Some topics for Glenn Beck

We really enjoy sitting down together at 5 p.m. and watching Glenn Beck. Those of you who only get snippets through the George Soros funded Media Matters and other filters (Glenn usually greets their snoops as the "unemployed hippy-dippy dudes sitting in mom's basement" screening and reporting back to the watchdog agency) are missing some great history lessons and reading lists. He's probably done more for libraries and Amazon than any other author/host because he reads so much, and those titles fly to the top of the best seller list, faster than an Oprah Book Club selection. He even suggests going back and reading original sources--marxist, socialist, founding fathers, etc., something dear to this researcher's heart. Beck's film documentaries are stunning. I studied Russian history (19th and 20th century) back in college in the 50s and 60s and saw newsreels of the decimation of the Ukrainian farmers, the forced collectivization and starvation and the millions murdered in China's revolution. Some of the footage in his documentaries certainly ring more true, even with the dramatic voice overs, than watching a Katie Couric or Charlie Rose. That said, there are other topics I'd like to see on his programs.

1. There have been some really fabulous federal government programs that benefited millions of Americans and grew the economy. It would not be a violation of his core values and beliefs to mention

• the national park system
  
  
• the homestead acts and land giveaways
  
  
• the interstate highway system
  
  
• the land giveaways to the railroad barons who opened millions of jobs and opportunities for immigrants and city bound poor
  
  
• various public health advancements like clean water, polio vaccination, meat inspection, flour and milk enrichment, compulsory TB testing
  
  
• the Army Corps of Engineers and flood control
  
  
• mining rights to energy developers which revolutionized our industries
  
  
• compulsory education
  
  
• land grant colleges and universities.

Glenn. Here's a tip from a librarian and history buff. The founders are interesting, but a lot has happened since the American Revolution. Also, you like to talk about your Democrat grandfather. Didn't he tell you not to throw the baby out with the bath water?

2. Glenn has recently stepped on a real hornets nest--he's taken on the liberal church--more specifically the way "liberation theology" has infiltrated the pastors and pulpits, and "social justice" themes have replaced the gospel of Jesus Christ. Glenn is absolutely correct that Jesus not once asked the Roman government to feed the poor or visit the sick or set the slave free. What Glenn is missing in these mini-sermons is that in the United States, the Christian church was at the forefront of social change, long before the federal government got in that game. In fact, the government has usurped and co-opted the churches and made them just another non-profit employee of the government through tax grants for feeding programs, summer camps, pre-schools, prisoner reentry programs and housing renovation in poor neighborhoods while at the same time telling churches they can't preach the gospel or hand out printed material because they are taking government money to do their jobs!

• The great religious awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries were followed by great fervor for combating sin and a movement toward greater personal responsibility all because of renewed faith in God, not the government
  
  
• Sunday schools were begun by "church ladies" so that children working in factories could get an education--this is the foundation of the public school movement
  
  
• the big three social movements of the 19th century, abolition of slavery, temperance, and woman's rights, were all Christian movements with women doing the heavy lifting; the woman's rights movement of the 19th century was not the feminist movement of today; it was faith-based action
  
  
• the Lyceum and Chautauqua movements of the 18th and 19th centuries were the originators of self-improvement movements and adult education--both were begun and funded by concerned citizens, not the government
  
  
• a less punitive justice system in the form of penitentiaries (penitent) rather than debtor's prison or corporal punishment was pioneered by the Quakers
  
  
• the spread of printed materials to an expanding reading public went viral through church printing presses--Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc. During war time soldiers were given free reading material and libraries by both the Protestant and Catholic presses
  
  
• medical care for the wounded during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars was led by bands of committed Christian men and women with nuns and priests working all sides of the conflict
  
  
• churches pioneered stewardship of the earth and the humane treatment of animals, long before the government thought to regulate it (19th century agricultural journals--take a look)
  
  
• it was the church groups that met the immigrant ships of their own ethnic groups and helped them resettle and learn the language, customs, and establish businesses
  
  
• after WWII pacifist denominations created a volunteer rebuilding program for Europe, which later the government used as a model for the Peace Corp and Vista.

Glenn. Here's the bigger story--bigger than liberation theology--many church members don't know their own history, let alone the Bible, and they don't realize they were the source, not the result, of these programs.