If you had your money on Glenn Beck being the first big-name, far-right icon to conclude that the tragedy in Japan is God’s punishment for (insert reason here), come on down and claim your prize.
Huffington Post (via Media Matters) has audio from Beck’s Monday show. Here’s a short transcript:
God — what God does is God’s business, I have no idea. But I’ll tell you this: whether you call it Gaia or whether you call it Jesus — there’s a message being sent. And that is, ‘Hey, you know that stuff we’re doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.’ I’m just sayin’. And — yesterday I got home and I was thinking about all the messages that I could bring in, all the things that I could tell ya, and oh I’ve got stuff on Hezbollah. Oh, I have stuff on radical Islam in America that’ll make your eyes fall out. Or I could just tell you the answer, and the answer is: Buckle up. Buckle up, ’cause it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
This kind of rant isn’t new. San Antonio megachurch Pastor John Hagee famously said Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans just in time to stop a planned gay pride parade in the city. Then there was Pat Robertson’s suggestion that Haiti brought the January 2010 earthquake upon itself because its people had made a pact with the devil.
Beck didn’t go as far as Hagee or Robertson and didn’t cite a specific reason for God smiting the good people of Japan. So we’re left to wonder what Beck thinks Japan did to deserve it. And while we’re on the subject, what did we do to deserve Beck?
I guess you have to make allowances for these primitive types…always wanting to assign personal blame for natural disasters.
Isn’t that line to collect the prize going to be a bit long?
Someone sent me an e-mail last weekend wondering why an all powerful all knowing God speaks only through folks like Beck, Hagee and Robertson. He noted that Katrina caused substantial damage to the Baptist Seminary in New Orleans while the origninal French Quarter was virtually untouched
But he also wondered that if God is so real and powerful, why does he need to send such confusing messages? Why doesn’t God just boom out for all to hear,”OK folks, this is God and I need to have a few words with you. So listen up and pay attention.”
I think my e-mailer has a very good point.
I expected Pat Robertson to “have one in the can” already, so they could just put it up immediately.
Beck is on his way down.
God’s mercy extended to the French Quarter proves that fooling around isn’t fooling around.
As per usual, the fundies have not read their Bibles. I would refer them to the Book of Job where one of Job’s friends speculates that all of his suffering must be God punishing him for some sin. God intervenes to ask his friend where he was when God laid the foundation of the world, which was a very snazzy way of saying, “Shut up idiot. What do you know, and that ain’t it???!!!”
There is also the instance in the New Testament where Jesus is faced with the speculation that certain groups of men or cities where something bad had just happened must have been punished by God for some sin they committed. Once again, Jesus sets them straight.
Then, there is perhaps the most famous of all, that being the saying by Jesus that God causes his rain to fall on both the just and the unjust. That has two potential meanings. Rain can be bad or rain can be good—or it can be both—depending on your circumstances. Eight inches of rain fall on an area. Both the good people and the bad people who built their houses on the floodplain get flooded. Both the good and the bad who built their houses on the mountain are spared—or you can have a mixture. Who is to say?
Then there is the case of Lot where God says he is willing to spare the two cities if there are only a tiny handful of righteous people who live in the city. And you have to remember that both of the cities in question were ABOMINATIONS
Then there is the place in the New Testament where it says that God is FULL of mercy. The fundie view of “full of mercy” is that 1,000,000 people have sinned, and God just lets one person go—and that was only because he somehow deserved it. That’s not full of mercy. Their view of mercy is a bone-dry desert. I think full means full—meaning filled to the rim and within one drop of overflowing. Of course, the fundies cannot accept that view. They are anxiously awaiting the days when they can laugh and cheer at the destruction of those who disagree with their heartless and “I’m better than you” perspective on life.
Beck is on his way out at Fox. Despite the hundreds of American corporatations that refuse to advertise on his show Fox was just fine with Beck as long as viewers were tuning in to listen to his idiocy. But he lost 1 million daily viewers, a little more than 1/3rd of his audience, in 2010. And the more outlandish he gets the more he viewers he loses.
If Vegas had a line on Beck I’d put money on him being gone from Fox by the end of the year.
Fox is also trying to have all thier stations on the same poiitcal page. Not all Fox stations (like Houston’s Fox26) like to have their editorial line dictated to them.
After all, this is Texas.
The ‘strenth” of the RR pitch is their profuse pronoucement of “facts” which include Biblican profundities. The best counter is to take then on fact for fact rather than a general condemnation of their short comings.
Is “Biblican” a cross between “Biblical” and “Texan?”
more likely Republican and “Biblical.”
Rebiblicans?
Republican theocrats?
Republicrats?
I think we’ve seen that one.
I have known Glenn’s viewpoints typically represent the Religious Right Christians views, therefore his gullibility rating would have to be very high so he’ll believe in the imaginary God’s influences.
Bibli_can
When I was a kid I lived in Utah, and the Boy Scouts was taken over by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church). This, so called religion, practices underage polygamy, they send the boy s off on missions to divide the underage sisters among the dirty old men of the clan. Now when these underage girls get pregnant, these same dirty old men, send them to the state to get their welfare checks . You should see some of the palace homes that are paid with welfare checks (not on just one of course). By the way this is the newest religion that was created right here in United States of America, I guess their also in AZ, CA, NM, TX, NV, CO, OK. When someone hides behind religion to do or say something that is wrong we should stand up and point it out (right the wrong). Someone should ask Glenn Beck about it, he seems to have all the answers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iisl-xH3Xs