Glennbeck hoists the black robe

Once again I pinch from Truthout for a blog post, and this time the article is "Beck's "Apolitical" Black Robe Regiment Will Urge Voter Involvement". Here's what Glennbeck said on his show about this:

And when I first called them and talked to them, I said, 'Look, I know you were involved in the Christian Coalition, but this isn't Christian, this has to be everybody, and it cannot ever be made about politics. If it's about politics, it's worthless.'

Totally unsurprisingly, though, it seems to have quickly become "a Christian thing":

Lee said he would endorse candidates privately. But asked if he would do so from the pulpit, he said: "I don't need to say it. If a candidate does not adhere to the Christian faith, they will know who it is."

Land also said he planned to boost voter involvement and guide parishioners to use their voting rights to influence government decisions on many issues.

"Energizing all of our members to register to vote, to be informed as to where the country stands on issues and leave it to them to connect the dots," Land said. "I will do my best to make sure they know what the bible says about the sanctity of human life, marriage and the notion of man."

Oh, yeah, "what the Bible says", that's "everybody" right there, yup, uh-huh. And guess which political party has done its best to link itself with the Christian faith for the last 30 years? (Hint: One of the Big Two, but not the guys with the donkey.) And there's the whole creepy sub-text of using military language (Black Robe Regiment?) on top of the hypocrisy.

Thing is, Glennbeck isn't stupid. He knows all this. Why claim being "apolitical" when the people he talks to basically come back and say "Yeah, we're going to encourage people to vote Republican"? Why pretend this is something all-inclusive when the people he talks to come back and say "Only Christians, only bible-friendly policies"? And you know damn well he hasn't denounced any of this, if he knows about it. But if he's so damn right in what he's doing why not just stop pretending and call it "Christian Coalition 2" or some such? Why all this blather about "apolitical" and "everybody" and inclusiveness when apparently he only spoke to evangelical Christians (and maybe a couple Jews to get that proper Judaeo-Christian vibe, even though the article mentions a total of zero rabbis who are down with the program)?

Why the damn hiding and pretending? What the hell are they worried about?