{"id":37,"date":"2011-02-22T12:04:06","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T12:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/02\/beck-and-billy-graham-stealing-the-blessing.html"},"modified":"2011-02-22T12:04:06","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T12:04:06","slug":"beck-and-billy-graham-stealing-the-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/02\/beck-and-billy-graham-stealing-the-blessing.html","title":{"rendered":"Beck and Billy Graham: Stealing the Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glenn Beck met with Billy Graham on February 19.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Beck is a Mormon, and a self-made
\nleader in the re-emergent Religious Right and Tea Party movements, and Graham
\nis a Baptist evangelist, long-time esteemed leader of American
\nevangelicalism.  <\/span>An unlikely pair.  <\/span>Yet, in the last Gallup poll for “most
\nadmired man” Beck and Graham tied in the top 10, behind Barack Obama, George
\nW. Bush, and Nelson Mandela. For almost a year, Beck has tried to meet Graham,
\nwho turned down the request.  <\/span>But,
\nsuddenly, this past weekend, Graham’s people arranged a meeting.<\/p>\n

Beck broke news of the meeting on Twitter and followed up with a 25 minute report on his radio show on Tuesday. According to Beck, the scheduled sixty-minute meeting
\nextended to three hours during which time the two men prayed together and
\ndiscussed the current state of global affairs, politics, and faith.<\/p>\n

Beck said that Graham is practically blind and is hard
\nof hearing.  <\/span>Yet, according to
\nBeck, they spoke of the “darkness” in the world and more difficult times
\nahead.  <\/span>Beck claimed that he and
\nGraham shared concerns for being “prepared” morally, spiritually, and physically
\nfor the coming tribulation.  <\/span>Beck
\nimplied that Graham agreed with his assessment that “the Left has given itself
\nover to Evil” by aligning itself with communists and dictators and “regular
\nDemocratic voters.”  <\/span><\/p>\n

Beck also implied that Billy Graham approved of his
\nleadership in the realm of religion and politics. Beck claimed that Graham said
\nthat whoever “stands up” on the side of the “light” forms the righteous
\ncommunity, and that all who resist the “darkness” are on the side of
\ntruth.  <\/span>Beck admitted that
\ntheological differences separated the two, but further insisted that such
\ndifferences are miniscule against the threat of evil.  <\/span>We need to “stand up” together, Beck insisted.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Although such a report might seem benign, Beck’s meeting
\nwith Graham and Beck’s description of it amounts to a sort of
\ntheological dog-whistle for those in the conservative religious-political
\ncommunity.  <\/span>In his meandering way,
\nGlenn Beck implied that Billy Graham has given his blessing to Beck as his
\nheir, the One to lead the Troops of Light against the Demons of Darkness in the
\nupcoming tribulation.  <\/span>According to
\nBeck, the Baptist Graham passed his mantle onto the Mormon Beck as the
\nspiritual and political leader of the next Great American Awakening.  <\/span>Never mind that Graham has never been an
\napocalyptic preacher, it is unimaginable that he said Democratic
\nvoters have given into evil, and unlikely that he understands Mormonism as theological equal to evangelicalism.  Yet <\/span>Beck
\ncoyly implied that the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham gave his imprimatur to a union
\nbetween the old evangelical right and the new right-wing Mormon activism.  <\/span>In the process, he by-passed a younger
\ngeneration of evangelical leaders, many of whom have become openly hostile to
\nthe Religious Right in general and Beck in particular.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Not being a conservative evangelical, I am not entirely sure
\nwhat evangelicals will make of this. 
\n<\/span>There is, however, a very similar story in the Bible:<\/p>\n

When
\nIsaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his
\nelder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ He
\nsaid, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your
\nweapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for
\nme. Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat,
\nso that I may bless you before I die.’<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i>While
\nEsau prepared the meal for his father, his younger brother Jacob schemed to
\nusurp the blessing by disguising himself as Esau:<\/span><\/p>\n

 So Jacob went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and
\nhe said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau
\nyour firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so
\nthat you may bless me.’ But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found
\nit so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me
\nsuccess.’ Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to
\nknow whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ So Jacob went up to his father
\nIsaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are
\nthe hands of Esau.’ He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like
\nhis brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. He said, ‘Are you really my son
\nEsau?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my
\nson’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought
\nhim wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss
\nme, my son.’ So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his
\ngarments, and blessed him, and said,?’Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell
\nof a field that the Lord has blessed. ?May God give you of the dew of heaven, and
\nof the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. ?Let peoples serve
\nyou, and nations bow down to you.? Be lord over your brothers, and may your
\nmother’s sons bow down to you.? Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed
\nbe everyone who blesses you!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and the familiar Religious
\nRight leaders, you need to go check on Billy Graham.  Glenn Beck’s no patriarch of Israel, but <\/span>I think he might just have made off with your
\nbirthright.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Beck met with Billy Graham on February 19.   Beck is a Mormon, and a self-made leader in the re-emergent Religious Right and Tea Party movements, and Graham is a Baptist evangelist, long-time esteemed leader of American evangelicalism.  An unlikely pair.  Yet, in the last Gallup poll for “most admired man” Beck and Graham tied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-religion-and-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nBeck and Billy Graham: Stealing the Blessing - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2011\/02\/beck-and-billy-graham-stealing-the-blessing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beck and Billy Graham: Stealing the Blessing - 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She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}