Monday, May 31, 2010

Glenn Beck – Mormon Historian?



From RazorsKiss:

Here’s a transcript:

22:40: Glenn: “…the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know what they are? Stu, do you know what the Dead Sea Scrolls are?
Stu: Well, of course I do…
Glenn: Now, c’mon, most people don’t.
Stu: Well, I heard of them, I don’t really know
Glenn: You don’t really know. You have no idea why they were there. Sara average person doesn’t know. Any idea, take a guess on why the Dead Sea Scrolls were there, or anything else.
Sara(?): Something religious.
Glenn: Okay, good. Even though I’ve explained this on this program a couple of times, I’m glad to see that even the people that work with me don’t even listen.
So here’s what happened. When Constantine decided that he was going to cobble together an army, he did the Council of Nicea, right, Pat?
Pat: Yea.
Glenn: The Council of Nicea, and what they did is brought all of the religious figures together, all the Christians and then they said, “Ok, let’s put together the Apostles’ Creed, let’s you know, you guys do it.” So they brought all their religious scripture together, that’s when the Bible was first bound and everything else. And then they said, “Anybody that disagrees with this is a heretic and off with their head!” Well, that’s what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. The Dead Sea Scrolls are those scriptures that people had at the time that they said, “They are destroying all of this truth.” Whether it’s truth or not is up to the individual, but at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved and so they rolled up the scrolls and put them in clay pots and they put them in the back of caves where no one could find them. They were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the Council of Nicea and Constantine. That’s what those things are.” 24:37

More 

Update:
What I’m going to do is defend Glenn Beck here on what he got right. I will repost the words and strike what is incorrect. The remainder (what is either correct or at least possibly correct) will be in blue.
All right. So here’s what happened. When Constantine decided he was going to uh… cobble together an army, um, he did the uh… Council of uh… Nicaea, right, Pat?
Council of Nicaea. Um… and what they did is brought all of the religious figures, uhh, together, all the Christians and then they said, “Ok, let’s uh, put together the Apostles’ Creed, let’s, you know, you guys do it.” So they brought all their religious scripture together, and that’s when the Bible was first bound and everything else. And then they said, “Anybody that disagrees with this is a heretic and… off with their head!” Well, that’s what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. The Dead Sea Scrolls are those scriptures that people had at the time that they said, “They are destroying all of this truth.” Whether it’s truth or not is, is up to the individual, but that… at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved and so they rolled up the scrolls and they put ‘em in clay pots and they, they put ‘em in the back of caves where no one could find them. They were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the Council of Nicaea and Constantine. That’s what those things are.
There you go. Here’s where he was spot on:
  • “All right.” Can’t argue with that.
  • “uh … um … uh” I won’t take exception to those. We all say them.
  • “right, Pat?” Pat exists, and Beck asked him a question.
  • “Council of Nicea” A real historical event.
  • “Whether it’s truth or not is, is up to the individual,” Can’t really disagree with that when you’re speaking of truth in a relative sense. Some people believe the Dead Sea Scrolls contain truth, others do not.
  • “rolled up the scrolls and … put ‘em in clay pots and … put ‘em in the back of caves where no one could find them.” While wrong about who “they” were, it’s quite possible the real folks behind the DSS did what Beck said. Could be someone else moved them around later. Could be any number of possibilities.
  • “They were hidden scripture” No problem with that.
Source

14 comments:

Fr. Erik Richtsteig said...

Typical Mormon crap.

Patrick Madrid said...

This historical "account" of the Council of Nicaea is so outlandishly incorrect that it is laughable, except for the fact that a vast number of unsuspecting folk who listen to his show will accept it as true. As you point out, except for the fact that the Emperor Constantine did, in fact, convene the Council, every single last thing that Mr. Beck asserts here is utterly false.

It's a classic case of filtering early Church history through the sieve of Mormon hostility to the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. What he is saying is quite emblematic of what many Mormons say in their disparagement of the Council of Nicaea. Because they deny the Trinity, as it was defined at the council, they feel the need to denigrate and, at least in Mr. Beck's case, utterly distort (to ludicrous proportions) the facts of what happened there.

The saddest thing of all about this is that Glenn Beck is an ex-Catholic. As I've heard him explain it on his radio show, he was at a very low point in his personal life when he was introduced to the Mormon Church. I pray for him and for his eventual conversion back to the Faith. Deus volent

Chris - The Eternal Server said...

I'm amazed at how slowly Catholic bloggers are at commenting on these things. But one thing troubles me everytime I see Becks name in a headline of a Catholic blog and I've come to expect this sadly. That being a complete lack of charity and civility. We as Catholics have clear problems with Mormonism and its beliefs, but only when Beck is brought up does all respectful dialogue go out the window and charity be damned. Again, we Catholics have problems with his faith but why the vitriol? Even if you disagree with his non-religious beliefs you can still be respectful and charitable. But it seems too many Catholic bloggers recently could care less about charity when Beck is brought up.

Carlos Echevarria said...

Once again, Beck divulges his latent anti-Catholic bigotry...

helgothjb said...

Ok, so Glenn is very confused about historical Christianity, he is now a Mormon, so who can blame him. Look, he grew up Catholic, had an alcoholic father who beat him, etc. I'm sure he had a horrible experience of the true faith. Then he lost everything because of his own alcoholism. When he was finally ready to start looking answers and for God the Mormons took him in and helped him clean up his life, helped him financially, etc. Where were the Catholics? The Mormon theology, if you can call it that, it way out there - I'm talking Pluto or further, but they do take care of their own. How are we as Catholics at doing that? They are good hearted people, most of them and their goodness has won him over (I do question those that train and send out the missionaries because they do not seem to be that honest). He is just getting into a real search for the truth, mostly in politics, but this past year or so in history and in the past 4 or 5 years, in the faith. Keep praying for him because I believe he is an honest man that believes in God and prays. I know there must be some huge barriers to embracing the true faith there and there is much error about the history of the Church being preached to him, so much prayer is needed. However, it can't be too long before he comes into contact with true Christian history. I really do not think he is anti-Catholic. However, the many progressive bishops in the US and around the world can’t help the matter much. Email him, send him stuff, etc. Eventually he is bound to read some of it.

Unknown said...

Heheh...Glen is so funny! though I do prefer him over Bill in FoxNews

Anonymous said...

Hilarious...absolutely hilarious satire. I commend you.

Unknown said...

We do have to pray for him, he's not perfect like he normally is in FoxNews.

Unknown said...

We do have to pray for him, he's not perfect like he normally is in FoxNews.

Unknown said...

I heard Beck say this and it sucked me back in time to a living room in Utah 1977 where my Mormon friend's father wanted me to listen to a tape recording of a lecture given at their church about the Dead Sea Scrolls. The speaker had an "aw, shucks" way of speaking about different archaeological artifacts at the site and how puzzled the scientists were about, for instance, something he described as a baptismal area that corresponded with the LDS way of doing it. The audience would laugh knowingly at each point. The Catholic Church, of course, perverted the original true Church and it's true teachings. I researched later and discovered the scrolls had nothing to do with the "true" church. Those conspiracy theories must still be bandied about for Beck to pass them on.

James the Convert said...

Yeah, I heard this segment and just laughed. His “synopsis” of the Council of Nicea was, shall we say, stupid, shallow, uniformed and plain wrong. He’s a fallen away Catholic-turned-Mormon. What do you expect? That’s enough to automatically remove you from any credibility in this area. I’ve listened to his program for some time and knew that he’s better at talking politics than Church history anyway. But then again most talk show hosts are that way. Like Dennis Prager, a great man and Reformed Jewish talk show host, he’s gotten it wrong too. I don’t look to him or Beck for my faith formation or as experts in ecclesial topics. I go to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Tim said...

"Whether it’s truth or not is up to the individual"


That can't be right?

Unknown said...

Ok guys, I have to call double foul. First, I was actually listening to the show when Mr. Beck made the comments, and was cringing in the car to inaccurate comments. Mr. Beck was clearly thinking of the Nag Hammadi corpus, which puts him in the right time zone rather than the Dead Sea Scrolls (which predate Constantine the Great by I guess 500 years). So foul for Mr. Beck.

But his point, which was relevant, was people need to convey their sense of the truth, especially as it pertains to the intrusion from the state in our churches, to kids and their communities. Mr. Beck is not Catholic, and I don't expect him to believe or support the Magisterium. But he was making a point that isn't so off the mark. Foul on him for making the inaccurate statements, but foul on us for belaboring the issue. I had tried calling in to the show to make the correction, and hope that someone else did. But it wasn't that bad.

Poindexter said...

Glenn Beck was actually raised Roman Catholic. Not sure when he drifted from the Church, but he has commented occasionally that he converted to Mormonism while he was courting his (Mormon) wife.

So, he must know some Catholic theology, even if it has been somewhat sullied by later Mormon beliefs. I find that when he comments on religion, I hear a lot of Pentecostal/Evangelical rantings/ravings.

Funny, no priest ever mentioned a "personal saviour" or "personal Jesus" during my formative years. Where does this come from? Are we not all "saved" at birth, through baptism?