Is Glenn Beck Blind to the Cultural Issues ‘Overton Window’?

Glenn Beck needs to attend the next AFTAH Truth Academy, says Champion News editor John Biver.

Reprinted with permission from ChampionNews.net; first published August 27, 2010

By John Biver

From coast to coast, platform-supporting Republicans have reacted to Glenn Beck’s weak-kneed cave-in regarding the issue of homosexual “marriage.” He’s quoted as telling Fox News Network’s Bill O’Reilly,

“I believe that Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If it neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me.'”

Some people are even calling for a “moratorium” on the political discussion of the cultural issues. That idea is foolish, as we’ve addressed on links found HERE. Try as you might, you can’t separate economics from culture.

The cultural issues are numerous. They include the proper use of facts when it comes to history, honesty in intellectual debates, integrity in the free market system, standing with our friends and allies in foreign countries, the right of the unborn to not have their life taken through the barbaric procedure of abortion, and decorum that befits a civilization when it comes to matters that should be private such as individual sexual predilections.

The two that get the most attention are abortion and the sexual problems of at best 3 percent of the population: homosexual behavior. I call it a problem because it is. The physical health statistics, sociological data, and psychological evidence reached critical mass a long time ago about the dangers of that behavior choice.

Note that I said behavior choice. If you can’t control your urges, then you should seek help. It’s called mature adulthood. If you think nothing is wrong with homosexual activity, that is your right. It’s not your right to indoctrinate children, force an extreme social agenda on an unwilling country, or demand acceptance from people whose religions refer to that activity as sin and a crime against nature.

We’re not guilty of “homophobia.” They’re guilty of moralityphobia. We don’t fear them – we fear the tearing of the moral fabric. They fear the preservation of common sense moral standards.

Unfortunately too many people within the Republican Party are intellectually lazy and refuse to learn what they should about the real agenda of those pushing homosexual “marriage.”

Champion News has addressed the issue of marriage at some length through links listed on this page. Champion News has also addressed the moral confusion surrounding what I’d refer to as the arrested-development push for amoral sexual behavior in the public square. It’s no longer a private issue; the other side marches in pride parades much like children might march to celebrate having been potty trained.

(One friend has observed: “Although it wouldn’t be appropriate to hold a parade for potty-training in that it’s a private activity, I think being potty-trained—unlike homosexual practice—is a legitimate accomplishment.”)

Glenn Beck needs to go to school on the issue by purchasing the DVDs or CDs of the last Truth Academy put on by Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, and he should attend the next one. There he’ll learn the facts that no one is born gay, its causes are psychological and emotional, the Bible in no way supports or condones homosexual behavior, and that there is no compromise possible between our First Amendment right of freedom of religion and the agenda of those who are seeking to make the American culture into one where sexual morality is tossed out the window.

Speaking of windows, Glenn Beck’s novel The Overton Window is premised on the idea presented by Joseph Overton – here is how Wikipedia sums it up (emphasis added):

“At any given moment, the ‘window’ includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too ‘extreme’ or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office.

“Overton arranged the spectrum on a vertical axis of ‘more free’ and ‘less free’ in regards to government intervention. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable. The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as: Unthinkable, Radical, Acceptable, Sensible, Popular, Policy.”

I appreciate the good work Glenn Beck is doing on several fronts, but he needs to open his eyes to the cultural Overton Window phenomenon he’s falling prey to when it comes to our nation’s culture. Our second President John Adams gave one of the more succinct quotes from the Founding era about our nation’s survival:

“Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Surely Beck understands that the ethical roots of the American regime have their lineage in both Athens and Jerusalem, and that the religion Adams had in mind was Christianity. Surely Beck realizes the consequences of allowing the sexually troubled to win in their overthrow of the First Amendment. Surely Beck understands that if you surrender to the extreme agenda of the social left on any matter, the Overton Window moves in the wrong direction. Surely Beck realizes that the problems of the 3 percent put at risk the support of the cultural conservative base of the one party – the Republican Party – that still understands that civilization is behavior.

If he doesn’t, he should take some time off from his radio and TV show, his book-writing, rally-planning, and speech-giving – and learn.

John Biver is the Editor of Champion News.