Saturday morning in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty University conveyed an honorary doctorate in humanities and scientists on Mormon conservative media heavyweight Glenn Beck.
Breaking into his trademark tears, Beck told the stadium of 8,000 Liberty University grads and 20,000 friends and family members, “as a man who was never able to go to college—I went for one semester but I couldn’t afford any more than that—-I am humbled and honored.”
Beck immediately offered an apology of sorts for his Mormonism, saying that it was an act of “courage” for the fundamentalist Baptist Liberty University to invite him to speak and that he understood it was “not meant as an endorsement of my faith,” offering instead his own “endorsement of your faith,” emphasizing his personal belief in Jesus Christ, and exhorting the audience to “look to God and live,” a reference to the story of Moses and the brazen serpent (Numbers 21: 7 -9).
Using research and citation methods that would have earned him a failing grade in any respectable freshman composition class, Beck took a swipe at Barack Obama’s May 1 commencement address to the University of Michigan, suggesting that Obama had discouraged the search for “truth” by describing the incredible availability of information in the digital age as a source of confusion.
Beck then described one semester at Yale University, during which an unnamed professor discouraged him from reading an unnamed book and instructed that he instead read another unnamed book, virtually bullying him from the classroom podium to do so.
Beck encouraged students to reject the Obama-Yale-information-elite and instead use their “God-given right” on a “Holy Spirit”-led search for truth wherever it might lead….
As long as that search did not lead to the actual transcript of President Obama’s speech, and in particular these relevant portions:
Today’s twenty-four seven echo chamber amplifies the most inflammatory soundbites louder and faster than ever before. It has also, however, given us unprecedented choice. …This development can be both good and bad for democracy. For if we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we will become more polarized and set in our ways. And that will only reinforce and even deepen the political divides in this country. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and our beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.
Beck concluded his thirty minute address with a bombastic pageant of scripture-scented aphorisms including “Life is hard then it gets harder then you die,” “always tithe,” and “shoot to kill.”
