When Glenn Beck Met Billy Graham

Glenn Beck recently sat down with Rev. Billy Graham for a three hour meeting. The differences in worldviews  can be summed up in this one line :

“I spoke of a growing darkness and evil,” Beck said of his meeting with Graham. “He spoke of a greater growth of light.”

So did Graham’s optimistic vision make a lasting impression? Of course not. This is Glenn Beck we’re talking about.

“In sitting there and speaking to Reverend Graham, I thought, here is a man who has been all around the world,” Beck explained on his website on Tuesday, apparently a transcript of comments made on his radio show on Monday. “Here’s a man who has seen it all. Here’s a man who’s done profound good. One of the first to stand in Alabama as a white preacher and stand and say we must come together.”

“My message to you,” Beck continued, “is we must come together. Evil has ?? the left has stood ?? is standing now with profound and clear evil and they’ve connected from evil all the way to the average Democrat and everything in between.

As Peter Wehner writes in a post titled ” The Most Disturbing Personality on Cable Television ,”

One cannot watch [Beck] for any length of time without being struck by his affinity for conspiracies and for portraying himself as the great decoder of events. Political movements are not just wrong; they are infiltrated by a web of malevolent forces. Others see the shadows on the wall; Beck alone sees the men casting them. The danger when one paints the world in such conspiratorial terms is that it devalues the rational side of politics. It encourages a cast of mind that looks to expose enemies rather than to engage in arguments.