Pray for Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck has received a lot of attention for his inflammatory rhetoric lately. Recently, he shared a personal story about his daughter who has cerebral palsy, which gets to the heart of his fears about health-care reform:

They [the government] will say exactly what doctors said about my 21-year-old daughter: "She may not really have a quality of life. She may not walk or talk or feed herself. But then again miracles happen." The "then again, miracles happen" part of that will be left out of the conversation. And I will not be able to see my daughter's 21st birthday, where I can reflect with her how miracles do happen. Because really, as I was told at the beginning of her life: Well, what kind of quality of life is she going to really have? I don't know, but that's for God to decide, not the government. -The Glenn Beck Program, 8/6/2009

His predictions that health-care reform would lead to government bureaucrats euthanizing people like his daughter are dead wrong, but we agree with Glenn on this point: God is the giver of life. However, what Glenn fails to realize is that lack of affordable, accessible health care is one of the reasons that people choose to terminate difficult pregnancies.

Consider two very close friends of the Sojourners family who recently found out that their unborn baby daughter has a brain tumor. To protect their privacy, we'll call her Milagro -- meaning "Miracle" -- or Mila, for short.

The tumor is the same size as her brain and is causing a build-up of fluid and the enlargement of her head. Significant brain damage is near certain. She's been given a 15 percent chance of survival and then only with a severely impaired quality of life. And yet, they've been told what Glenn's doctors told him: "miracles happen."

Mila will likely be delivered in December. With their current coverage, premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for a complicated pregnancy will cost 20 percent of their modest income. But if their total bills exceed $250,000, they must pay all additional expenses. It's unclear how likely this is, but multiple brain surgeries and the additional care Mila may need could spell deep financial trouble.

But their worries don't stop there. Our friends receive their insurance through the mother's university. After she completes her Ph.D. this spring, her coverage will end in August. After that, with the possibility of Mila's severe pre-existing conditions, they may not be able to get any coverage at all.

Our friends do not fear a future where a government bureaucracy forces them to kill their child. Doctors in the current system have already suggested abortion. Their fear is much more immediate: If by some miracle their child survives beyond the womb, will they be able to afford the care she'll need once the insurance coverage ends?

Contrary to Glenn's fears, nothing in any of the proposed legislation would take away the right of a parent to carry her child to term. Nothing in any of the current legislation would deny life-saving treatment to anyone in need.

Those painful decisions would still be left to the families, and ultimately, yes, to God -- just like the choices Beck had with his daughter Mary. It's our current system that does not ensure that families have all the care they need -- before or after the birth of a child.

All of the reform proposals being debated include provisions to cap out-of-pocket expenses, end exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and eliminate limits like our friends' annual $250,000 cap on coverage -- removing the financial pressures that currently lead many families to terminate difficult pregnancies.

Tell Glenn Beck that health-care reform is pro-life -- consistently pro-life.

Lately, Glenn has repeatedly asked his listeners for prayer:

I'm fighting for you and me, my children, your children. I would ask you for one thing. Please, keep me in your prayers, keep my staff in your prayers, for safety, for wisdom, please. --The Glenn Beck Program, 9/8/2009

It should be no surprise that we strongly disagree with many of Glenn's views, but we too believe in a God far greater than all of us. So on this point, let's take Glenn at his word and pray for him to have wisdom as he speaks out on these issues.

Tell Glenn you're praying for him -- that he'll choose hope over fear.

Pray that stories like Mila's will help convince Glenn that his fears of a government takeover are dangerous distractions compared to the real-life suffering that Americans are experiencing right now.

Campaigns by other groups have shown that targeting Glenn's advertisers gets real results, so we're including them in this message in order to hold him accountable for his words.

And please pray for our friends' unborn daughter -- that Mila, like Glenn's now 21-year-old daughter Mary, will grow up to be a miracle who lives a long and blessed life, regardless of what happens with health-care reform.

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Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com.

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Comments

[trisha08]

Praying for a Mormon is useless. They think the rest of the world is lost and full of sinners and they are the only ones who are right with God.

Plus, there is a good chance that the Mormon's will baptize you into the Mormon faith to give you one more change at getting it right. So, no matter what choices you made regarding your personal faith while alive, The Mormon's have the nerve to baptist you as a Mormon when you die.

So, praying for Beck falls is useless. Most likely, he is praying for all of your "lost souls" you haven't seen the light through Joseph Smith.

[flow555]

Why YES, Glenn Beck, I would be happy to pray for you. Thanks for the suggestion.

And since today is International Peace Day, I will happily pray for you all day.

I will say the same prayer I say with my kids every day, but I will also include you, Glenn Beck!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for all the blessings we (and Glenn Beck) recieve.
Please help me (and Glenn Beck) remember our function here on earth: To love and to forgive.
Please help guide me (and Glenn Beck) on the path You want us to walk on, and help me (and Glenn Beck) to be the people that you want us to be.
Please send the Holy Spirit in to heal anyone who is sick, or sad, or scared, or suffering, or lonely.
Please bless all of our (and Glenn Beck's) family and friends.
In Jesus' name, Amen.

[DeloresT]

I will pray for Glenn Beck....I will pray that his lunatic behavior will cease. He is a dangerous person. I believe that one day he will give a "Lee Atwater speech". After causing all of the harm that he has to the citizens of this country, he will confess to his idiocy and ask for forgiveness. I hope that he gives this speech sooner than later.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

There is so little left of Beck worthy of praying for, it seems a waste of my time, and certainly a waste of a Higher Power's time.

I will pray no one in his audience listens to a lunatic.

[majii]

I retired from a career after 33 years in which my main goal was helping disabled kids reach the highest level of their potential, but of course, according to some in this society, progressives don't care about these individuals or perform this kind of work, but I am a progressive.

[hwoodude]

There wil always be Glenn Becks, Shane Hannitys, Ann Coulters, and Rush Limbaughs, etc..who have never held elected offfice, served in the military, ran a large business, or had a college degreee, etc, who set themselves as political experts. They want to do our thinking for us! Of course they continually criticise the Democrats because they think for themselves­..i.e. they voted for Obama in order to change the ruin 8 years of Bush brought to America. That Obama is trying to clean up that debacle and bring order and dignity to America, escapes thes right wingers. A strong, dedicated, patient two party system is what will bring healing and dignity back to Americans.­..Republic­an and Democrat..­...not the self centered, head line seeking rantings of conservative media whores.

[seawolf77]

Beck and Boehner ought to have a good cry together. They could bond on a superficial level and then roast marshmellows and tell each othe how wonderful life is they've made and preserved here, like 2 little saviorswho hold the line against the imperial horde of invading infidels. Thank GOD for Glenn Beck! May his hemmoroids experience unusual remission qualities not unlike an itching scab.

[LaurieFleming]

I'm an atheist, so I don't pray. If I thought that he wasn't using his daughter's affliction to push his political barrow *at all*, I would wish that things would work out better for him and his family.

But he's a creep, a raving nutcase, I don't believe him and so I don't care.

[truthglow]

I agree with you 100%.

[BN2112]

Laurie,
I'm with you on your whole post. I sure don't believe Glenn Beck's story. He is such a side show con-artist even if he is telling the truth it's impossible to take him at his word.

[ebro1]

While I have compassion for the man's daughter, after watching his shows I believe he is a raving lunatic.

[blooddoc]

Praying for Glen Beck is not likely to help. What the man most likely needs is medication. He shows some of the classic signs of bipolar disorder (episodes of maniacal euphoria alternating with tearful bouts of what looks like depression) and has apparently not received any medical attention. This is regrettable, because drug therapy can be highly effective in these situations.

[BN2112]

I'm really hoping prayer is the big waste of time I think it is. After all let's not forget there is a "man of Gawd" in AZ praying for the demise of our president from the pulpit.

[Intelligentia]

Since we are using the word "pray" here, I say, let's heed Jesus' instructions: "Let the dead bury the Dead." Save your prayers for those who are alive, not the dead! Shall we pray for Satan? What exactly will that prayer ask of God? While I have no problem praying for Glenn Beck's daughter (I am assuming that, because of her health condition, should "cannot" formulate the same hellish ideologies as her father), but I have no prayer nor sympathy for Glenn Beck. Jesus did not pray for Satan or Lucifer, whatever you choose to call him or her.

[rcozad]

I am constantly amazed that the opponents of a public option fear that there is a remote possibility impartial government with absolutely no motivation to end coverage would be more aggressive than the actual existence of a bureaucrat working to MAXIMIZE THE PROFITS of an Insurance company that currently gets BONUS MONEY for canceling expensive claims does every day RIGHT NOW! Have we lost our collective minds!?

[DumbDad]

THAT is sanity!

[BN2112]

For the life of me I can't see why we as thinking adults can't get past myths and superstitions to face disease and deal with critical health and end of life issues with reason and science instead of ancient patriarchal sky gods. Please folks, we need logic, science, and compassion to deal with all the challenges we face including the Glenn Becks of the world.
If there are any such things as miracles, it's just those occurrences by the roll of the dice that defy the odds on rare occasions.

And a quick question to all the believers out there, if Gawd is the "giver of life", what gave HIM life?

[BN2112]

Still no takers on that question huh. Not surprised.

[DumbDad]

well that was answered by like, Aristotle, in about 380 BC, so you guys need to read up a bit. By definition 'God' is the 'first cause' which, like the Big Bang, has to be there to satisfy the way our minds work. You can deny it, but it's not as dumb as you're acting.

[TRex86]

Ask yourself, "Why the vicious opposition to universal healh care, something every other Western country has long since adopted--and at far less cost than our system?" The answer is two fold: (1) Who benefits from the status quo? (2) What beliefs do ordinary people hold that makes them act against their own interests? The first is obvious. Powerfull corporate intersts control our political system and run it to suit themselves.
The second is more complicated. The tea baggers and town hollerers are a mixed bag. Leaving out the plentiful gun-nuts, racists and xenophobes what remains is a core of decent people who feel invisible, estranged from modern life. They witness titanic struggles from afar with no understanding of post-millennial political economy. Their sepia toned memory of the past creates the illusion of an America, which they think they undertand. Now they are stuck in a psycholoical trap, clinging to ego defenses that any objective observer recognizes to be counter-productive. Thus they have contracted to a Stockholm Syndrome, bonding with their captors, fearful of any change that threatens their tenuous hold on reality.

[BN2112]

TRex,
I ask myself those questions all the time as well. As someone who firmly accepts evolutionary biology I think a lot of it has to do with fitting in with the crowd. Those who fit in better are more likely to find mates and thus pass those genes to conform onto future generations.
Thus my questions still stands as it has all my life without a satisfactory and logical answer, what/who gave Gawd life? In my own opinion, especially seeing it here in the bible-belt, there seems to be a lot of intellectual and emotional time and energy wasted on the mystical that is diverted from logic and reason and even compassion.

Speaking of time, I need to go mow the lawn now. Thanks for your input.

[DrP]

TRex: You are amazingly brilliant and eloquent. Your words here express much of what I have been thinking but don't have the talent to elucidate. I am recommending this post to everyone I know and making a copy to keep on my desktop!

[JEP57]

I can't explain how God always existed, but here's an even bigger question for you. How did the entire universe start out as a compact ball of matter where one moment later it exploded into time, space, matter, energy, along with all the precise laws of physics, with no one lifting a finger to design and put into place these laws. And how did life eventually emerge from matter by one unguided, accidental step after another along with consciousness. The odds of all this happening are beyond reason. There isn't a science book anywhere that can explain the existence of matter, energy or the laws that control them or how they came to be from nothing.

[BN2112]

I'm not an astronomer or cosmologist so I can't explain that either. So instead let's just make up a story about a mysterious being that issues judgment based on the ability to believe in him as the origin of the Universe that contradicts all evidence and reason to keep it nice and simple and everybody in line.

[BN2112]

BTW--You attempted to answer my question with a question. That's typically what I've come to expect when I pose this question--a diversion instead of a well-reasoned answer.

[TRex86]

The universe expands and contracts. There have been infinite Big Bangs and will be infinitely more. In cosmic time, all random events are possible. The paradox of chimps writing Shakespeare's plays by banging on word processors would happen if they kept at it long enough. Hence, the chance assortment of atoms and elements that results in life is inevitable. Likewise, intelligent, self-aware life is inevitable. What isn't appreciated on this small, watery rock is that wisdom isn't the same thing as intelligence. We may be clever, but we're far from wise. As Carl Sagan calculated, the lack of evidence of intelligent life in the universe isn't proof that we're the first to appear. It proves that intelligent beings exterminate themselves within 200 years of having developed nuclear weapons.

[krypton86]

Well JEP, I think that we would prefer that you demonstrate that God ever existed, not "how God always existed." That's not a starting point that I'm willing to concede. The burden of proof always lies with the claimant, and that's you in this case.

As for you first question, there's a whole branch of physics called cosmology which has been successfully working on this for a very long time now. This question is literally the foundation of cosmology. If you're serious about asking this question there are tons of good books on it, and none of them require the existence of God for explanatory purposes.

Your second question clearly demonstrates that you are either unaware of evolution or simply don't believe it's true. Again, lot's of good books available on that.

Your first claim is that the odds for this happening are beyond reason. Prove it. Crunch the numbers and prove it. You'll be one of the most famous, important scientists who ever lived.

As for your final claim, there are lot of books that attempt to explain these things, but that's not what you want. You want THE answer, the be-all-end-all truth of the matter. You don't want to have to sift through possibilities. I don't blame you, but it just doesn't work that way. This is why so many people adhere to religions (none of which can explain your questions either), because they simply want to be told the answers.

[DumbDad]

aside from the 'quick question', you need to know that there are rank upon rank of different classes of people who 'believe', perhaps the vast majority of whom are as infantile in their thinking/believing as you imply. However, nothing in science or logic can account for the inordinate quality of significance all humans assign to themselves and those who love them. This paradox leads to an experience of mental disorganization in such traumatic circumstances as threaten to reduce personal existence to what objective assessment can make of it. The universal result is a dealing with a set of logics which are alien to science, modal logics, which deal with the role of possibility and necessity in pure abstraction. Out of that experience, sort of like the famous 'fox hole', comes a dialectic between the reality of the self and the reality of the world, which gets resolved only by link between the precise character of the doomed self and the image of a certain doomed man. That link allows the reality of the world to save the individual from what is felt as imminent non-being. People return from it convinced of the reality of that person's death on a cross. But how, they then wonder, could it have happened if the God in whom he believed had not been known to be there? From personal experience they know that no one could have done it 'just by making up a faith '. Ergo, the reality is decided.

[BN2112]

Look, you're apparently looking at this through the lens of a philosopher and I am looking at it as a biologist. When I read claims, as in this article, that "God is the giver of life", I regard that as a bold biological statement that cannot any longer go unchallenged by the scientific community. Since you cite literature, maybe you should read Dawkins' The God Delusion because he cuts through the varying nebulous definitions given to the word "God" and argues that in this day and age we, especially practitioners of the natural sciences, shouldn't throw the word around in such an abstract willy-nilly manner.

[TXfemmom]

Say what you like, but I was a medical professional for over 25 years and I would never, ever have put an infant through some of the things I saw by parents who claimed to love them. I can think of one poor toddler who shreaked and screamed all waking hours because of pain from severe and almost constant muscle spasms from cerebral palsy. That was with the poor sweet boy at the top dosage for a number of muscle relaxants and things given to attempt to give him some relief. Torturing a child like that, knowing that they would never, ever be without that horrible pain would be something which is inhumane. They subjected that poor baby to surgery after surgery to release muscles and the screaming continued. He had a feeding tube, and was blind and deaf. How could anyting put a poor, innocent child who was blind and deaf through indescribable pain such as that?

[TheAlchemist]

How sad. There are so many things we just don't understand. Difficult choices.