The Beck Comparisons To MLK Were Ridiculous
By: Steve - August 29, 2010 - 8:30am
Saturday at the Glenn Beck church picnic, oops I mean Restoring Honor Rally. And btw, exactly how did Beck restore honor to America by having a religious rally with 90,000 conservatives.
So anyway, at the religious rally Beck said some crazy things, but one thing stood out to me as really crazy. After reciting the names of Moses, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington, Beck said this:
BECK: I can relate to Martin Luther King probably the most. Out of all these giants, I can relate to Martin Luther King probably the most because we haven't carved him in marble yet.
Now that's f-ing crazy, because Martin Luther King and Glenn Beck are like fire and water, they are exact opposites. In no way can Glenn Beck relate to MLK, and if MLK were alive today he would not relate to Glenn Beck at all. Let me show you a few ways that they are exactly opposite.
-- MLK believed that it was America's collective responsibility to provide economic justice for all.
In 1961, MLK addressed the AFL-CIO on his vision of the American Dream. King said that his vision of America's promise was a country where equality of opportunity, of privilege and property are widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
King helped launch a Poor People's Campaign based around demanding that President Johnson and Congress help the poor get jobs, health care and decent homes. He explained that poverty was a problem that couldn't be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars - and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power. Then he spent the last days of his life campaigning on behalf of a living wage for striking sanitation workers in Tennessee.
Glenn Beck has repeatedly insulted and opposed any government attempt to help the poor.
Beck has claimed that Big government never lifts anybody out of poverty. It creates slaves, people who are dependent on the scraps from the government, the handouts. He has said that President Obama is really is a Marxist because he believes in the redistribution of wealth.
He argued in his book that the reason the poor are poor and can't be helped by the government is simply because they are lazy.
Discussing the topic of rebuilding New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, Beck said we shouldn't spend a single dime, and that the residents should just move out.
Discussing the topic of jobless Americans unable to find work receiving unemployment benefits, Beck said he would be ashamed to call some of them Americans.
MLK championed using his faith to achieve social justice.
King called himself an advocator of the social gospel, and saw Jesus's teachings as commanding him to take part in progressive activism to achieve social justice. In a 1963 speech Western Michigan University, he said that he saw an age of social justice as the goal of his movement.
Beck is 100% opposed to social justice, and attacked Christians who want to use their faith to achieve it.
Beck told his viewers that when they hear the words social justice they should run, and don't listen to anyone who is telling you differently. He also accused progressives of trying to hijack churches with a message of social justice. He even wrongly claimed that civil rights demonstrators weren't crying out for social justice.
MLK believed in loving those who disagreed with him and engaging in thoughtful dialogue.
One of the hallmarks of King's philosophy and what separated him from many other leaders was his advocacy for maintaining thoughtful and respectful dialogue with those who disagreed with his goals. In 1957, the civil rights leader gave a sermon titled, Loving Your Enemies.
King said that a man must discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.
He practiced nonviolence and even asked civil rights demonstrators to not fight back when attacked by white racists. He demanded of his fellow demonstrators a refusal to hate.
Beck has repeatedly attacked his political opponents with vicious and hateful language.
Beck has compared president Obama to the Antichrist and said that it was approaching treason to elect a more progressive Congress.
He has said he hates the 9/11 victims families and derided supporters of cap-and-trade as greedy, wicked, and treasonous.
When interviewing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the nation's first elected Muslim congressman, Beck said this to him, "What I feel like saying is, Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
He also speculated that Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) wife must have been under the influence of a date rape drug to marry him.
In fact, it would be hard to find two people with philosophies so different than Glenn Beck and Dr. Martin Luther King. While MLK fought for all people to be able to live a decent life, championed a compassionate version of Christianity that sought to create a better world, and established dialogue with those who disagreed with him.
Beck shows little compassion for those he disagrees with, has slammed the social gospel, and has viciously smeared and attacked his political opponents. So for Glenn Beck to claim he relates to Dr. King more than anyone is laughable, and just another lie from Beck.
Dr. King and Glenn Beck are nothing alike, in fact, they are exact opposites.
