Glenn Beck (Link) (February 6, 2009)
GLENN: So I'm going to just ask you right now just to think of these things and just answer out loud. Just say to yourself yes or no. Yes or no. Is this who I am? Is this what I believe? Because I believe you and I agree on most of these.
1) Yes or no: Do you believe America is a good place, that we've lost our way over the years, that we have done bad things but generally speaking we tried hard. We try to make amends. We have tried to do the right thing. Just like everybody else, we fail from time to time and we have truly lost our way in the last 20 years. But gosh, if you look at America, she's good and our founders were good and our founding documents are good. We've just strayed too far away from them. Yes or no.
2) Yes or no: I believe in God. I may not go to the same church or synagogue or mosque as the majority of people in America, but I believe in God and he is the center of my life, and God does not tell people to behead others or to persecute others that see God in a different way. As long as that god is not telling them to persecute others. Yes or no.
3) Yes or no: It is my responsibility to try to be better and a more honest person than I was yesterday. Sometimes I fail, I'll make mistakes, but it's my main mission to be better than I was personally than I was yesterday.
4) Yes or no: The family is sacred. I and my spouse are the ultimate authority under God when it comes to my family. I raise my family, and that comes with a grave responsibility. If I fail, I answer to God.
5) Yes or no: If you break the law, you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6) Yes or no: I have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but that is not a guarantee of equal results.
7) Yes or no: I work hard for what I have, and I will share it with others that I choose when I choose, should I choose. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8) It is not un-American for anyone to disagree with my opinion, but my opinion or others' opinions may be anti-American. Anti-American rhetoric would be anything that is destructive to the Constitution and our country as our founders understood it.
9) And the last one is the government works for me. The government answers to me. I do not answer to the government.
How many are there? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. There are nine of them. Do you agree with seven of them? Here's what I want you to do.
Step one: No matter where you are right now, I want you to take a picture of yourself. I want you to take a picture, and I ask you and you'll understand as we go in the next couple of weeks, I ask you if you could bring these and ask your children -- can we post these please on the Internet, on the website? I want you to ask as many people as you know, do you believe in these things? Just seven out of nine. Do you believe in them? Then will you please take a picture of yourself. If you ask your family and you ask your children tonight, do you believe in these things. Take a picture of your spouse. Not as a family. Take them one at a time and send them to me, e-mail them to me at -- what is the address, Stu? [email protected]. This is how much I believe that you are not alone.
Last night I stayed in the city and I was here late last night because we had a few things that we were working on for this project and the first thing that we did was who has the server space to take all of these pictures. GlennBeck.com which has the server space all over, we have the website under our umbrella of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, me, Ryan Seacrest. They're big servers. We didn't feel we could handle the amount that is going to be coming in. Fox News didn't feel they had big enough servers that would hold all of this volume without crashing. That's why we went to gmail, because they have unlimited amount to be able to take all of this in in big doses. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but I ask you to prove a point.
Now I'm going to ask you every day for the next two or three weeks. Please, if you agree with these things, please send me a photo. I will explain on, is it -- do we know, is it going to be February 27th? We don't know? We don't have a date yet. And I'll explain on February 27th -- I think it's going to be that date, in the next couple of weeks -- and I'm going to do a special radio show and television show. It's going to be a live show. We are going to also have you have an opportunity to attend. I will tell you about that in the coming days. I will also tell you in the coming days that you don't have to come to New York to be a part of it, either. But this is all going to be grassroots. I'm going to be asking you if you want to put together a, if you have a bar or, you know, you own a hotel and you want to do a conference center kind of thing where, you know, you can just open up the doors and anybody who wants to come and watch the TV show or you want to do it at the bar, you want to do it at your house. Don't watch this TV show and don't -- I believe it's going to be February 27th. Could be a week later. Don't be alone, and you'll understand why on that day. But I ask you today, do this one thing. Do you believe in these things?
Everybody else is going to talk about the damn stimulus package today. Do you believe in these things? If you do, then do me a favor, please, do your children a favor. Take a picture of yourself and send it to me at [email protected].
Here is my additional comments and what I sent in with my picture regarding these 9 questions:
YES, I believe the liberty enabled in the founding documents of our nation resonate with the free will given to us by God. Compared to most other nations in the world through history and today, America has best been an example of this freedom held to a foundation of Biblical principles. However, I also believe that the heart is deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and too many have been led to look inward instead of to God. Pride and the downfalls that come with it have overshadowed the foundation that has made our nation great and are eroding that foundation to the extent that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled and our end is bringing us into the global community foretold to have power over the earth. This view is not popular and I too wish it weren't the case, but as a watchman I can only call it like I see it, share the reasons why and let each person see for themselves and decide whether they agree or not.
YES, I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His Word has proven itself true through all of history and is alone the foundation upon which I choose to stand. It not only addresses the realities of this world past and future, but the spiritual aspect that drives what happens here and now. His Word became flesh to take my transgressions from God's ways of Love away so that the barrier that separated me from my Creator would be eliminated and I would once again have the ability to choose a personal relationship with God. Yeshua (Jesus) demonstrated the Spirit of God behind the Law given to Israel and when we manifest that Spirit of God that dwells within us we cannot hurt others, only love them - even our enemies to the point of our own death. (Matthew 5:17 | Matthew 22:35-40) My love for God is because He first loved me and gave up His only Son so that He could once again be with me. This greatest love overshadows any other beliefs for me because what has been proven true in God's Word resonates within my own heart. But rather than seeing myself as different from others, I see my own past that was missing what I have now and desire to share the peace that passes all understanding with those who have ears to hear. God never infringes on anyone's free will and neither do I believe should we. Persecution for different beliefs is what is prophesied to come to the true Christians, not from them - and I believe that is evident as we look around the world today.
YES, this goes in line with number two in not viewing myself more highly than I ought. I struggle in my life to abide by the principles of selfless love shown to me by Yeshua, but I try. Even when nobody around me does, it is a shining light and example of the principles that God has given to us in His Word to say what I mean and mean what I say. I choose to say what God has said because I find that it has made me a better person to do so.
YES, the family is absolutely sacred, instituted by God through the joining of a man and a woman to procreate and raise children given as a gift from God, and a great responsibility. Tied with number three, it is the parent's responsibility to live by the principles they espouse so that the children are raised up in the ways of God, again something I find myself struggling with at times, but still trying harder daily.
YES, God is no respecter of persons and neither am I. This is one of the big problems I have with America today and that I believe attributes to the lack of respect for law in each progressing generation.
YES, I have been struggling with this one my whole life, but once I started working more for God than myself, He just kind of brought everything together to give me the happiness and stability I was striving so hard for. Another witness to the love of God in my life.
YES, in trying to live by the principles laid out in God's Word, I realize that what I have was never really mine and in giving I gain the clarity of a stream as opposed to a stagnant pond. As I give God keeps giving me and I'm always provided for as promised.
YES, freedom of speech works both ways much like free will can allow someone to choose God or not choose Him. The consequences of our choices are on our own shoulders. Anyone can and probably will disagree with some of what I have to say, but that's fine because I'm not here to judge, just learn and share. I'm a Constitutionalist and want our nation to hold to the founding documents because I don't believe they need to change with the times as a "living document." They are principles as are Biblical principles, which are timeless. There will be anti-American beliefs expressed as well as anti-Christian, and as time goes on I believe those will unfortunately become stronger and stronger.
YES, the way our government was set up was by the people and for the people. As always tends to happen though, that has been eroded as well. I think much of this is the result of the more self-centered nature of society today and a government that is trying to be the provider as opposed to the enabler. And when the people want to be provided for instead of providing for themselves, they will make the choices that give power to the government over them like the bailouts are doing to businesses. With the direction that the Bible says this is going, not a good thing.
That's my take, what's yours? Send it to Glenn if you so desire...
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