by VorJack
I’ve heard a lot of Glenn Beck’s fans talk about his accuracy and how he always checks his facts. Well, recently he got something seriously wrong, and it got the biblioblogosphere in a huff. Joel over at Diglotting and Robert Cargill both give it full treatments.
The error went out on an episode of Beck’s radio show, which was caught and posted by Media Matters. Here’s a transcript (ripped from Diglotting):
… the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know what they are? … So here’s what happened. When Constantine decided that he was going to cobble uh together an army, he did the um Council of Nicaea, right, Pat? (Pat: Yea.) The Council of Nicaea, and what they did is brought all of the religious figures uhh together, all the Christians and they said, “Ok, let’s put together the Apostles’ Creed, let’s you know, you guys do it.” So they brought all their religious scripture together, that’s when the Bible was first bound and everything else. And then they said, “Anybody who disagrees with this is a heretic and off with their head!” Well, that’s what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. They are those scriptures that people had at the time that and they said, “They are destroying all of this truth.” Whether it’s truth or not is up to the individual, but at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved and so they rolled up the scrolls and put them in clay pots and they, they put them in the back of caves where no one could find them. They were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the Council of Nicaea and Constantine. That’s what those things are.
There’s a lot wrong with this. For example, the Council of Nicaea produced the Nicaean Creed, not the Apostle’s Creed – the two are quite different.
But the two big errors are the notion that the canon was set at the Council of Nicaea, and the idea that the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of non-canonical Christian literature. Interestingly enough, both of these errors can be found in Dan Brown’s The Davinci Code, which may tell you something about Beck’s sources.
For the record, the canon was not defined at the Council. That was an ongoing process that did not become de facto settled until much later.
But the biggest problem is that Beck has confused the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Nag Hammadi Library. The Dead Sea Scrolls mostly predate Christianity and are not Christian documents.
It’s a surprisingly common mistake, which is why I’m bringing it up. For example, I once heard a reporter on NPR get it wrong. So it’s not entirely something to beat up Beck over. Still, why don’t we give the last word to Bob “The Man with No Shift Key” Cargill:
i am a political moderate, with an appreciation of pundits on both sides. there are smart liberals and there are smart conservatives; glenn beck is neither. mr. beck is not as cunning as bill o’reilly, not as witty as keith olbermann, not as smart as rush limbaugh, and not as hot (intellectually) as rachel maddow. glenn beck lacks the political acumen of george will, the savvy of paul begala, the objective demeanor of juan williams, the strategic humor of james carville, the ingenuity of thomas friedman, the inquisitive journalistic tenacity of steve inskeep, the experience of david gergen, the brains of jeff greenfield, and the influence of matt drudge. rather, our friend mr. beck, apparently suffering from diarrhea of the mouth, is little more than an annoying sideshow – an overly dramatic, undereducated, sub-populist, train wreck, that makes the otherwise media-wise rupert murdoch look like a fool for signing him.
Why is Glenn Beck getting things wrong in any way news?
“Not as smart as Rush Limbaugh”
That’s setting a bar low right there…
He is emphasizing his “moderate” part so that Glenn Beck’s fans don’t point at him saying: hey, another radical commie atheist!
Moderation is overvaluated.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that someone who holds opinions opposite of you is stupid.
Rush, as aggravating as he is, is quite smart. I used to listen to his show to get opinions from the ‘other side’, and found that I could agree with him on over half of his points. He never uses religion or belief to back up his arguments, that alone is worth some respect. He also lays out his logic, and why he comes to the conclusions he does. I might not agree with him, and I find some of his tactics distasteful, but I would never call him stupid.
Holy crap. That’s so low even a flea couldn’t fit under the bar!
So, where are the Dead Sea Communist Socialist Nazis?
This is kinda surprising coming from a self-described religious conservative, but it makes a certain amount of sense when you consider that Beck is Mormon. Mormons are regarded as heretics by Evangelical Protestants, and can be a bit shaky on the authority of the traditional Christian canon relative to the book of the Mormon. So it makes sense that Beck would be sympathetic to (what he thought were) early Christian heretics with their own scriptures.
“Beck is Moron”
Fixed.
I think Glen Beck is faking. It’s probably glaringly obvious that he acts like an ass for the ratings, but I’d even chance that Beck was a liberal. I remember an article in Time mentioning him, way before he started this conspiracy theory BS, and he appeared reasonably sensible and wasn’t even anti-Obama.
He’s a media prostitute. He “says what the people who aren’t thinking; are thinking”.
Hey. Don’t blame his Beckiness on his Mormonism. I grew up LDS — sure, I’m an atheist now, but I did grow up LDS. I can vouch for the hours of Bible study (actual bible study, not Book of Mormon study) that I went through.
You know that church is 3 hours long, right? Sacrament meeting, Sunday School, Relief Society (Priesthood for the guys, Primary for the kids, Mutual for the teens). Plus there’s the scripture reading that’s strongly encouraged by active members — my parents had our family read the scriptures for 30 minutes on Sunday evening, and 10 minutes on Monday (Family Home Evening) after the lesson. Then we had a church activity sometime midweek, usually with at least 10 minutes of scripture study mixed in.
In about the mid-90′s, I noticed a pronounced switch from predominantly BoM study to more intense and frequent Bible study. The LDS began centering their image on the “Church of Jesus CHRIST of Latter Day Saints” part, and amping up their Christian side. As part of that, the Bible began playing a much more important role.
From what I understand, Beck is a convert. If this is true, he wouldn’t have grown up in a BoM-study centric church; he would have entered into a Bible-study centric church.
Don’t blame his idiocy on Mormonism. They have their own special idiocy that has nothing to do with Beck.
Makes sense. It is a major tenant of mormonism that Jesus’ original message was lost and that his church underwent an apostasy. This is the whole reason why JS had to “restore” the christian church.
Who’s Glen Beck?
Wha??? You’re joking, right? Please tell me that was sarcasm…
Actually no. Other than a few refs on this site, I’ve never heard of him. American, I guess.
You lucky son of a bitch — seriously, man, be GLAD you’ve never heard of him!
LOL!
Yeah, you think I’m joking….
Bob Cargill has shown his love for NPR with that list of reporters. It’s quiet and accurate, kinda like NPR itself. Public Radio really is the last bastion of objective journalism in the US.
I grew up on that stuff, especially All Things Considered, (and the MacNeill/Lehrer News Hour on PBS). 60 Minutes used to be really good, though it’s slipped a lot in the last decade. Beyond that, yeah, fairly a media wasteland.
Glen Beck is a clown who thinks himself a philosopher. How sad!
Glen Beck got something wrong?
STOP THE PRESSES!!!!
Please, this is nothing new. It’d be news if he got something RIGHT.
“the ingenuity of thomas friedman”
?!?!?!?!
Pingback: Go green and healthy: eat insects « Le Café Witteveen
Pingback: Dead Sea Scrolls: were the authors Jewish or Jewish? | A Hot Cup of Joe