WaPo bigotry? Target Mormonism in latest Beck attack, plus Producer Blog: I should have listened to Glenn Beck

Monday, Aug 29, 2011 at 12:01 PM EDT
You would think that any “Glenn Beck” headlines from the weekend would be about Restoring Courage, South Africa, Venezuela, or the one year anniversary of Restoring Honor. Instead, the media decided to take an out of context quote Glenn made on Friday’s radio show and make him look like a crazy person – and they made sure to add a healthy dose of anti-Mormon bigotry into the news cycle too! Nice one media!
The Washington Post wrote:

Beck, one of Mormonism’s most famous converts, is actually touting one of the unique aspects of the Latter-day Saint faith: food storage.
Section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants revelation was given, Mormons believe, to Joseph Smith by God in 1832 and includes the command to “organize and establish a storehouse,” which Mormon leaders have interpreted as a requirement to, when possible, “store and save a one-year supply of food.” The church Web site even includes a Food Storage Calculator “to help you determine your longer-term food storage needs.” The food storage is one pillar of self-reliance, emphasized within Mormonism so that “the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world.” Beyond personal storage, the church also provides temporary welfare services to its members “to help people to help themselves.”

Clearly, the article is trying to smear Glenn’s religious beliefs and make it sound like his calls for preparedness are some attempt to convert people to his beliefs. Or something.
“Now, they take this and they try to smear me, try to make me into a nut job. For what reason exactly? What reason? That you should be a help to others?”

“Yeah, I’m not a Mormon and I still think preparation makes sense,” Stu said. “These are not Mormon concepts. These are common sense concepts.”

Producer Blog: I should have listened to Glenn Beck

by Wilson G.

Ok, maybe that title is a little misleading. I listen to Glenn about 5 hours a day. It’s my job. I write all the articles you read here on glennbeck.com. I can list every Woodrow Wilson factoid, progressive plan, or caliphate theory that’s been on air over the past year. I have encyclopedic knowledge of the Glenn Beck doomsday predictions. And yet when it came to being prepared for Hurricane Irene, I was as unprepared as you could have been.

I was over in Israel volunteering on the Restoring Courage project for ten days, long before a landfall in NYC was a real possibility. I didn’t really hear about the hurricane until the Restoring Courage event ended and it would still be a few days before I got back to the US. The gravity of the situation hit me when my friend’s flight back to the city was cancelled and I realized I was on the last flight back to NYC.

In the customs line at JFK another Mercury staffer said the line at Trader Joe’s was around the block. There was no water or bread at Whole Foods on the Upper West Side. One of my fellow travelers lived in an evacuation zone.

And I had nothing. No water. No food. No flashlight or batteries or candles or go bag.

If this hurricane was going to be as bad as everyone was saying, I was screwed.

Before leaving JFK I bought $40 of overpriced water. Certainly not the best deal, but at least I had some peace of mind. I took it home and dropped off my luggage, showered and waited for the stores to open.