First Rush, then Coulter, and Now Glenn Beck … What’s Happening?

by John-Henry Westen on August 16, 2010 · 4 comments

Appearing on The O’Reilly Factor yesterday, famed conservative Fox News host Glenn Beck may have shocked many Americans by noting that he was not very concerned about homosexual ‘marriage.’ See the complete 6 minute interview.

O’Reilly asked Beck, “Do you believe that gay marriage is a threat to the country in any way?” Beck replied, “No, I don’t,” adding sarcastically, “Will the gays come and get us?”

After being pressed again on the question, Beck said, “I believe — I believe what Thomas Jefferson said. If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?”  Showing his own surprise, O’Reilly remarked, “Okay, so you don’t. That’s interesting. Because I don’t think a lot of people understand that about you.”

The Glenn Beck revelation comes on the heels of two other startling announcements by conservative celebrity pundits in the last couple of weeks.  Earlier this week it was announced that conservative pundit Ann Coulter would headline a fundraiser for the homosexual activist group within the Republican Party, GOProud.  And on July 29, although his position had been revealed before, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh again came out in favor of homosexual civil unions, while being opposed to same-sex ‘marriage.’

To be fair, it must be pointed out that Beck said he was looking at the ‘big picture’ and promoting faith, the answer to all such things.  Moreover, he added that he was okay with gay ‘marriage’ with a caveat.  “As long as we are not going down the road of Canada, where it now is a problem for churches to have free speech. If they can still say, hey, we oppose it,” he said.

But even to have suggested, as strongly as he did, that he was not opposed to gay ‘marriage’ is detrimental and demonstrates a ‘small picture’ approach.

Beck seems like a good guy. He’s thoughtful.  He’s right on many matters in the culture war.  For instance, when O’Reilly followed up and asked if Beck thought abortion threatened the United States, Beck replied dramatically in the affirmative.  “Abortion is killing, it’s killing, you’re killing someone,” he said.

So I thought it’d be worth it to calmly and persuasively share concerns with Beck on his approach.  He may not read my email, but I’m sure if enough pro-family folks were to get the message to him, he’d reconsider his outlook.

Here’s Beck’s email: me@glennbeck.com

And here’s the gist of what I wrote:

Laws teach people what is right and wrong and thus homosexual acts will implicitly be given the stamp of approval where such legal recognition is granted.  The young will be given the false impression that this behavior is safe and acceptable, or even good.

Society has a duty to legally recognize and support married couples since they are, through procreation, the source for the continuation of human life and thus society itself.  Homosexual couples cannot properly procreate and thus have no such claim to societal recognition.

The question is not so much about marriage, but about homosexual acts.  The acts are harmful to the individuals who engage in them. They are harmful physically, emotionally and spiritually.

With regard to persons engaged in such behavior or identifying with it, there must never be unjust discrimination.  All gay bashing, name-calling and the like should be condemned.  However, there must be discrimination on this front, a just discrimination, to preserve societal recognition for marriage between one man and one woman.

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  • lkeebler

    Romans 8: 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

  • goral

    Great, wonderful and highly intelligent people all these right of center commentators are. They are products of this culture, a culture of tolerance and choice and keep your hands out of my pocket and watch out for my leg and pay attention to the market.
    Nowhere do we have a tradition of paying attention to spiritual “experts” those who are in charge of our souls, those who have a history of knowledge of evil and how it gets in.
    How dare I suggest that the Church knows and it warns us not to go in that direction. That authority has been conveniently and cleverly discredited so that it’s all open, it’s all up to me, individually.
    Nationally, we are walking the train tracks into the tunnel with our musical ear plugs sweetening the way.

    Conservative political ideology is entirely sensible but it is not salvific.

  • dont

    Being a conservative commentator does not imply that the individual adheres to God’s salvific plan for humanity. As Goral commented, conservative political ideology is not salvific.
    Also, Glen Beck errs in his description of the situation in Canada. There have been a couple of cases of homosexual activists going after Protestant ministers, and in one case the Bishop of Calgary, but all pretty much to no avail. Christians and others are still stating quite freely that homosexual unions are against God’s plan. However, in Canada, pro-marriage advocates realized a year or two after the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada that it was not something worth worrying about since very few Canadians were availing themselves of it. The majority of same sex ceremonies in Canada are for tourists – the bulk of them American. In fact, of the hundreds of same-sex ceremonies conducted in Toronto one year, only one was for Canadians.