Glenn Beck's Rally and the Emptiness of Moralist Religion

The polarizing Glenn Beck recently hosted his Restoring Honor rally on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. Predictably, this has stirred the voices (but not THOSE voices, thankfully). It’s the range of the voices, not their roaring volume, which fascinates.

The Washington Post wrote a great summery of the event. While in many ways it seems to represent the republican/tea-party ideals, it wasn’t a political rally, at least not a normal one. In short, the call was for the nation as a whole to bring more religion in the "public square" and to reclaim it’s previous greatness. Reason Magazine has a great view from the perspective of those in the crowd.

First on the scene, we have the ever-virulent Christopher Hitchens, who decried the entire event as a white-man’s pity party. Hitchens saw the Restoring Honor rally as the majority class throwing a temper tantrum because they’re not enough of a majority. This class struggle, he says, is also at the heart of the mosque ordeal, the 14^th amendment, and most of Arizona.

Where he actually becomes interesting is when he calls Christianity anything but an endangered religion (you can almost hear the sign of resignation). There’s a yes-and-no answer about this. What was once termed “the culture wars” has become nothing but lot of angry people hoisting state-enforced moralism. Any semblance of a war vanished when everyone else got bored and walked away. Most of the momentum in Christianity was towards this battle, and when the fight collapsed, the movement slammed against the ground and left everyone dazed and confused about what to do. I think they still are.

Rob Harrison’s commentary sees through the fog of class and cultural warfare. He claims that Beck’s call for a religious nation is actually a call for more empty moralism. Those crying to Restore Honor would be perfectly happy if people behaved well, followed the rules, and never breathed a word of Christ. Harrison quotes Michel Horton:

Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer “Yes, sir,” “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full on Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.

This is what the larger institutions of Christianity are turning into. They have cut a powerful Being into a small, weak god who so desperately needs their help to fix all the problems of the world. Somehow, the Holy Spirit simply has no power unless they, along with the republican party, change peoples minds.

This absolutely not what the nation needs. Harrison states my thoughts exactly:

The only kind of revival I want to see is one that can only be created by the Holy Spirit, who lives and breathes to talk about Jesus and the Father: the revival of the injudicious and incendiary proclamation of the radical gospel of grace, of the infinite love and unfathomable grace of God in Jesus Christ, capturing the hearts and minds of the people of God. That kind of revival—yes!—will have profound political and social consequences, should it come; but it will never be about those consequences, never be for those consequences. It won’t be about America, about restoring our honor or rebuilding our character. It will only ever be about and for glorifying and praising and giving thanks to God the Father for his Son Jesus Christ, who is ours by the work of his Holy Spirit. It will be for God and God alone.