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Glenn Beck's coded language may refer to obscure LDS doctrine

sirkickyass

sirkickyass

Moderator Emeritus
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What say you? This certainly didn't hit any trigger phrases for me, but it may for others.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130470858

When Jon Stewart famously parodied Glenn Beck earlier this year, the Comedy Central host zeroed in on the ways Beck sees hidden meanings or conspiracies in the policies or statements of his political targets.

Stewart stood before a Beck-sized chalkboard with the word "libertarian" written in big block letters.

"Lie! Lie! Lie!" Stewart yelled, pointing to the first syllable of the word. "Who's doing the lying? Tell me, word on the board!"

Stewart paused dramatically. He turned to the board and circled the last two syllables of li-bert-arian. "Aryans!" he yelled.

Now, in a new book, it's Glenn Beck's words that are being culled by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.

One of the trademark Beck lines that Milbank deconstructs is "the Constitution is hanging by a thread."

In the book Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America, Milbank says that line is a veiled reference to an obscure Mormon prophecy that Latter-day Saints will rescue the country from certain doom. It's known as the White Horse Prophecy.

Dubious Origins

Only a handful of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are aware of the "White Horse Prophecy," according to Utah State University professor Phil Barlow, who teaches Mormon history and culture.

"And among that minority, very few would be able to explain what it actually refers to," Barlow tells NPR's Guy Raz.

The prophecy originates with the diary entry of an LDS church member, who scribbled the following quote and attributed it to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church:

"You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed," the diary quotes Smith as saying. "It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber."

Whether that quote actually came from Joseph Smith, Barlow says, is difficult to prove. But the language itself? "That phrase, Latter-day Saints would have heard of."

Choice Of Words

"It's actually a fairly benign prophecy," Milbank tells Raz. According to Milbank's research, "they're talking about restoring law and order and peace and tranquility," he says. "It doesn't sound like a violent thing."

Milbank emphasizes that any Latter-day Saints who believe in the "White Horse Prophecy" or its coded foretellings would be viewed as fringe within the church.

"I think that in many ways, Glenn Beck has picked up some of the more obscure — and more extreme — work of Mormon thinkers," he says.

There's no denying Glenn Beck has used the phrase "the Constitution is hanging by a thread." In fact, he's been saying it at least since Nov. 4, 2008.

"We are at the point — or we are very near the point — where our Constitution is hanging by a thread," Beck told a guest on his radio show, Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is himself a Mormon.

"You got that right," Hatch replied.

Milbank says that exchange and others like it could be coincidental. "Except that it's a phrase Beck has used repeatedly over time," he continues. "He is the guy who sees himself — and his followers — as rescuing the Constitution that is hanging by this proverbial thread."

The Revolution Will Not Be Coded

Barlow, the Utah State professor, agrees that Beck's use of "hanging by a thread" is likely not coincidental.

But is he trying to deliver a secret coded message to his followers that an uprising is nigh?

Barlow says Beck is making conservative arguments by "drawing on this element that runs through Mormon consciousness."

In other words, using the parlance of one's church does not a secret conspiracy make.

"I didn't write about it as if there was something wrong with it," Milbank says. "I just think it's interesting that he's saying these things that would be heard one way by one audience, and by probably 95 percent of the people — it would go completely over their head."

And indeed, for a certain LDS audience, Beck is appealing. Barlow has a laundry list of other Mormon ideals to which Beck commonly alludes.

"He talks about a God of miracles," Barlow says. "That's certainly a Mormon theme."

There's also the family as the basis of society — "not unique to Mormonism but distinctively sharp in Mormonism," Barlow says. There's the importance of storing food and necessities for any calamities; tithing one's income; the Constitution as a divinely inspired document; freedom and personal responsibility — all ideals Beck espouses frequently.

"There's a lot of things," Barlow says, "where his personal views intersect with Mormonism or draw from Mormon imagery or language or principles."
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"There's a lot of things," Barlow says, "where his personal views intersect with Mormonism or draw from Mormon imagery or language or principles."
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Beck says things on his program that draw from LDS teachings? And here's the most amazing part... Beck is Mormon! What a conspiracy!!

What's the point??

I've heard for years the whole Constitution by a thread thing and I thought it had pretty much been debunked as anything said by church leaders. That said, none of the other "coded language" that the article brought up are unusual ideas or ideas only talked about in closed circles. Food storage, being prepared, family, all things that the LDS religion talks about openly and frankly. The author makes it sound like Beck is Bin Laden sending out secret messages to his minions telling them to go bomb something.
 
Of all the absolutely insane things Beck has said that come from fringe right-wing Mormonism, the article focuses on that?
 
I've heard that phrase a gazillion times in church. It's pretty much a cliche anymore, and (to my knowledge) doesn't hold any special significance to the average church member. Usually invoked by uber conservatives that wanna pull democratic politics into a discussion of impending Armageddon.
 
Mitt Romney anyone? He'll save the day!

mitt-romney.gif
 
Archie Moses said:
It boggles my mind why people try to make something out of others beliefs all the time. Let it go.
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I get the general force of what you are saying, Archie. But, still, I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard more about Beck's Mormonism as a way of driving a wedge between Beck and the "everyday American-ness" that he endeavors to embody.

Also, I don't think it matters that this has become a generalized, open-ended phrase among Mormons. I think the majority of Beck's message contains over-determined symbolic stuff that must be finished/operationalized by church and tea party communities. He is -- without doubt -- what literary theorists call a "paranoid reader"; he sifts for symbols and makes a big to-do when he finds similarities. I don't doubt that this is what he is doing with Mormon esoterica.
 
Kicky,

I don't know about the Mormon thing, but I do believe with a high degree of probability that you are seeing what it looks like when a human being slowly goes insane. I fully expect the Beck era to end very badly.
 
The Pearl said:
Kicky,

I don't know about the Mormon thing, but I do believe with a high degree of probability that you are seeing what it looks like when a human being slowly goes insane. I fully expect the Beck era to end very badly.
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We can only hope/pray.
 
TroutBum said:
We can only hope/pray.
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I don't think so Tim.

https://www.mediaite.com/online/the-only-person-more-popular-than-glenn-beck-is-oprah/

Hang on to your chalkboards folks. According to the latest Harris poll, Glenn Beck is the second most popular television personality in America….second only to Oprah Winfrey. This marks Beck’s debut on the list, a list on which Bill O’Reilly has never reached higher than third spot. This year Beck beat out Jay Leno (the poll was conducted pre the Team Coco wars), Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Laurie, Jon Stewart, Charlie Sheen, Mark Harmon, David Letterman, and Bill O’Reilly. In that order.
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Cece said:
Polls are B.S. https://www.mediaite.com/online/glenn-beck-almost-as-admired-as-nelson-mandela
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The point is, GB is extremely popular and is making a ton of money. Unless he comes down with Tiger Woods disease, he's going to continue to stay popular.

Argue, hate, bash him all you want, he's being listened to, read by, and trusted by millions. He's making more money that he knows what to do with. His influence continues to grow.

If you're pissed off at anyone, be angry and your fellow Americans. Funny things would happen if they just stopped watching, listening, and reading him. Free market is a pretty awesome idea. But that's ok, I'm sure Bill Maher will catch up to Beck someday, right? America is clearly rejecting the Progressives. You socialists have failed. Beck stands for freedom and free market, something that Americans are only now beginning to remember.
 
...In the book Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America, Milbank says ...
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what a way to desecrate the lyrics of the great Smokey Robinson, sheesh

this makes me sad
 
Bronco70 said:
I've heard that phrase a gazillion times in church. It's pretty much a cliche anymore, and (to my knowledge) doesn't hold any special significance to the average church member. Usually invoked by uber conservatives that wanna pull democratic politics into a discussion of impending Armageddon.
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Or by uberliberals who want to invoke doomsday scenarios over the reduction in privacy rights we've been experiencing.
 
The Thriller said:
The point is, GB is extremely popular and is making a ton of money. Unless he comes down with Tiger Woods disease, he's going to continue to stay popular.
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Interestingly, I recently read the Fox News may be looking to drop Beck. Apparently, advertisers are asking to avoud his show, because they don't believe his viewers are buying their products.
 
One Brow said:
Interestingly, I recently read the Fox News may be looking to drop Beck. Apparently, advertisers are asking to avoud his show, because they don't believe his viewers are buying their products.
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LOL. I too can come up with facts to match my opinion/hatred for one person.

There's a reason why Beck has you liberals shaking in your boots. After November, the funding for your precious socialized health care is gone. The Communist experiment will be over in two more years too, thank goodness.

Beck is a gold mine too, foxnews ain't dropping him anytime soon. He just tells the truth. Freedom is a great thing. If you people don't like him, don't buy his products. Free markets are incredible when we let them be free, which is exactly what Beck advocates. Since when has government ever created jobs or money?
 
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