Quoting from Bible, Glenn Beck took to the airwaves Wednesday night to strongly condemn the anti-gay attacks on two teens and another man earlier this month in New York.
This unimaginable hatred in the attacks that happened in the Bronx left me with a sinking feeling and a burning question: Who are we and who are we becoming?
I think before we go any further as a nation, it’s time that we honestly examine ourselves. And to have a complete honest examination, we need to hear both the worst and the best.
Hatred is growing in this country. Darkness is growing. […] A phrase keeps running through my mind: For the love of man shall wax cold because inequity shall abound. The love of man shall wax cold. How does someone do this to another human being?
While it’s heartening to hear strong words against these attacks from even a fearmonger like Beck, his choice of Bible verse is rather ironic. Beck’s paraphrase of Matthew 24:12 comes as Jesus is telling his disciples what it will be like in the end times. Jesus warns his disciples not to be deceived by false prophets and how the faithful will suffer at the hands of those who hate. In verse 11, Jesus says: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
The irony of Beck quoting from a passage warning of false prophets is almost too much to bear. While Beck has refused to condemn same-sex marriage, and makes a strong case against this horrid attack in Bronx, his invective against spreading hatred and bigotry rings rather hollow coming from such a false prophet who has delighted in spewing a lot of hatred and bigotry over the airwaves.
Beck has spent a lot of time hating on many people, including President Obama, who he called a “racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture.”
He also has a long history of making sexist comments, hating on everyone from Hillary Clinton (“She’s the stereotypical bitch”), to Madeline Albright (“look at the skin on her neck … she looks like a turkey”), to even Sarah Palin:
“Palin/Beck? Ridiculous… I was just thinking, what I’m gonna take backseat to a chick? While you’re at it, go shoot a bear! Make some stew! I’m hungry in here.”
But, perhaps that’s just run-of-the mill hatred and bigotry that he can get away with. What he’s condemning here is clearly violence—something he would never actually advocate himself, right? Well, back in 2005, Beck said this:
“I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it… No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus—band—Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’d kill Michael Moore,’ and then I’d see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I’d realize, ‘Oh, you wouldn’t kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn’t choke him to death.’ And you know, well, I’m not sure.”
Yeah, perhaps that’s a joke, but Beck’s rant against violence this week included condemnation of anyone who would threaten to harm others while defending Beck on blogs or message boards:
What shocked me were the responses by some people who were, quote, “defending me,” end quote, responding with equally horrible comments, wishing harm on them, wishing—I read one where the guy said, “It’s progressives like you that need to be rounded up.”
I read that, it was such a horrific post—that was just one line in it—just a horrific post, I actually sat there on the plane and I thought to myself, that guy cannot be a fan of mine. That guy has to be a poser. He has to be trying to discredit me. I don’t know. And that was the point. I don’t know. It’s getting hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys sometimes.
Time will tell if Beck’s renunciation of violence and bigotry is true or if he’ll soon be back to his old tricks, because while he condemned the New York attackers’ actions as “bigotry for sport,” Beck clearly has no trouble with bigotry for profit.
