Glenn Beck Unites Mormons and Baptists: Opposing Obama Trumps Doctrine

Glenn Beck's Mormon faith had drawn some criticism from Baptists and evangelical leaders after the Fox News celebrity and Tea Party prophet was invited to deliver the commencement address last weekend at Liberty University, a flagship institution of the Christian right.

Mainstream Christians don't consider Mormons part of the faith, and conservatives in particular often refer to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- the formal name of the Mormon church -- as a "cult" because of its unusual birth in the 1830s in upstate New York, its unorthodox practices and beliefs about God, salvation and the Trinity, as well as unique Mormon scriptures.

But it's amazing what Barack Obama -- not to mention Glenn Beck's blustery right-wing rhetoric -- has done for the once hopeless cause of religious unity.

In his address at the jam-packed stadium on the Lynchburg, Va., campus, Beck did several things right off the bat that won the crowd over -- if indeed they needed much wooing.

First, he cried. A lot. That, of course, is not unusual. Glenn Beck weeps all the time, at least on air or in front of large crowds, and he has a very poignant and affecting personal story to tell, which he does quite often. This day he recounted how he spent just a single semester at Yale, leaving because he could not afford it and, he said, because he didn't like professor telling him what and what not to read. "I am humbled and honored," Beck managed to croak after university head Jerry Falwell Jr. introduced him. He then had to stop to collect himself, but quickly recovered when a guy in the audience yelled, "We love you, Glenn!"

"I love you, too!" Beck shot back, adding impishly: "If I were only single and you were a woman, we'd be set." Laughter all around, ice broken.

Second, Beck immediately addressed the issue of his Mormon beliefs:

"I want you to know that the invitation to speak today is not meant as an endorsement of my faith," he said, absolving Falwell -- son of the late Jerry Falwell Sr., icon of the religious right and founder of Liberty, which he envisioned as a Baptist Notre Dame. "But I also want you to understand that my agreeing to speak here today is an endorsement of your faith."

Big applause, understandably, and then a good follow-up, as Beck told his listeners that this was no time for division on the right over things like doctrine and dogma. "We may have differences, but we need to find those things that unite us."

Third, and most important, Beck forcefully told the crowd what in fact did unite this group -- opposition to Obama.

"We live at a time where it seems truth is on the run," Beck said, and he cited President Barack Obama's commencement address a few days earlier at the University of Michigan as Exhibit A in this moral retreat:

"He said that there is now too much information available, that it is sometimes too confusing," Beck said, purporting to summarize the president's remarks. "This is a course that has been charted before in the past. It always ends with those who are willing to burn books."

That of course is a silly statement, simply because there soon won't be any books to burn, and torching an iPad or Tablet is not so easy.

Moreover, the president didn't quite say those things, or anything like them. In fact, in his commencement speech at Michigan, Obama was arguing the very opposite of what Beck charged him with saying, as per this passage from the president about promoting civil dialogue by reading and discussing more, not less:

"Whereas most Americans used to get their news from the same three networks over dinner, or a few influential papers on Sunday morning, we now have the option to get our information from any number of blogs or websites or cable news shows. And this can have both a good and bad development for democracy. For if we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we become more polarized, more set in our ways. That will only reinforce and even deepen the political divides in this country..."

"That's why we need a vibrant and thriving news business that is separate from opinion makers and talking heads. That's why we need an educated citizenry that values hard evidence and not just assertion. . . . Still, if you're somebody who only reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in a while. If you're a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website."

(Oops. Red flag before bull.)

"It may make your blood boil," Obama continued. "Your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship."

At Liberty University last Saturday, Glenn Beck certainly wasn't about to offer a viewpoint that would challenge his listeners, and that appeared to suit them just fine. Yet in the next breath he also told the graduates that it was their "God-given right" and their "God-given responsibility" to use their brains, to think for themselves.

At times, in fact, the pundit almost sounded like the president, even if he broke down in tears every couple of minutes and tended to indulge in the kind of trademark Beckian bathos that is the antithesis of the characteristic Obama cool.

It's likely that Beck -- and the Liberty graduates -- didn't realize the parallel between the two men, or intend such a thing to come to pass. Glenn Beck as Barack Obama? Mormons and Baptists united? Maybe there is hope after all.