On April 6, I wrote,
There is no doubt that for Beck, Country is God. Well perhaps that is too simple. He believes that God’s primary manifestation of his activity and grace in the world is the creation and existence of the United States. And you should understand that this flows out of his Mormon faith (although this view is all too common among many Christians in our country). You see, Mormons believe that Jesus ministered among the American Indians, and while that initial ministry was not well received, eventually through Joseph Smith Mormonism was wrought here in America. And so America and the Mormons are linked quite tightly…When one believes as Beck does, the stories of America and its founders become as much scripture as the old stories of Israel and its founders.
On this last Saturday, I was taken aback to hear Beck say it is so blatantly:
I went into the Lincoln memorial and I stood there and I read the Gettysburg address on one wall and the Second Inaugural address on the other. I went up and touched the word and lifted my children up so that they could touch the words as well. The words are alive. Our documents, our most famous speeches, are American scriptures and they are alive today just as any other scripture is. It speaks to us from the past.
I guess when you have added one additional testimony of Jesus Christ to the scriptures (Book of Mormon), you might as well add some more. His religion is clearly the fusion of American civil religion and Mormonism.
