What the hell is going on here? Can we all put away the long knives for a few minutes and take a deep breath? The comments lately have become mean-spirited and reactionary, even, occasionally, from our gracious host. Beck is a modern day Jeremiah, prophesying the doom of a wayward nation. I say Jeremiah, because he clearly believes in what he says and for him it has a religious grounding. To some, this pushes him (and Skousen) into the realm of the kooks and wackos, superstitious and paranoid. Perhaps. But, to be honest, it really doesn’t bother me that much. I am not religious, though I believe in God and am well-educated in Christian theology. I have been around many devoutly Christian people who see the hand of God in their everyday lives. More power to them. Beck, like them, is simply espousing his worldview and applying it to current events. We all do this.

Does Beck believe were are living in the end times? Probably. I guess I tune a lot of that stuff out. I don’t think he is really all that extreme. He sensationalizes and exaggerates and plays the drama queen, but I find it kinda funny. He’s like the crazy friend who always has some inside information to share with you about what’s really going on behind the scenes. You humor him and laugh it off internally, but it sticks in the back of your mind because it all makes an eerie kind of sense. But you still don’t leave him alone with the kids.

Anyway, tearing him down and fighting amongst ourselves is going to get us exactly nowhere. There are many, many people who think the way Beck does, and they should be our friends and allies, not kicked to the curb. They are (mostly) good people. You may believe they are mistaken or misguided, but that is all the more reason to welcome them into the fold and persuade them through reasoned, civil discourse where they are wrong and you are right. And, in the process, don’t be surprised if you can learn a few things from them as well. We are all Americans. We mostly want the same things out of life and we share much common ground. A friendly debate between a conservative and a liberal is just about impossible these days. We can agree to disagree, but, in the words of Pink Floyd (as voiced by Stephen Hawking), “all we need to do, is keep talking.”

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” - Ben Franklin