Latter Day Taint

Paul Harvey

Earlier we posted a bit on Glenn Beck's connection to W. Cleon Skousen and the Mormon version of the paranoid style in American politics. Just a bit more to follow up here -- Chris Jones of Juvenile Instructor (whose summary post on all this is here), along with scholars such as Jan Shipps and Mike Quinn, are quoted in "Latter Day Taint," from the Boston Phoenix, which further explores these connections, as well as Beck's relationship to Ezra Taft Benson. A little excerpt:

. . . writing at the Mormon-history blog the Juvenile Instructor, Christopher Jones — a doctoral student in history at William & Mary — noted that Beck seemed to be plumbing the disturbing depths of Mormon millenarianism, and marveled at the press’s seeming disinterest.

Once the link between Beck’s faith and politics gets made, intriguing questions emerge. Without his unsettling brand of Mormonism, would Glenn Beck still be Glenn Beck? Should members of the LDS Church be cheering or lamenting Beck’s protracted moment in the spotlight?

Could Beck’s forays into stealth Mormon sermonizing make his conservative evangelical fans rethink their loyalty? And if Beck’s religiosity finally becomes a story, what might that mean for the lingering presidential hopes of 2012 Republican contender Mitt Romney?

And there's more still in Joanna Brooks (author of the great book American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African American and Native American Literatures), in her piece "How Mormonism Built Glenn Beck," from Religion Dispatches (a post that also contains some fascinating reflections on the socialization process in Mormon masculinity). The comments section of Joanna's piece is interesting too, to say the least -- anti-LDS paranoid polemics are alive and well it would appear.

This may be my last post on this subject. Since first bringing it up a while back, my fantasy football team has gone on a 4-game losing streak. Since I can't blame Canada, I'm going to blame Beck. You don't need a Weatherman to know which way to connect the dots.