And in the future I'll try to figure out whether I've read something entirely before critiquing it!  My apologies for my confusion.

While the article makes more sense, I still have some difficulties with it.

Yes, Beck is Mormon.  No, Mormonism is not Biblical Christianity despite heavy marketing to the contrary.  Yes, Americans are willing to seize on anything or anyone that seems even close to the values they think they hold.  Yes, American Christianity has entered a quagmire of the mediocre.  Yes, we sell our souls too easily for physical economic comfort.  No, nationalism or a Christianized nationalism is not the answer to the problems that beset us.  Yes, only the Gospel can save us - always eternally and sometimes temporally.

The problem Beck represents is not so much Beck himself, or Christians themselves, but the churches that these Christians attend - either sporadically or regularly.  The problem is that these people don't hear the Gospel.  Don't see it applied to their lives.  Are not equipped to think critically about the issues that confront them.  Don't have their entrenched secular values and ways of thinking challenged or contradicted.  They follow along the milquetoast path of Jesus loves you and grip their Get-Out-of-Hell-Free-Card, as all too many pastors pat them on the head and send them home to be inundated with messages that completely contradict and negate the importance of what little of the Word they heard Sunday morning.

People flock to Beck because he is the only one saying things that appear close to what they believe or understand to be true - both about their country and about their faith.  Where are the Christian leaders on a national or international stage that are representative of Biblical Christianity?  Who have not sold out their message for private jets and luxury homes and cars?  Who have not been conquered by their own demons and personal battles?  Who articulate the faith that many pastors and Christian leaders are apparently no longer able or willing to articulate to their own people?  

We can deride Beck as a Christian poser and as a demagogue as Mr. Moore clearly wishes to do - and not without reason.  But it is inadequate and dishonest to stop there.  Unless we take a hard look in the mirror to see how we as Christians take the easy road all too often, or fail to hold our own congregational leaders accountable for preaching the hard words of Scripture as well as the beautiful Word of Grace, our hostility is rather posed as well.  If we aren't willing to spend the time in prayer, in study of the Word, in Christian fellowship, and in grappling with the very hard and very real problems that beset our homes, our congregations, our towns, and our nation and world, we should be cautious in pointing the finger to decry someone else.  

Not because that person may not deserve being denounced, but because we have four more fingers accusing us of our own lack of responsibility.  Matthew 7:1-5 is very instructive here.  All too often, Christians use this passage to avoid judging, rather than driving us to seriously examine the log in our own eye.