Glenn Beck's "Twelve Values": #5 Humility

Paul Derengowski, ThM

Humility. Opposite is an empire building, empire builder: "We're the empire! We're America!" Humility. It's the opposite of what we've learned from Wall Street. It's the opposite of what we have from Paris Hilton and the Prada purses, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. A humble society doesn't have a Prada purse with a little dog. They never say, "Well, we know better." If we're humble, we can find the real true us, flaws and all. We're willing to look at the "Us."—Glenn Beck

It's also the opposite of what one finds in Mormonism as well, of which Glenn Beck subscribes. For what could possibly be more arrogant than to believe that through enough human effort and ingenuity that one could become a god? And what could be more arrogant than to believe that while on the road to godhood that one is currently a "god in embryo?" No, I'm not talking about some Hellenistic novel dealing with Zeus or Hercules, or some cheap sci-fi flick that Scientology might produce. Nor am I alluding to Claude Vorilhon and his whacked-out Raelian friends. I'm talking about Glenn Beck and his contradictory notion about humility. He thinks he's a god in embryo, and that if he puts enough effort into it, he can become a full-blown god one day!

According to the infamous Mormon couplet started years ago by past LDS president Lorenzo Snow, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." The whole idea here is that man has the potential to become as God currently is, simply because God is of the "same race" as man, and that he has progressed from a state of finite humanness to a state of infinite godhood. And just how is this accomplished? According to Joseph Fielding Smith, "If the faithful, who keep the commandments of the Father, are his sons, then they are heirs of the kingdom and shall receive of the fulness [sic] of the Father's glory, even until they become like the Father" (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:39). In other words, through legalistic means any Mormon male, such as Glenn Beck, can be their own god one day if they'll simply obey. Sounds humble, doesn't it?

What is blasphemously wrong with hoping for such a thing is that not only does the concept of human theosis (humans becoming gods and goddesses) completely defy the idea of humility; it completely defies what God has already revealed on the subjects. Humility is not about becoming a god, and then feigning through non-disclosure that that is not what one is talking about when discussing humility as a value. Humility is about a voluntary submission to the will of God, as revealed in the Word of God, whereby the humble acknowledge God as the absolute and benevolent Creator and Sustainer of all that there is, and that without comparable competition. Humility is about recognizing one's complete and utter dependence on God for his existence, and that the creature's role is not to evolve and progress unto a role that is anything more than a creature, but to honor, worship, and serve the Creator with his whole being.

God has revealed, to the chagrin of many Mormons, et al, "Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me" (Isa. 43:10). "I am the first and the last, and there is no God besides Me" (Isa. 44:6b). He asks, "Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock?" and then concludes, "I know of none" (Isa. 44:8d). "I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God" (Isa. 45:5). Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent" (Jn. 17:3). The apostle Paul wrote, "There is…one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4:4a, 6). And in one of Paul's final letters he wrote, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).

Now, there are going to be some Mormon apologists—probably not Glenn Beck, because he's not that smart—who will argue that it's all either a matter of personal interpretation, or that the Early Church Fathers, as well as Eastern Orthodoxy, believed in the deification of human beings. Yet, there are two major flaws in those kinds of responses. First, the argument from interpretation falls flat, given that there is no defined hermeneutical method prescribed or taught among Mormons to make the criticism worthy of consideration. Instead, if asked about interpretive method, the most popular type of response is the subjective "burning in the bosom" approach to Scripture. In other words, if it feels good, then it must be true, and if it feels bad, then it must be false. Yet, such an approach to interpretation is nothing more than personal preference and not interpretation at all.

Second, only a major twisting of the Early Church Fathers will render anything even remotely close to the Mormon ideal of human theosis. In other words, the typical Mormon approaches early church writings like they do the Bible, meaning that they implement the cherry-picking method of taking statements out of context in order to support a pretext. Otherwise, one will find that the ECFs were faithful monotheists, and had no ambition whatsoever of ever striving to become gods, in essence, themselves. One thought needs to be added, though, and it is simply this. The final authority on any matter of biblical doctrine is the Bible; not the Early Church Fathers.

Third, the Eastern Orthodox Church, though advocating the deification of humans, does not speak of it in the same manner as Mormonism does. Instead, the Eastern Orthodox sees men as gods only in the sense of sanctification unto glorification. Human essence is different from God's essence, and does not change. "Rather, it is natural, ethical, and in accordance with grace," writes Christoforos Stavropoulos (Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Theology, 183). In other words, divinization has to do with the gradual transformation of a redeemed human being back into the original image of God; it has nothing to do with making him a literal god which possesses the same divine essence as God, who then roams off to rule his own planet one day with his harem of polygamously married wives, as Mormonism teaches. Only an abuse of Eastern Orthodox beliefs can a Mormon engage in, in order to arrive at the conclusion that his beliefs are supported by the Eastern Orthodox.

Clearly, as in the case thus far elsewhere, Glenn Beck's humility value is as misguided as all his other values. On the surface it appears tenable, but when one goes beneath the facade, his Mormon foundation portrays an arrogance that is the complete antithesis of the humility that he is propagating. His so-called humility ultimately is leading him to not only believe that he is currently a "god in embryo," but that he will eventually become a god as well. And that is hardly the kind of humility that is indicative of anything our Founding Fathers would have advocated, but is apparently a quality that Beck finds admirable as he continues to attempt to rewrite not only Christian theology, but American history as well.

NEXT: Glenn Beck on Charity