Evangelicals raise money to counter Glenn Beck

[Strangler Lewis]

As an aside:

DOOLITTLE: I ask you, what am I? I'm one of the undeserving poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up against middle class morality all the time. If there's anything going, and I put in for a bit of it, it's always the same story: "You're undeserving; so you can't have it." But my needs is as great as the most deserving widow's that ever got money out of six different charities in one week for the death of the same husband. I don't need less than a deserving man: I need more. I don't eat less hearty than him; and I drink a lot more. I want a bit of amusement, cause I'm a thinking man. I want cheerfulness and a song and a band when I feel low. Well, they charge me just the same for everything as they charge the deserving. What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything. Therefore, I ask you, as two gentlemen, not to play that game on me. I'm playing straight with you. I ain't pretending to be deserving. I'm undeserving; and I mean to go on being undeserving. I like it; and that's the truth. Will you take advantage of a man's nature to do him out of the price of his own daughter what he's brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of his brow until she's growed big enough to be interesting to you two gentlemen? Is five pounds unreasonable? I put it to you; and I leave it to you.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Tref

I only wish more of my tax money went social programs. I would rather feed the poor than the war machine.

.

[Alex]

If interested in the view (from an academic Biblical history point of view, not a theological point of view) of Jesus in which he is not particularly an advocate of social justice but rather squarely in the realm of an apocalypticalist you might find last Friday's Fresh Air of interest. The whole first guest is interesting but around 20 minutes in is when this point comes up.

[Chernabog]

If it hasn't been posted earlier in this thread, here's Ebert's take on the whole thing.

[bewitched]

If I've never said so...Tref, I love you.

[JWBear]

Beck has lost the on theological grounds. Apparently he is now using his resources to try and wage a smear campaign against the main pastor who rebuked him.

And so with no scriptural or theological arguments to fall back upon, Glenn Beck apparently decided that his only option is to try to destroy Rev. Wallis personally. Personal attacks aren't uncommon from partisan commentators, but what is especially troubling about this most recent development is that Glenn Beck isn't just planning to throw insults; he said that he has been using his FOX staff to research everything that Rev. Wallis has ever said or done and to dig up dirt on the people who work with the pastor.

[BarTopDancer]

I can't wait for the day Beck is caught with a wide stance in an airport restroom and/or driving drunk leaving a gay bar OR the day someone (man or woman) reveals their sexting.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

If you missed The Daily Show last night, you missed Jon Stewart's stunningly acerbic satire of Glenn Beck. You can legally watch it for free at the link above. I've been a fan of TDS/JS for years, but this just elevated him in my book of esteem.

[Ghoulish Delight]

CP and I had a discussion a few weeks ago about Beck. We admitted that we had never actually watched one of his shows, all we've seen are the most outrageous clips shown on the Daily Show, HoffPo, et. al. CP was convinced that, surely, no one would watch is show if that's ALL he did, that the majority of what he said was the sort of innocuous generic conservative cheerleader stuff. "We want less government and more free enterprise."

I was less convinced. So we made a deal. A painful painful deal. We'd watch his show for a while. We realized it was unfair to assume the worst and vilify him and his fans without knowing what he was actually saying. But I had a condition. If more than 50% of what he said was bullsh*t we could stop watching.

We turned an episode on a couple weeks ago. It wasn't a big news day, nothing specific happening to set him off. It wasn't a show that ended up with him saying something particularly noteworthy in its outrageousness. Just a middle-of-the-road episode.

We got through 5 minutes of it. He literally didn't say a single sentence in those 5 minutes that wasn't composed of half-truths, exaggerations, distortions. Not one bit of fact, all emotional b.s. "proving" his emotional b.s. point.

It actively hurt to watch. But now at least I can feel I'm justified in my horror when I hear her parents say, "You know that Glenn Beck guy, he's a lunatic...but if you really listen, there's truth in what he says." Umm, no. Quite the opposite of that. If you REALLY listen, it's nothing but lies.

[BarTopDancer]

Just because he's paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get him!