Glen Beck's Easter Dream<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Dr. Randy White
 
I recently wrote an article about Glen Beck's Texas-sized Mission Trip, in which I was critical of the ecumenical stupidity I see when Christians (including many Pastors) join with avowed Mormon Glen Beck for activities that have a clearly spiritual element.  As can be expected, I received several condemnations for not showing love to Beck, who says so many good things about Liberty, Jesus, God, Country, and Apple Pie.
 
One of the most disturbing messages came from a woman who sent me this attachment, as a "gotcha" statement showing me how wrong I was about the wonderful and amazing Glen Beck.  Most of the negative remarks I received from my first article came with a condemnation that, if I had only talked to Beck first (or at least done my homework), I would have saved myself from the shame of having written such a foul-spirited diatribe on God's agent for hope in modern America, Glen Beck.
 
The problem is, I did my homework and those with condemnation toward me were standing with one whose doctrine is considered heresy by anyone in even the far reaches of orthodox Christian faith.
 
Beck's Easter article, the one sent as the attachment, was a sugary scenario of Easter and "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told."  I suppose it was meant to warm my heart and melt it with love, and I know that Beck wants me to "start a new Easter tradition" of ecumenical love, prayerfully to be joined by anyone who is Christian, Jewish, Muslim and even Wiccan!  Beck's dream of the new Easter is that it be "about showing Love."
 
Excuse me for a moment while I puke.
 
Sorry for the colorful language, but I am sickened and disgusted by this idea of Easter.  If Easter is ever a day that can be observed in love by Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Wiccans together, then such an Easter will be a total waste of time, energy, money, and belief.  Easter only has meaning because it is about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ!  As such, it will never, can never, and should never be a gathering point around which Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Wiccans gather.
 
While I'm ranting about ecumenical efforts to eradicate any real spiritual meaning to Easter, let me also share disgust with the growing number of Christian churches that fail to give Jesus any print space in their Easter advertisements.  I received numerous high-cost, glitzy mailers from local churches this year, as I do every year at Easter time.  Had I not previously known that Easter was connected to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I would not have guessed it from the mailers.  It makes me awfully suspicious that crowd-drawing, kid-friendly, high-energy (and high-fructose) events are much more important to the modern church than that old-news about the resurrection.  Frankly, if I had left the glories of Heaven to live in a poverty-stricken, conflict-ridden, enemy-occupied country, always living a sinless life, never saying a sinful word, spending my time in demon-casting, death-ending, life-giving ministry, only to be betrayed by a friend, rejected by the nation, mocked by the people, scorned by the enemy, scourged by a whip, deserted by my closest followers, then stripped naked, nailed to a cross, dying for the sins of man-and then forgotten on your Easter post-card-I would be fuming mad.  But I'm not Jesus so I cannot speak for His opinion on the matter.
 
Back to my topic, I pray you are not taken in by the bunk in Beck's Easter message.  How dangerous it is.
 
Am I surprised that a Mormon can talk about Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and so much more?  Of course not, they believe in these things!  That does not, however, make them Christians.   Here are a few things you should also know about the Mormon "Christ"--
 

• He has a brother, named Lucifer.
• He has a mother, who was the wife of God.
• His mother and father had sex to produce Jesus.
• He died on the cross for the atonement of our sins...by which Mormons mean that Jesus made it possible for us to be saved IF we will be obedient to all the Mormon commandments.
• He rose from the dead...and then traveled to the United States to visit with the Indians, which you can read about in the Book of Mormon.
• You can also become a god (Well, as long as you are not a woman, and until God gave a new revelation in 1978, as long as you were not black).

Friend, please don't be taken in by smooth words.  Dig deeper!  Beck's words about Easter are VERY ALARMING in that they minimize the role of the resurrection in Easter and maximize "love."  Beck's hope that Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Wiccans could "start a new tradition" about Easter because "it's about showing love" should alarm anyone of faith.  If that is what Easter becomes, it will have lost all meaning, and certainly any spiritual significance.  Valentine's Day may be about love, but Easter is about the resurrection of Christ--precisely why its observance is rejected by Jews, Muslims, Wiccan's, and others who do not believe.
 
Church of God, it's time to wake up!
 
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Dr. Randy White is the teacher on the Word for the World radio program.  Join his mailing list by clicking here