Game Knows Game

Hi. My name is Glenn B. I'm an Alcoholic, and confused. This may have been a more appropriate greeting as he walked to the podium at the rally Saturday. However, I will say he was honest enough to say, "You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one -- I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show."

He was right it was a show much like an old-time revival, viewed by some as a resurrection. It fact, it was more like the merging of the right-wing “Christian Conservative” movement with other conservative ideological groups who are feuding within the Grand Ol Party. God and country was the theme, which always works. Throw in some Mom and apple pie, and you've got a picnic of patriotism and worship. Less we not forget adding Caribou Barbie was the icing on the cake - God Bless America.

History tells us that in times of despair people reach for God. So the question is: who’s God? Beck’s God, Billy Graham’s God, Martin Luther King’s God, your God or my God. Let’s just say, if you believe in someone or something greater that yourself, unlike the rally’s host. Do you really believe that your higher power channels through this guy? I suppose, whatever they were honoring was necessary because there is evil and darkness in the land. Creeping communism brought to us by President you-know-who. Conspiracy theories and paranoia abound, be afraid people be very afraid was the rallying cry.

Sister Sarah preached "We don't want to transform America… We just want to restore America." Was she saying restoring the country back to the time of segregation? Beck would say, that time was before the "progressive movement" began to destroy the country, which was surely in that era, about a hundred years ago. Or maybe further back, as far back as post-Reconstruction. If this is the case, the rally was a giant step in the direction of all but recasting civil rights as a thing of the past, or at least the King message, by standing on the spot where he gave his speech 47 years ago to the day.

They, the faithful, came, they saw, and with the one or two Black faces onstage with Beck, they left "colorblind" feeling as if they have a greater claim to King's legacy. Well, that was just what the rally was intended to do; scaring white folk with end-time tunes about "reverse racism." The frightened believers will then blame who else but the man they view as the “Prince of Darkness”.

Let’s compare this to Biblical times when people prayed and waited for a savor to appear. In Beck mind, it was him and he brought a message from God to "chart a course to a new world". Never mind that it sounds eerily similar to the "one world" satanic kingdom that he often accuses President Obama of trying to create. It is important to note that this Beck, a self admitted alcoholic with a history of alcoholism and addiction, who makes no secret of his past, would cause a reasonable person to question his judgment or perception depending upon the damage caused by his admission.

With a message of self-help, fortified by a hefty dose of patriotism garbed in religious imagery; it was almost believable, but within twenty-four hours he was back to dismissing President Obama's religious views. "People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," Beck told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday. This would be insulting from any leader, but it is particularly audacious coming from Beck, whose own faith -- Mormonism -- is viewed as a cult by some Christian leaders.

So it came to pass that signs of the end times are near and an apocalypse is on the horizon. The Beckster in Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s clothing warned of the rapture in his own twisted dreams. In what looked to be more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing and certainly Anti-King. He told the crowd that "Something beyond imagination is happening; something that is beyond man is happening”. Where I am from there is a saying “Game knows Game”; so let’s give devil his due.

THE JOHN T. WILLS CHRONICLES