindness, charity, hope, etc.
I just hope that one day he can make an honest reconciliation between his faith and the damaged he has caused to the faiths of many otherwise decent people.
Beck seems to be a very confused young boy who simply refuses to understand how dangerous his words are.
I left Mormonism when I was in the Air Force. I was in the base library, just staring at this picture of Jerry Falwell in the LA Examiner, feeling sick, but unable to turn my eyes away.
And then I met his type in the base Mormon congregation. My first exposure to such in my own church.
So I gave a rather sharp testimonial at a Fast and Testimonial Sunday, soon afterwards wrote my letter requesting excommunication, and I have been excommunicated ever since.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The odd thing was, I was congratulated on my way out of the church for the testimonial. They said I said what needed to be said.
I was essentially ridiculing them for all having the same virtual testimony, in the same basic order, crying on cue, and falling asleep on each other while they testify, and then holding on to their own testimony like it was some kind of possession to be treasured instead of fleshed out. I testified that I had no testimony, and that I saw the search for one as more important than a claim to have one, and even once you do have one, it's not the end of the search only the beginning.
(Exact wording was too many years ago to exactly remember).
Praise Bob!
(And Tara, Danu and Flidhais).
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
You sound like the kind of guy I'd like to sit next to in Sunday School.
I was a smart ass 20 year old too.
But now I'm a bare ass widdershins dancer.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
a newt did they. I'm glad to see you got better.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
A pompous know-it-all republican?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I remember the first line, "I would like to bear my testimony by testifying that I have no testimony."
All the sleepers awoke at that one.
I was a mediocre student in high school. But it seemed my practice of the Occult seemed to shocked my brain awake. Being based in the desert played with my head, as did the recreational narcotics. I suppose the most rational explanation was in my use of deeper and deeper trances I was learning to concentrate.
And now here I am...
Underemployed.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
who was drummed out of every youth organization I was ever compelled to join, including the boy scouts, the air cadets and the catholic church group I believe I detect some similar symptoms in yourself. Do you suffer from an acute sensitivity to bullshit? Is this compounded by a visceral aversion to being told what to think? Does your voice box seem to respond to unreasoning authority of its' own volition? I'm sorry to tell you there's no cure. Self employment helps however.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I think it was that business with Kolob that did it to me.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
See, the economy is getting better.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
You'll find nutcases anywhere you go. I know a few, but I've managed to compartmentalize that separately from my actual faith. They might be in the congregation, but you won't find any Jerry Falwells actually running the Church. Not from what I've seen, anyway.
In fact, when the leaders of many other Christian denominations blame disasters on "gays, lesbians and abortionists," the leaders of the Church have made it clear--every time--how un-Christian that kind of talk is. To back up their talk with action, they are always among the first to provide real relief in cases all over the world.
So, sorry you left the Church. Personally, I think you're missing out. :)
n/t
But keep their mouths tightly shut.
I think Reverend Lovejoy said it best when he told Homer that God didn't set his house and fire, but worked through those who rescued them, be they Christian, Jewish or other.
Apu said, "I'm Hindu. You know there are 5,000,000 of us!"
To which Lovejoy responded, "Super."
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Why don't you become an activist in your own church? Surely the elders do not condone this? Speak up for your faith and purge the bad apples! Censor him within the church.
your group who have due criticism of your group, than to actually trying to work to correct the due criticism from within your group of people.
Think of it this way, it is much easier for the 10% of actual believers of a faith, who dedicate their lives to do good, to ask non-believers to not be so "mean" when pointing out the crap and hubris their faith has been responsible for. Than it is for those 10% to actually make sure the other 90% of "bad apple" followers do the right thing. The important twist is that fact then sort of undermines the total moral "goodness" of that 10%.
Eighteen minutes of this racist alarmist madman should be reserved for studies in clinical psychololgy.
I wish that Beck wasn't just a completely insane buffoon, and that there really were some "far left radicals" in the White House.
n/t
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16uVon2NRQ
Projecting much, Beck?
I read the Salon article about Skousen and Beck, linked in David Niewert's post, with a real sense of dread. Hundreds of 1,000's of people are reading Skousen's insane, fascist, history-distorting drivel at Beck's behest.
A half-forgotten, certified nutcase who even the Birchers rejected is now a best-seller on Amazon.
Unbelievable. Beck's a buffoon, but he's truly dangerous - like Elmer Gantry, Howard Beale and Joseph Goebbels wrapped up in one.
boatload. Do not worry too much, as many of Beck's followers have never read anything longer than a comic book and will not start reading "non" fiction now. The constant distractions by this fool have become tiresome. There are two really important battles going on, and letting this ridiculous ass detract from them is wrong. Along with health insurance reform, the pending SCOTUS decision regarding corporations having "more rights" than real people, as Stephen Colbert said, is critical to the survival of any semblance of this government as it was intended to be and should be. We have to keep our eyes on the ball. Beck is not the ball. He doesn't even have one. Or any. He is nothing more than a joke. Calling him names just makes him puff up his little chest. It confirms his mistaken belief that he is somehow important. He is not.
Look, I really don't NEED a 17 min compendium of the histrionic excesses this douche projects. To give him that much bandwidth here is a waste. I am all for outing him daily, because he will trip over his tongue...
It will be a while though, since the editors of time mag just gave him a royal rimjob.
When he was at HLN I was incredulous he had a job. It is more about the times and anxiousness of the country. Remember, 59 million people voted for, as Bill Maher said, grand pa and carrie's mother.
he as much as said so.The john bitch society was formed for one thing,the over throw of the USA.Which is what the mormans would love.So if beckerhole is standing up for the bitchers,he is a TRAITOR,along with hannity and o'really and the rest of those at fux nues.But there are people that believe the filth that comes out of his alcohol fuel'd (ass)mouth.The man is a falling down drunk and has been see in bars around the fux nues headquarters.
I really think the man is gay and my apologies to any gays reading this.
I've never heard this before. As a person who grew up in the oppression of a staunchly Mormon family (I was not allowed to drink soda pop with caffeine), I know that mainstream Mormons distance themselves from the FOX crazies. My father can't stand Hannity or any of the Fake News crowd. I still have very good friends that are Mormon.
With that said, there is a very deep, dark fundamentalist streak to Mormonism that caters to the crazies:
I was taught as a child that African-Americans had dark skin because they were cursed with the mark of Caine. God cursed Caine when he killed Able by turning his skin dark. The darkness was meant as a caution to the pure white people not to mix with their kind. African-Americans were not allowed into the temple or the highest kingdom of heaven until 1976 when the Mormon church was about lose their tax exempt status. See Bob Jones University v. IRS.
I distinctly recall as a child being told by my Bishop in 1988 in church that God wanted us to vote for Ronald Reagan.
The Mormons have a doctrine called "blood atonement," which was used back in the old days as justification for imposing the death penalty for certain sins. This is the reason that Utah has maintained the firing squad. The theory is that the only way to atone for your sins is to have your own blood spilled from your body.
In the early crazy days, Mormons in southern Utah murdered over 120 emigrants from Arkansas. The Iron Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Dame, bishop and mayor of Parowan, ordered Isaac Haight (major and bishop of Cedar City), to murder the emigrants. The crime was carried out by Haight, Phillip Klingesmith, John Higbee, and John D. Lee (major and bishop of Harmony). They commanded the military operation that led to the execution of the unarmed immigrants.
The cause of a lot of the fundamentalism can be traced back to Joseph Smith. If you look at Doctrine and Covenants Section 132, it justifies the doctrine of polygamy and the taking of concubines by men. Joseph Smith adopted this prophecy because he was a sex addict who was looking for a religious justification to sleep with teenage girls (virgins).
Brigham Young took the craziness to a new level where he was the governor, king, judge and juror of the Utah territory. Young and his minion, George A. Smith, created the toxic environment that caused Lee, Haight and Dame to commit the mass murder.
The fundamentalis crazies pay more attention to the seedy underbelly of the Mormonism of the early days.
...Offhand I'll withhold judgement without further facts, but don't get me wrong, It sounds very plausible to me, but for "Ronnie Raygun". Didn't Reagan allready have a lock on the Presidency in "1988 "?
Ronald Reagan served [January 20, 1981 ↔ January 20, 1989]
See: I distinctly recall as a child being told by my Bishop in 1988 in church that God wanted us to vote for Ronald Reagan.
We all make mistakes, but wasn't it Ronnie who said trust but verify? ;P
In any case, thank you for sharing that and for your time as well.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Sorry
I was 9 years old at the time. But I really thought it was odd that a bishop was telling his congregation who to vote for.
... I've recently been thinking about stuff like that. "I really thought it was odd that a bishop was telling his congregation who to vote for."
I'm an atheist and to be blunt, I believe most religious people are afraid of death... though not necessarily dieing, mind you. The 72 Virgins for some and Pearly gates for others makes for a nice incentive to act a certain way... kind like, (Ya better not cry, ya better not pout... ♪♫♪♪♫ Santa Clause is coming to town. :)
In a secular society why can't they tell their flock of sheeple who would be in their best interest? I know the tax thing, but I see all the religious BS being spouted off by elected representatives all the time... to my dismay, I might add. It's a fact that the United States has a religious majority and that it's waning... But
If fundie ideology can be promoted by Corporations, like Fox and the like, and a great deal of them do I believe. Is it simply a tax issue and they like those Fed notes? If that is the case, can't they... I'm sure they do, just buy the Politicians though a Corporation like Fox and the like.
Ah... Live and Love today, tomorrow is not a sure thing. Due onto others is so basic an understanding... who needs a fucking book for that? That's my rant... for what it's worth
This is insight... IMO
"I would suggest the taxation of all property
equally whether church or corporation."
[Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)]
Taken with
"I would like to call your attention to ... an evil that, if allowed to continue, will probably lead to great trouble.... It is the accumulation of vast amounts of untaxed church property."
[Ulysses S. Grant]
Don't forget JEFF SHARLET's "THE FAMILY"
Study the symptoms not the virus...
The one word that does not appear in the notes on his life Abram prepared near the end of his life, when instead of sheepskin he wore silk and gabardine, when instead of miners and cowboys he preached to senators and presidents, is power. But in 1935, when Abram was just beginning to dream his real ministry, he wrote the word once, in the margin of a church program. It was at the bottom of a list of names of men he had recruited. Besides each was a responsibility: organization, finances. Beside his own name, he wrote power—and then crossed it out. If it must be said, it can't be had. Power, Abram realized as he moved through the high corner offices of businessmen and leaders, has nothing to do with forcing the devil behind you or making the company increase your wages. Power lies in things as they are. God had already chosen the powerful, his key men. There they are, Jesus whispered in Abram's ear; go and serve them.
Throughout the 1920s, Abram directed Seattle's division of Goodwill Industries. He didn't just open stores for used clothes; he organized 49,000 housewives into thirty-seven districts and set them to work salvaging goods for the poor. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt, governor of New York, invited Abram to his office to discuss his organizing system. Later he'd come to see Russian red running through out Roosevelt's New Deal, but at the time Abram was captivated by another man summoned to advise the governor, James Augustine Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation. Abram had met industry chiefs before then, but here was a titan. A tall, stern man of dark suits and high collars, Farrell had led U.S. Steel for decades, since not long after its creation as the biggest business enterprise in history, and he had a reputation as an industrial free thinker. The year before he'd rebuked a group of businessmen for treating workers like animals. Farrell looked on his employees more like children. Big business, he believed, ought to act as a big brother, and to that end he insisted that the age of competition had passed; captains of industry must be freed of antitrust legislation so that they might better council together for the good of the innocent and the poor.
Abram fixed his rapt attention on the "steel shogun," as the press of the time called the industrialist. "Mr. Farrell reviewed the history of America," he'd remember, "and pointed out that we have had nineteen depressions—five major ones—and that every one was caused by disobedience to divine laws." Farrell offered no evidence for his dismissal of economic factors, but he did have a solution on hand. "Now," Abram recorded his words, "I am a Roman Catholic and we don't go in much for revivals and such things, but I am sure as I am sitting here that if we don't get a thorough revival of genuine religion ... with a return to prayer and the Bible"—an oddly Protestant aim—"we are headed for chaos." Farrell suggested that the time had come for the "leaders of industry" to take the reins not just of the economy but of the entire nation in order to restore it to a godly path.
Farrell, a former steelworker himself and thus living proof in his own mind that equal opportunity existed for all, was likely too modest to mention U.S. Steel's own efforts in this regard; most notably, its relief program for the Pennsylvania steeltown of Farrell, renamed just that year in honor of the great man himself. A desperate measure by a community of 30,000 utterly dependent on U.S. Steel and starving because of that fact. In Farrell, U.S. Steel fought the spiritual roots of its economic woes not through revival but by evicting from company housing those who were not part of the nation's godly heritage: foreign-born workers, black workers, and even the old white men who had built Farrell and now approached retirement and pensions. U.S. Steel replaced them all with young peons paid low wages. It was not a matter of getting the job done, since the mills were shuttered and there was no work to be done. U.S. Steel simply saw an opportunity for a correction.
But then, so did the men and women whom companies such as U.S. Steel were liquidating. It's hard now, in the present United States, to imagine the fear that attended the Depression years, and harder still to remember the anger. Most forgotten of all is the optimism of ordinary people pushed to an edge over which they peered and saw not the abyss they had been told by their employers and their politicians awaited them, but—maybe, if they built it themselves—a future dramatically different from the past.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
... you could of Bullshitted me and said the Bishop was talking about an earlier time and you didn't. I really admire your honesty with this issue. ♥
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 20:08 — David A
Your refering to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. You have to realize these people were chased from state to state, New York, to Illinois, Kansas (?) to Utah. Ofen they had their temples burned down by arson. Some were from overseas where they were prosecuted for converting, before they moved here. Then their leader and his brother were murdered in prison. Polygamy and polyandry were both allowed so they could keep their numbers up. Androgamy was whilst husbands were in the mission field, where they were often beaten and murdered, and polygamists often married women over child-bearing years, making them in effect their legal responsibility in an era when women had little power, even in America at large and making them beneficiaries.
It doesn't justify the massacre, but they probably initially saw it as a looming attack and a last stand.
I remember that Mark of Cain story, but I also remembered there was in the 13 Articles of Faith 2 and 3: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
When I was in the Church The Mark of Cain was hardly mentioned officially, but the idea was out there, and there were stories that Joseph Smith conferred the priesthood on a black man only to have it taken away (I'm not sure by who), because they already feared for their reputation as a church during the pre Civil War period.
I found it unclear what your reference to the cause of fundamentalism was for, the Mormons or the Protestants at large, where it was born form the five Solae.
As for the political parts, that was what I was sniffing in the air in 1979-1980 that I found so new and disagreeable.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Ysbadden:
I am well aware of the trials and tribulations suffered by the Mormons. I am aware of their persecution starting in Far West Missouri where they were driven out of their homes, their property was confiscated, and the governor gave the green light to the state militia to murder Mormons. I am aware of the atrocities committed by the Missourians at Hauns Mill wherein scores of Mormon men were murdered.
I am aware of the illegal arrests of Joseph Smith and his brothers. I am aware that Smith was murdered by a mob at Carthage. I am aware that the Nauvoo temple was burned to the ground along with most of the rest of the town by a mob.
You are right: the nineteenth century was a very violent place for Mormons and others. There was violence on both sides.
In reference to polygamy, I was told the same lie that you are presently repeating: that polygamy was done to keep up the numbers given the men that were killed. This is not true. Smith was sealing himself to woman whose husbands were on missions. Smith was sleeping with woman who gave him shelter, and Smith was sleeping with their daughters. I take issue with your contention that Smith started polygamy out of a sense of egalitarianism. On the contrary, he was really into the Old Testament prophets, Kings David and Solomon. He admired the fact that they had several wives and concubines, and he wanted some of that good stuff for himself. See D&C 132.
Young did indeed spread rumors that the federal army was about to attack the Mormons, and he declared marshal law the day before the massacre. But the people who committed the massacre knew that the party was a train of emigrants from Arkansas and not the federal army. If you have researched the story, then you know that Lee and the Indians had been fighting the wagon train for several days before the unarmed emigrants were massacred by the Iron Battalion. They committed the murders because the emigrants knew that the Mormons were behind the massacre and they did not want any of them to live to tell about it. Once they started the attack, they figured they had to kill everyone or the federal army would use the attack as an excuse to invade.
I'm glad you remember the mark of Cain story. I'm sure you know that it is also duplicated in the Book of Mormon with the Nephites and the Lamanites. Being taught to be racist as a child really hurt me. It's hard for me to see past the racism of the Mormon church.
You are right: Smith did baptise a black man. Smith was not a racist. Brigham Young was the racist who laid down the law that African-Americans were not allowed into heaven or the temple.
My reference to the cause of fundamentalism was the tendency of unhinged people to literally interpret the religious texts, including the doctrines of polygamy, blood atonement, and personal revelation. This can lead to extreme acts of violence: see the Lafferty killings and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
With that said, I have nothing against Mormons. My entire family is still Mormon. I just think it is important that everyone acknowledge the sordid history behind everything.
David I know you have your own agenda but to say that ACORN is a "community-volunteer organization that has no official or other connection to the White House" is in my opinion laughable. Maybe the context of the word official is at question but The president has a long history of working with ACORN and He is an Official that lives in the White House. Of course this is just semantics on both of our parts because we both know there is a clear connection and a large part of that was taken away today.
I watched and listened to the whole thing. Yet, uninformed people, with enough exposure, will suck it in and order. We all know how to push the BUY button.
"They pour syrup on shit and tell us it's hotcakes." Meteor Blades
Alex Jones calls out Glenn Beck in an open letter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEnV_-R-10
Seriously who would take a man seriously wearing a tan jacket, a lime green shirt, and a blue tie?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
This is surprisingly popular in Tucson. The public library has 6 copies and there are 15 holds on them right now.
In the base library at Edwards AFB, we had at least 6 copies of Mein Kampf, constantly checked out.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I can never get threw a clip of beck. It is like watching a scene or a day in a mental hospital. Have you ever been inside a psych ward in a hospital or a prison?
It is a lot like watching this clip of beck. Just crazy things swirling around in the conversations. Beck and these people may be making complete sentances. But the crazy is out there front and center. I think it goes to prove what I have been saying for some time now. republicanism is a mental illness!
He's a must to avoid, a complete impossibility.
Given your extensive coverage of all things Beck I would have thought you, and not Alexander Zaitchik, would be the first to discover and then detail Beck's source within some discredited strain of Mormonism. I am appreciative that when someone else did it you brought that work to your readers attention here.
I read enough about LDS in Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" to know better than to feign much knowledge about the theology of the church or its many radical offshoots to comment about its teachings.
For those who react to your posts about Beck with snide dismissals,keep in mind that for all the seeming whackos like Beck who get discredited fairly quickly, there is a Joseph Smith who slips through and creates a lasting impact.
Joseph Smith's followers today number in the millions and still control one state in the Union and are a strong force in several others. Smith did this based on a fantastical story he invented and spread without a televised cable based television platform.
FOX provides an instant forum and vast audience for fantastical made up stories about events that effect our daily lives. Their ministers have to be monitored.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I actually laughed hard enough to spit my Altoid out onto my keyboard...thanks! We had a burglary last night, and i REALLY needed that :)
FB
99%
The book of fairy tales even these phony ass christians can't get there act together. They have a moses a joseph smith a christ all of which they put ahead of their deity by what ever name serves them this week. They know nothing about their book of fairy tales other than what verses they can commit to memory. These Morons are so stupid they actually believe their christ was a christian and that the christian movement was alive and well at the time of the fictitious leaders death. The have NO comprehension of Sanskrit, Sumerian text, the layers of Greek, Latin and Hebrew, they actual believe that what they are reading is truth, when it is in fact fantasy translated to control the minds of the Brain dead who seek nothing but to be told what to do. Look how many versions of the book of fairy tales are or have been rewritten just to cover a understanding of the American language which most christ and brain dead right wingers do not speak as it doesn't contain enough hatred and destruction. Aw hell the only good christian and right winger are dead one any way because what the varmints, bugs and birds don't eat can be buried. This is one American that will SPIT in the Face Of these DUMBASS CHRISTIAN and Right wing HATE MONGERS
And the title of Beck's latest book is:
"Arguing with Idiots"
Which I guess means he spends an awful lot of time staring at himself in the mirror.
Well, that was a waste of 17 minutes and 47 seconds of valuable time. What a fuckin' loon. Hello nuthouse? Send down a bag of Beck.
Seriously one of the tinfoil hat crowd.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
I have been getting a lot of flack from admirers of former FBI Special Agent W. Cleon Skousen who are claiming that I am intellectually dishonest -- OR that I am inventing the statements which I attribute to senior FBI officials in FBI memos discussed in my Skousen report.
So, this afternoon, I revised sections of my Skousen report to include actual scanned copies of several relevant FBI memos pertaining to Skousen.
I copied the memos which:
(1) establish that Skousen WAS NOT considered an authority on communism while he worked at the FBI
(2) prove that Skousen WAS NOT "a top aide to J. Edgar Hoover" as he and his admirers claimed and
(3) establish that the FBI dismissed as untrue several of Skousen's assertions which he made in his 3/71 article entitled "Home Grown Subversion" --- and those assertions are also made in Skousen's book, The Naked Capitalist.
You may see these scanned documents at bottom of page here:
http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/documents
OR
within the text of my Skousen report here:
http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/skousen
This should prove, once and for all, that my critics are attempting to libel me because of their own ignorance and malice about this matter.
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