Glenn Beck Booted

There was a bit of a stir recently when Focus on the Family produced an interview with pundit Glenn Beck regarding his new Christmas book, The Christmas Sweater. A number of Christians protested the perceived endorsement of this book and by proxy Beck's mormonism. In response to the outcry, Focus on the Family printed a retraction and removed the interview. From an article on MormonTimes...

James Dobson's Focus on the Family ministry has pulled from its CitizenLink Web site an article about talk show host Glenn Beck's book "The Christmas Sweater" after some complained that Beck's LDS faith is a "cult" and "false religion" and shouldn't be promoted by a Christian ministry.

When contacted Friday, a Focus on the Family worker at the ministry in Colorado Springs, Colo. confirmed that the article had been pulled at this link and read a prepared statement for callers who had called about the Beck article:

"You are correct to note that Mr. Beck is a member of the Mormon church, and that we did not make mention of this fact in our interview with him. We do recognize the deep theological difference between evangelical theology and Mormon theology, and it would have been prudent for us at least to have pointed out these differences. Because of the confusion, we have removed the interview from CitizenLink."

Beck is predictably outraged....

A Special Message from Glenn:
The Christmas Sweater is a story about the idea of Christmas as a time for redemption and atonement. Whatever your beliefs about my religion, the concept of religious tolerance is too important to be sacrificed in response to pressure from special interest groups, especially when it means bowing to censorship. I'm humbled and grateful that hundreds of thousands of people from different faiths have read the book and have appreciated its uplifting message for themselves. At a time when the world is so full of fear, despair, and divisions, it is my hope that all of those who believe in a loving and peaceful God would stand together on the universal message of hope and forgiveness.
-glenn

Funny to quote religious tolerance when you are a member of a heretical church that sends tends of thousands of young men around the world to tell Christians that they are members of a "abomination":

19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” (Joseph Smith "History" 1:19)

What is the problem with a mormon Christmas book? The Christ child in mormonism is not the same Christ child of the Bible. He is at best a created being and the brother of Satan and at worst is the product of a blasphemous doctrine that God the Father bodily engaged in intercourse with Mary, impregnating her with Jesus. By giving a venue to Glenn Beck, Focus on the Family tacitly legitimized Beck's mormon views of Christ. This stunt is no different than Focus inviting a muslim to talk about their Christmas book, or any other unbeliever.

What is especially troubling is that Focus on the Family, an ostensibly Christian para-church ministry, gave a platform to someone who comes from a faith tradition that is in direct opposition to the Gospel and that is engaged in proselytizing and luring people away from Christianity. Someone at Focus needs to be more discerning and worry less about elections and more about the Gospel.

(HT: Voice of the Sheep)