Glenn Beck's "Twelve Values": #2 Reverence

Paul Derengowski, ThM

Reverence. Why reverence? The lack of reverence causes a brashness, a coarseness, a noise in our society. Reverence has -- a lack of reverence has us watching the cakes and the circuses. Quick! Reverence to me means quiet, reflective, be still, listen, ponder. In our society we have not given any time to something that's extraordinarily important. Reverence. Silence. Ponder.—Glenn Beck

The problem with Beck's statement here is that it is incoherent and incomplete. He postulates that reverence is valuable, but then totally excludes who or what one is to be reverent towards. It is similar to what one might find in many eastern religions, where one is to meditate or be "silent," and lose oneself into the great nothingness of space. In other words, without an object worthy of one's reverence, like God Almighty, then what Beck is prescribing here is meaningless babble.

Nevertheless, as already noted, Glenn Beck's worldview is centered on the tenets of Mormonism. And reverence in Mormonism, while applicable to a wide range of subjects, is mainly focused on the person of God. Unfortunately, though, reverence for what amounts to be a religious idol only renders the remainder of that which the Glenn Becks are reverent toward as absurd as the Eastern guru who is reverent toward Brahman, Buddha, or the great nothingness. You may be asking, but don't the Mormons revere the same God as everyone else; it's just that they do it a little differently? Hardly.

The Mormon "god" is actually the product of its environment. It, along with a whole host of nebulous "intelligences"—as well as the "elements" that constitute the universe—is alleged to have existed for all eternity, but not as Almighty God. Through an evolutionary process that would have made Charles Darwin proud, "Heavenly Father" managed to somehow scale the lofty heights to godhood by following the Mormon principle known as the Law of Eternal Progression. It is the same process that all aspiring, worthy Mormon males must follow if they wish to see their expectation of becoming a god fulfilled. It is this "god" that Beck and company want everyone to eventually reverence.

There are several problems, though, with revering such a character. First of all, the idea that God was simply an "intelligence" among a group of other intelligences, and that the universe has always existed, comes straight out of Monistic thought. There is no essential difference between the creature and the Creator, in other words, which is emphasized in statements like that of B. H. Roberts who wrote that, "Yes, friends; this Mormon message bids us proclaim that the children of men are also the children of God, essence of his essence, and nature of his nature. Our message proclaims man divine, as also it proclaims God human—God and man of one and the same race!" Well, if there is no essential difference between the Mormon "god" and those it supposedly "created" (even though the Mormon "god" did not create anything; it merely rearranged the elements, and eternally co-existed with the other intelligences), then what is the point of revering it? Revere it for what? It is essentially no different than anyone or anything!

Second, Mormonism teaches that God is an exalted man, who is contingently related to his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather, his great, great grandfather, ad infinitum, in an eternal regression unto nothing! You may be saying, "Wait a minute; I thought all things always existed, but now you're saying there was nothing?" While all things always existed in Mormonism, there was no first God. In fact, given the naturalistic explanation of how gods and goddesses progress in Mormonism, there was not only a need for a first God, but a first pair of deified married parents to start a procreative line of gods and goddesses traversing infinity all the way to the existence of the contemporary "god" that Mormons laud today. Yet, there were no first parents either. Therefore, if one begins to count backward the contingent relationships that are associated with "Heavenly Father's" existence, and actually could count backward to infinity (which is an absurdity), one would come to a point where there was no first link the infinite chain of gods and goddesses. And since that is the case, then the Mormon god, whom the Glenn Becks wish to revere, not only does not exist; it cannot exist! One might as well be expected to revere a square circle or bright darkness, since the Mormon concept of god is as at least as ridiculous as those non-things.

The bottom line is that what Glenn Beck is postulating is nonsense. Reverence without a concrete object to revere is the very same "noise" that Beck is criticizing. It has no meaning; it has no relation to reality, yet is typical of the touchy-feeliness that is characteristic of Mormon epistemology. In other words, because it sounds good, or feels good, then it must be true, regardless of the absurdity.

Conversely, if one turns to Beck's theological beliefs as the source of his "reverence," the nonsense is only exacerbated. The Mormon god is not only a part of a finite line of contingently related gods and goddesses that extend backward into an infinite time-space continuum, if one could actually traverse an actual infinite (which is logically impossible) and reach the first God in the chain of Mormon gods, one would look in vain to find him, because he doesn't exist! Yet, we're supposed to accept Glenn Beck's definition of "reverence" as something to be valued, and then hold rallies around the absurdity as a foundational American belief.

Clearly, once again, what Glenn Beck is advocating is of the same problematic order that we are currently facing with those in various places of leadership. In other words, Beck's worldview is corrupt, diabolical, and irrational, just like those who he is criticizing, and if followed will only lead to the same end, namely corruption, demonism, and insanity. And only those too dumb or naive would be willing to reverence any of those things.

NEXT: Glenn Beck on Hope