Fox News host Glenn Beck, the outspoken and confrontational media darling of working-class conservatism, will give the commencement speech at Liberty University on May 15, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said.
The 12,000-student Lynchburg school in previous years has booked graduation speakers in line with its Christian values, and Falwell said Beck held true to university tradition.
“Beck is one of the few courageous voices in the national media standing up for the principles upon which this nation was founded,” Falwell said in a news release.
Beck has accused President Obama of pushing the country toward communism, and left-leaning personalities have in turn attacked Beck’s fiery brand of angry, weepy and moralizing commentary. But most Liberty students responded with enthusiasm to the news that their commencement speaker would be the man whose 2009 Fox News debut drew more than 2.4 million viewers.
I’m a little surprised that the evangelical Liberty University will allow a Mormon to speak at a graduation ceremony, as evangelicals don’t believe that Mormons are Christians. But then again, they did have Ben Stein speak there last year, and he’s Jewish.
There is a bit of a local tie with this story:
The Rev. Paige Patterson, the eighth president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, will also speak at the commencement and a service the day before, the news release said.
http://www.dereksdiscourse.com/2010/04/glenn-beck…
Great article, thank you for sharing. I also write about this, but from a more critical perspective at my blog, click the link above to check it out and use my DisQus comment feature to let me know what you think.
This should be shocking news. But honestly I'm not surprised. This announcement is one more evidence that the Baptist denomination is no longer part of the Christian Church (by the Christian Church I mean the gospel-proclamation community established in the New Testament). It now fully subjugated under the American political system, wholly sold out to Conservative ideologies and powers. Conservatism has trumped Christianity. I stated this last year when they hired Ben Stein (who is Jewish) and say it more emphatically with Glen Beck's speaking engagement. Clearly, the school has confused the advancement of a "conservative" country with the advancement of gospel proclamation, which proliferates Christ's true Kingdom. The two kingdoms are very different entities, but Liberty University (and thus their larger denomination) is tragically confused.
I love you Nathan! I've never wanted to take another man out for coffee so much in my entire life! And before you start thinking you have it hard where you live, just be thankful that you don't live in West Texas… 🙂
Yes, let's do coffee sometime! 🙂
I do realize that my VAST generalization about the entire Baptist denomination is probably unfair. (I know you're a Baptist). But sometimes I make these sweeping statements to make a narrower point about some truth. I don't know (m)any Baptists here in Manhattan, so all I have to judge y'all by are these national media stories. I do, however, have a good friend who is a professor at Liberty! Can you imagine our conversations?? 🙂 🙂
PS. Is Glen Beck the Antichrist?
Geeding is our resident Baptist, and I ain't no Baptist. I was married in a Baptist church, but that is the extent of my Baptist roots. 🙂
I'm a moderate-voting Christian, living and working at a church in Lubbock, TX. I'm really good at NOT talking when conversations turn political. In fact, I'm a professional non-talker around all the Glenn Beck fans!
And Glen Beck isn't smart enough to be the AntiChrist. Geesh, have you never read Left Behind?
(cough, cough) . . . I'm the resident Recovering Baptist.
Oh!