It is no secret to readers of The God Article that I am not a Glenn Beck fan.  Up until his rally in DC, I mostly just found him annoying, manipulative, and an intellectual wanna-be.  At his rally, he started treading on grounds that for me are not far from hallowed (both figuratively and literally).  He tried to position himself not only as a religious leader (despite the fact that some of his personal beliefs are very different from the majority of Christians in the US) but he tried to do so by pitching himself as a modern day Martin Luther King, Jr. (one of my few personal heroes).

At that point Beck was more than annoying to me; he was dangerous.  Before that, I just disagreed with his politics, but I didn't find him particularly dangerous (maybe a little) but when he started co-opting religion to push his less than godly positions, I was done and haven't hesitated to speak out every time his self-promoting, manipulative, over-privileged, pseudo-intellectual talk veers toward the realm of religion.  Wrapping Christianity in the assumption of what American exceptionalism has become is not only antithetical to the humility God requires of us, but it is also dangerous for a country that was founded, in part, because of a lack of religious freedom.

So, when I read a blog post on alternet.org about how Beck's show has lost a million viewers (that's a third of his viewership) in just one year, I have to admit, it really made me happy.  I'm glad to see that the work of those opposing Beck is making a difference.  This is the kind of peaceful, non-violent resistance we are supposed to practice when faced with hurtful forces.  Because of the work of many, many people and organizations, advertisers are stepping away from Beck's programs.  New York and Philadelphia radio stations have dropped his show.  All of this happened on the heals of massive exposure for Beck last year.  It's pretty impressive work.

I honestly feel a bit bad about feeling good about his fall from grace in the eyes of his viewers.  I wonder if Jesus felt bad about the money changers being kicked out of the temple? Probably not.  At any rate, I'll have to work this guilt out with God... but in the mean time, I am glad, I am thankful, that the hurtfulness of Glenn Beck seems to be winding down.

I don't listen to Rush.  I tried to just so I'd be familiar with what he was saying, but I could actually feel my IQ lowering as I listened... so, I don't listen to Rush.  However, I can all but hear the spin that he and Beck will be putting on the Tuscon Tragedy, “Let's not miss the fact that this man was mentally unstable...for that matter it's starting to sound like he identified with the 'crazies' on the left.”

It won't surprise me if they see this as an opportunity to set up yet another scapegoat for the problems they cause (they already use Muslims, 'Socialists,' and gays just to name a few). If it is something about which the 'average' American might lack in depth knowledge they use the ignorance against them and ramp of the fear (this is where knowledge can be a weapon).  It won't surprise me if they start to villainize those with mental disorders in order to deflect the blame and, as a side effect, have yet another go-to target (yes, I said 'target' intentionally) when they feel like their backs are against the wall...or just when they want to raise the fear level in the nation.

What they need to be doing is steeping up and taking ownership in their roll of creating a nation of Mad Men (not the TV show and in this rare case, for the sake of literary consistency, I'm using 'Man' in place of 'humanity').  These Mad Men (the likes of Beck, Rush and Palin) are intentionally creating more Mad Men and they need to step up and own their part in this national madness which is increasingly bent on violence.

More than that, they need to show a little confidence on their position.  Now I completely get that they are trying to defend some pretty indefensible positions, but that's the point really, isn't it?  If the only way they can make their positions gain footing is by ramping up hate and rage, then it's really not a dependable position at all is it?  If they really believe that what they are saying makes sense, they should drop the divisive language and the subtle language of violence and actually deal with the issues.  If they really believe that what they are saying makes sense, it should be easy to drop the hate-mongering... but I don't think they will.  At least not for very long.

You see, the political machine will ratchet down the hate speech for a brief period, not because they believe it is the right thing to do for humanity, but because they think it is the right thing to do for their re-election campaign. And then the moment they think the eyes of the nation and it's desire to quail the hate-mongering have been subdued by their pursuit of lesser things, they will slowly ramp up the divisive, violence laced rhetoric - not because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the easy thing to do - not because the violence will no longer be incited, but because they believe their own election is more important than any lives that might be lost.  It's mad I tell you... the actions of Mad Men.

We...we are left praying for a 9 year old girl, a Federal court judge, and a congressional aid... all who were killed or injured in the cross fire.  Praying for Congresswoman Giffords and her recovery.  And possibly the hardest part of all, praying for the shooter and for the life that pushed him so far to do something so hateful.  It's not what you are hearing online and on television from commentators, but it is the uncommon thing we Christians are called to do.  For that matter, we need to be praying for the Mad Men too.