Slam Beck – Get a Reward!

On two separate levels, the Huffington Post has engaged in self-defamation of the highest order. According to Free Republic, Beau Friedlander formerly associated with the now defunct Air America and current contributor to Huffington Post penned an article which put a price on Glenn Beck’s head. He has offered $100,000 (not his money, but negotiated) to anyone with documentary evidence of the “sins of Glenn Beck.” The hit piece of choice would be a “sex tape”, phone records, or just about anything scandalous that a reader could come up with.

The offer is a “copy-cat” of the Andrew Breitbart offer to supporters of the Congressional Black Caucus to produce any documentation of the Tea Party miscreants who supposedly hurled insults at the members in a well publicized walk in Washington. What he is offering to finance for a princely sum, is the revelation of information which may well prove to be common knowledge.

Beck, who freely admits his association with Alcoholics Anonymous, has volunteered that prior to seeking recovery he was leading a life that was not stellar nor was he a suitable role model for any other than a barrel of drunks. He was not motivated by a cash outlay to make these admissions but rather to share his distasteful experiences as an example of “what not to do.”

Friedlander, whose principal goal is to destroy Beck and that for which he has become an extremely public face, obviously misses the point. He chooses to ignore that “the program” insists upon admission of past error, a heartfelt desire to change, and consequent effort to return to atonement. Beck would be the first to share his story with a fellow sufferer if he saw that person’s desire to turn his life around and acknowledge a higher power was available to assist.

Finding bad behavior of former alcoholics is analogous to finding cows**t in a milking parlor. The truly pious, saintly and virtuous are rarely observed as “first timers” at any AA meeting. They come, often as a last resort, to escape the conscience crushing realities of the life they lead. Despite the name which incorporates the word “anonymous,” some of us realize that, while desirable, anonymity following a life of public drunkenness and its consequences is nearly impossible.

The single most often misunderstood feature about AA, and churches as a whole for that matter, is appreciating that their membership does not claim perfection but acts positively to attain promised God given forgiveness.

In the final analysis, the offer of a negotiated cash allowance for the “Sins of Glenn Beck” speaks more to Friedlander’s ignorance of the process of recovery from alcoholism than any misbehavior of Beck. Beau; maybe you might enjoy going to a meeting and hearing those golden words which are the first uttered on the road to recovery: “Hi, I’m Beau, and I’m an alcoholic.”

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon