Can anyone find a transcript of the Recover the dream speech.  I can't find it anywhere.  I don't want to say he's lying unless I can read the speech, but if it is a lie he gives being a follower of Jesus a terrible name if he is blantantly lies like that.  Though I will say that you can say something and when you say it it makes a lot of sense to you yet what you said people make hear it and take it differently.

I loved the Beck quote on that (I heard it, so I can only paraphrase it). MLK and Abe Lincoln are AMERICAN Heroes - and they belong to ALL Americans!

It is the democrat slave/master mentality.  Since they see minorities as slaves, the minorities cannot be racist.  Which is stupid and when laid bare with the naked truth, is as ugly as any we see from any corner of the planet.

I don't know what Beck said at the rally about him being a follower of Jesus.  He's a practicing Mormon and the Church of LDS have their own working definition of Who Jesus is. 

Yeah, I know Beck is Mormon.  That's one of the reasons that I haven't watched him for about 2 years.  I was referring to Rev. Al Sharpton.

The PP posts:

Sorry I misunderstood. I thought from reading your comment that you were referring to Beck.

But since you are referring to Rev. Al Sharpton, I'd say the same thing. He too has his own working definition of Jesus and the teachings of Christianity. Turns out that Jesus has lots of cheerleaders but there is no unity amongst them and that's where the big problem lies.

Beck said, "America today begins to turn back to God"...and in my view that's a good start. But he also speaks often of unity  and this is where the going gets muddy for with God there is only one objective truth and only one moral code. 

Turning back to God means that America will have to unite in a moral code doesn't it?

I firmly believe that America cannot survive unless we are united in a moral code. 

Anthony, I ask, is there an image of Al that doesn't meet your criteria?

I believe that is what Beck was doing. He had Rabbis, Priests, and Inmans there, so it was intra-faith. I would say it leads back to the basic laws inherent to most all religions, from a principled point of view. Something most everyone can relate to. It would be bad for a pundit (as it would for a politician) to cater to one specific group.

Confusing Beck and Sharpton?  Well, both are rather rotund and tend to bloviate a lot.

DG yeah, my questions were rhetorical, but I let the readers answer. I agree with what you are saying. It's terrible to thing to watch year after year. If I can use an analogy, it would be like a woman caught in an abusive relationship. She keeps going back no matter how beat up she is and defends the abusive husband on top of it all.

You know I hope more people wake up, but their will always be those that refuse to believe the evidence. I many ways it is good people like Sharpton make their speeches, or that Obama was elected. People can see for themselves it doesn't matter what color of skin they have, the only color that matters is green. A black man can make as many mistakes as a white man can. Maybe a few at a time will realize that.

On a Dec. 2, 2007 interview with David Shankbone Al Shar[ton said, "Maybe I ran for political office to change the debate, or to raise the social justice question". He used that term more than once in that interview alone.

This seems to be the new code word for redistribution of wealth. Obama has used it along with "collective salvation". So these are in both the political and religious settings. Listen up for these two terms use, and the context they are used in. Quite interesting.

I have a bad habit of answering rhetorical questions.

It's hard to surmise really, given I've not had the chance to meet him personally. So, what I'm going to propose is really just a half cocked guess.

It seems possible that his ulterior motive is to stoke that desire for attention. I'm sure he may believe in God and whatever else he says, but from what I've read he's certainly had a lot to deal with after losing his mother. I also know he's had problems with substances and has ADHD.

When someone uses/abuses a substance, they are usually trying to escape something. If my guess is correct and he is a megalomaniac, it could be possible that he is using the attention as yet another substance. Now, what is he running from? I'm not sure. It could be the loss of his mother. It could be anything.

Does his popularity threaten me? No, although i do have some concern. I've always been cautious with people like him who are firebrands. They tend to develop followings, and not all of those people think things through. I'm not saying he's going to suddenly act like Manson, but there's still the concern over the possibility of people following his every word blindly, without question.

Bush, Obama, politics in general. It's happened before.

~L

Milonas, you raise some good points in post 57. 

Beck is definitely a man with a message(s). He's also developed a following and whether they follow his every word blindly, without question remains to be seen.

I think my favorite thing about Beck is his patriotism because he seems to truly love America and is grateful to be an American.  I'm with him on that for I believe true patriotism is part of the virtue of religion which includes an active participation in whatever good we can support in society. I support protecting the just ideals (which are really principles of the natural law) found in the Constitution.

Nothing wrong with that. It is well in line with expressing your opinion.

Possible but in my opinion not very likely. How many non-political figures have attracted large groups based on a cult of personality? I would say off hand Jim Jones comes to mind with a few hundred, and then only because few had heard of him until the the aftermath. First, I would hardly class Beck with Jones. Beck is hardly mesmerizing. Also Beck is under close media scrutiny, there isn't a day that goes by, right or wrong, that someone isn't trying to tinkle in his Wheaties.

I'm sure he is riding high on his home run, bases loaded, but you have a large group that are still calling foul ball.