Beck’s Radical Agenda on the Washington Mall: Theological Virtues; Declaration of Independence; Gettysburg Address; Reliance on Divine Providence

After scanning the headlines and reading the reviews of Beck’s Restoring Honor rally, I noted much name calling of Beck (Joel Klein) but little balanced reporting. For those of you who did not see the speech or read it, I thought I would excerpt from Beck’s speech so you could decide for yourselves the merits of Beck call to challenge our country. 

Warning if you are an atheist you might find some of his thoughts objectionable. If you are a deist and or an agnostic with a bent for American history you might find little objectionable and approve good deal of Beck’s remarks. Beck begins with what Catholics were taught to be the Theological Virtues.

Faith… he asks parent to pray to God on their knees and in view of their children.

Hope… he asks us to tell the truth in our own lives and expect it of others.

Charity… he asks us to connect with our spouses, children and families and suggest charity    begins, first at home.

Next Beck quotes and later interprets the closing lines to the Declaration of Independence…

With a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our            Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Beck connects this reliance on Divine Providence with a suggestion this generation must sacrifice (as did the generations before us) for our children and grandchildren. There was another suggestion that churchgoers should tithe, an acknowledgement that we could disagree on politics but all agree on eternal values such as God is the answer. There was a paraphrase or tow from the Gettysburg address and his finale was for American to face the fact that we are at a crossroads where we must choose either to wallow in our historical mistakes or learn from those mistakes, from our past history and ask for redemption.

I never would have guessed after reading the NY Times, Huffington Post, and listening to NPR, CBS, Joel Klein et al comments of Beck’s speech that the Theological Virtues, Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address and calling on the Almighty would be so offensive to the elites in this country.