I would like readers to consider two charts.

The first shows the U.S. federal deficit as a percentage of GDP. Please note that the deficit is about 60 percent of GDP now — the highest since World War II — and is scheduled to grow to record levels in 14 years.

The second shows the primary cause of the deficit: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are expensive. Personally, I’m in favor of cutting defense spending significantly. But there’s only one problem: even if you cut defense spending in half, you still have to deal with the entitlement problem, ie, the uncontrolled growth of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

This post will argue that the tea party movement, with its many defects, is an overwhelmingly positive response to this problem. Let the fun begin.

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Abortion — right or wrong? Stem cell research on embryos — does it kill human life? The theory of evolution contradicts the Gospel — yes or no?

These three social issues take up a huge amount of time among religious people trying to act in moral ways. But it seems to me that there is a relatively easy solution to these problems for many religious people, and that is to read the book of Genesis more closely.

Here is what Genesis 2:7 says: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

How was Eve formed? This is in Genesis 2:21-22: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs…And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
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Is Glenn Beck helping the cause of outreach to the evangelical community? Well, read this article, and you may be convinced he is. Some of the key evangelical leaders LOVE Glenn Beck. Now, it is true they love him because they don’t really believe he is a Mormon. They seem to imply he joined the Church because the Church was the vehicle he used to overcome his alcoholism and that he doesn’t really believe all that golden plates and Joseph Smith stuff.

Regardless, is Glenn Beck helping close the divide between evangelicals and Mormons? Read the attached and decide. Here are the key excerpts:

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This story says it all. Apparently our new computer system has allowed the Church and a key group critical of Jewish temple ordinances to announce an agreement.

Glenn Beck’s rally over the weekend confused a lot of people, especially his usual critics. Where was all the tea party rhetoric and hatred? What were all those people doing praying and praising America for three hours? What was he doing giving an award to Alberto Pujols, and what was MLK’s niece doing there? This article argues that the rally is part of a long-term plan to change the political game entirely.

Beck is creating positive themes of unity and patriotism and freedom and independence which are above mere political or policy choices, but not irrelevant to them. Political and policy choices rest on a foundation of philosophy, culture, self-image, ideals, religion. Change the foundation, and the rest will flow from that. Defeat the enemy on that plane, and any merely tactical defeat will always be reversible.

The author’s point is that the foundational themes of the left are currently dominating public discourse. Just one example: gay marriage was unthinkable 15 years ago, but the left (broadly speaking) has changed the public perception of gays through shows like “Will and Grace” and all the sudden a lot of people start thinking, “well, who cares if two gay guys want to get married?” Al Gore has tried to do this with global warming. One of the underlying themes of many progressives is that there should be no real limits to governmental control over personal property (especially ironic given that the income tax didn’t exist 100 years ago).

So, if you change the foundational discussion, politics will follow. The author’s argument is that Beck is trying to change the foundational discussion back to: traditional morality, God, Constitutional protections of personal freedom vs. communitarian views of property, respect for the military.

Seen from this perspective, the Beck rally makes sense. You could argue that Beck is not really that smart, and I would agree he has said some incredibly stupid things. So it is of course possible that Beck has stumbled onto this particular strategy out of pure dumb luck. Or it is also possible that there is no strategy at all and he is just fumbling along, doing whatever occurs to his ADD-addled mind at the time. What do you think?

(Could I request that comments deal with the “secret plan” aspect? We already know most of you hate Glenn Beck. You don’t need to prove your “I hate Glenn Beck” bona fides here. Please keep comments focused on the subject of this post, which is, “is there a secret plan or no?”)