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Originally Posted by Sean
The list of course goes on - and none of this is to say that we're not a great country thanks to our virtually limitless potential - but how in the world do people like Beck and his biggest fans come to the conclusion that we're perfection incarnate?
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To suggest an answer to your question, mormon doctrine asserts that the united states is a fountainhead of God's power. It was created by the hand of God, it's laws and constitution as inspired by His words as the ten commandments or the prophecies of Isaiah. The Garden of Eden, and therefore the return of Jesus at Adam Ondi Adam was/will be in Missouri. The war to end all wars, the war of apocalypse, will be won largely by the sacrifices and valor of America as it becomes more and more isolated from the world. But not before it purges itself of its own corruption and sins. All of these cataclysmic challenges will only be overcome by integrating the leadership of the country with the leadership of the church, and only then will America survive and flourish against the hardest adversities of human history.
This is shit that was written down 1820's, 1830's by Joseph Smith and the founders of the religion. And it is extremely unwise to discredit the impact of mormon thinking on american culture. Where mormonism lacks in ubiquity, it well makes up for in clarity, and a seductive worldview that the larger evangelical movement of the country envies, and is only too happy consume as soon as it resolves its own conflict of siding with the weirdos with jesus jammies. Glenn Beck is the first success of that integration.
And I'm not saying all this to get all religious. I just think its important to understand where Beck is coming from. He's is *extremely* a product of his devotion to God and its best to filter his nonsense in this regard. This is why he interviews sara palin with "Lady Liberty" in the back drop. Why he slobbers on national television like its testimony meeting at church. Why he uses a chalk board and a lot of cliche metaphors and acronyms like its sunday school.
The weirdest thing about this for me, is watching the entire country suffer the same tedium that bored me to tears 3 hours every sunday growing up.