Ugh

POSTED BY JHW22

When trying to think of a title of this post, I couldn't do better than, "Ugh." Why? Because, for starters, Glenn Beck moved to my metroplex. He lives pretty close to one of my FAVORITE places to eat and I fear the day I see him there. I told someone that I hope he chokes on a chicken bone while I am there: I don't want him to die, but I'd really like to see the fear and panic in his face. The same fear and panic he spreads throughout the country with his lies and mongering.

We've all thought, at one point or another, that Glenn Beck is a snake oil salesman, a con man, and even a televangelist of sorts. He talks about God as if he somehow understands what it means to be Christian. Well, he acts like the very type of Christian that helped me decide to be atheist. But He doesn't act like the type of Christian that matches the Christ part of the Bible. I want to tell Beck that he takes the Christ out of Christian. But, wait, is he still Mormon? And are Mormons really Christian anyway? I can't keep track of what people "are" and what they "profess" to be and who gets to decide what someone really is. Sorry, that's a bit of a tangent on the Reverend Jeffress calling Romney a Mormon but Obama a "professed" Christian thing. Isn't it interesting that Reverend Jeffress is super close to the name Jeffs?

Anywho, Beck lives near me and it makes me shiver.

But that's not the real ugh of it. The real ugh of it is that he is buying a church, yes, a church, to run his media empire out of. And that's even closer to me than his house. I actually drive past the church several times a week. Ugh.

My first thought was, "So he really IS a televangelist." My husband's first thought was, "What does that say about the area we live in that Glenn Beck thinks his type of nutty is a perfect fit here?" My next thought was, "How much nuttier are our neighbors gonna get?"

In all the controversy over the Beckoning of Glenn's media empire in our area, people have focused on the risks associated with his brand of controversy and ill-will. People are seriously nervous about the property and the surrounding homes. The agreement is that there will be security staffing to protect people. But the odd thing is that they seem to think the people who need protecting are the people who will attend the Beck Freak Show. They seriously worry that "liberals" will cause them harm. It's funny that Palin was completely blameless in the tenor of the country around the time of Gabby Giffords' shooting but Beck will somehow cause all the area liberals to rise up and cause harm. Baffling.

But I do think Palin was, in part, responsible for the tenor of the nation's rage and disgust. And I think Glenn Beck is a huge reason many in the country think violence and aggression is acceptable.

So my fear isn't that people who show up for the cattle call will be hurt. My fear is that liberals with Obama stickers driving by the Tea Party Church will be harmed. Can you imagine the sewage that he will fill my community's heads with and how he will enable rage? And can you see some Obama-supporter driving by as the hounds are released en masse? The street is a congested mess already. The traffic moves faster than it should. People switch lanes and tailgate worse on that road than most others. Add a bunch of pumped up angry Becker-heads, and I think bad shit will happen.

So I am trying to wrap my brain around this. I am for the First Amendment (the speech part should only apply here since he's not a religion, but the undertones seem religious, don't they?). I think he has a right to be there. As long as he owns the building as his business and not his non-profit, then I think the taxes and employment are good. BUT to think that his anger and ugliness will be near me, well, just simply, ugh.

I hope local liberals don't add to the madness of that street and picket. I hope local liberals live and let live and show the Beckies that we are better than they think we are. But above all, I hope the community quickly sees him for what he is: a charlatan.

On his own website he says the following is one of his core values and principles (perhaps I should get a bumper sticker of this when he opens for business):

"Unapologetically profit focused"

Now, I don't live in the town where the church is. I live on the "other side of the tracks." But to get a real idea of the town he's moving into for his fear mongering, profit focusing, here's a peek of his neighborhood. Is that where Jesus would go?