The problem with writing a column about Glenn
Beck is that everyone already has said everything about him.
His story has been told, his politics dissected,
his rhetoric debated, his personal life invaded and his net worth
revealed. And it's all been done to the point of redundancy.
And yet the Glenn Beck conversation thrives,
especially in Mormon circles.
In an effort to take something of a sociological
snapshot, I posted this question on my Facebook wall on Thursday: "What
do you think of Glenn Beck?"
Within a couple of hours, 10 people had responded.
Some of them commented more than once, and some of them used bad words
that I can't repeat here, but two commonalities were immediately
apparent:
1.
They were all members
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (some active, some
inactive), and
2.
They all had negative opinions of Brother Beck.
At first the results surprised me. I've spent
enough time with my in-laws and their extended family to know that some
of Beck's most ardent supporters are Latter-day Saints. But
after reviewing the comments on my Facebook wall, I noticed a
similarity I hadn't considered: Almost all of the Beck-bashers were
under 40 years old.
Without spending too much time on my
opinion of the pundit/entertainer — I'm going to have to face
my in-laws at the next family reunion, after all — I'll just say I
think Beck's unique brand of hateful rhetoric, fear-mongering and
conspiracy theorizing represent a dangerous fringe of American
conservatism. That younger Mormons seem to be rejecting
him is encouraging.
Of course, my only evidence of this assertion is
anecdotal, and I'm not aware of any data that track the political
leanings of LDS young adults. But more broadly, a
has found that an increasing number of 18- to 29-year-olds consider
themselves independent of either of the dominant partisan platforms.
It's entirely plausible, if not likely, that the same trend toward
moderate politics is taking place within the church.
I have
written before about the
hazards of our church becoming too mono-partisan. If we risk
alienating Democrats by being too Republican, then we risk
alienating an even
larger group — namely, rational people of any political ideology who
find the rantings of extremists repellent — when we defend and
even join the radical fringe.
There is no doubt that Beck's story of repentance,
recovery and conversion is an inspiration, and we should be careful not
to demonize him as an individual. But some of his
rhetoric and some of his politics are uncivil at best and frightening
at worst.
If we want our church culture to welcome people with a variety
of opinions, we would do well to follow