Glenn Beck's "Twelve Values": #11 Personal Responsibility

Paul Derengowski, ThM

Personal responsibility. Everybody wants to put the responsibility on the Democrats or the Republicans or as I did yesterday, the Fed. But you know what? Personal responsibility, did I take out too much, did I do too much, should I have done that. Own up to your own things because that's the only way you'll change things. It's okay if you make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. It humbles us, and if we're honest with each other and honest with ourselves, we become stronger.—Glenn Beck

At first glance Beck's admonition that everyone be personally responsible for his or her actions seems laudable. Everyone should take responsibility for what he or she has done, humbly accepting credit when a noble act is performed, and shamefully receiving retribution when a moral or legal offense is committed against God, neighbor, or nation. It just sounds so good that nothing could be critically said. Right? Wrong!

There are several flaws with Beck's promotion of personal responsibility when seen through the lens of the Mormon worldview, starting with the source which is the Mormon doctrine of the "Law of Free Agency." The law of free agency is the neo-Pelagian construct which advocates that all human beings are completely and totally free to make whatever decisions they so choose, good, bad, and otherwise, regardless of what took place in the Garden of Eden after the fall of mankind. Pelagius was an ancient heretic, who promoted a similar idea when arguing his case with Augustine centuries ago. Mankind was not as bad off as was assumed, Pelagius taught, and the taint of sin did not damage humans to the extent where they could not choose to follow God. Humans merely need to be self-determined, for inherently they still possessed the capability to make spiritually correct decisions. It is the Pelagian thread that runs through Mormon thought, all the way to Glenn Beck's idea of personal responsibility.

The problem with Free Agency and Mormon personal responsibility is that it fails to take into account that when Adam sinned against God, the fulfillment of what God said would happen occurred to the max! God said, "but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). In the Hebrew "you shall surely die" could literally be rendered, "to die, you will die," which emphasizes the complete, total separation of man from God both physically and spiritually.

Sin, in other words, was a very serious issue with God and would not be tolerated at all, at the risk of mankind suffering death or separation from God. And while immediate physical death did not visit Adam and Eve when they decided to sin against God, immediate spiritual death did take place, which led them both Adam and Eve to run and hide from God. It is that same sinful impulse which has been inbred in all humans ever since, that has caused every human being to want to run and hide from God. There are none who seek for God in their degenerate condition (Rom. 3:11). There is no fear of God while one is in a condition of spiritual degeneracy (Rom. 3:18). All have gone astray, and turned to his own way of doing things (Is. 53:6). Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin" (Jn. 8:34), and there no man or woman who has not sinned (Rom. 6:23; Eccl. 7:20). All are in bondage, which is why Jesus came, to set the sinner free (Gal. 5:1).

The Mormon idea of Free Agency and personal responsibility, both of which defy biblical statements to the contrary, is formulated in Articles of Faith #2: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression." Mormons are under the delusion that there is no sin connection between them and their ancestral heritage going all the way back to Adam, and hence through their own effort to absolve them of their own personal transgressions they can merit through those same efforts the right to be saved. It is a right simply because of the legal aspect of personal responsibility. Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie made that clear when he wrote,

Personal accountability for all of one's acts underlies the whole gospel plan and is the natural outgrowth of the law of free agency. Without such personal responsibility free agency could not operate, for neither rewards nor punishments would follow the exercise of agency. And if there were no rewards or punishments, there would be no salvation or damnation, and so the whole plan of salvation would vanish away. (2 Ne. 2:11-16.) But contrary to the false doctrine which denies personal responsibility for sin, and says instead that men are predestined to salvation or damnation, the Lord has said that men will be punished for their own sins (Second Article of Faith; Articles of Faith, pp. 52-73), and that they will be judged according to the deeds done in the flesh. (Rev. 20:12.)—Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 15.

A second major flaw in Beck's notion of personal responsibility lies in the fact that, as pointed out before, the Mormon worldview is relative. There are no absolutes in Mormonism, simply because there is no transcendent object upon which to base them. The "god" of Mormonism does not, nor cannot, exist, due to the contingent nature which Mormons subscribe to in formulating their theology. Hence, whatever moral or ethical decision the Mormon might make is purely subjective. He may be correct in judging one moral or ethical act to be right or wrong, but if pressed on the issue as to why he arrived at such a decision, ultimately that decision amounts to nothing more than personal preference. And personal preferences are a dime-a-dozen, and mean absolutely nothing when determining right from wrong, truth from error, black from white. That's why Beck and his Mormonism falls into the same camp as those he regularly criticizes, namely Obama and the Democrats, because their worldview is as relative as his! Therefore, it is hypocritical of him to be criticizing them, or anything else for that matter.

Finally, Beck's comments about making mistakes and becoming stronger by them through humble admittance are asinine. In a relative world, where there are no absolutes, there are no mistakes, because there is nothing objective upon which judge them. What one has is chaos and eventually mob rule, both of which our world is seeing more of everyday. Brute power and tyrannical rule eventually come to fruition, as more and more people clamor for someone to step in and bring order. Why? Because even though human beings are in a state of rebellion against God, they still possess the image of God within them, and God is a God of order. Mankind cannot survive in a relatively prescribed world. It must have order, otherwise it will destroy itself. That's why Glenn Beck's principles and values are antithetical to what he claims them to be, because if implemented they would only hasten the destruction of society. They would not bring healing or direction.

As noted in all of the previous criticisms the whole idea of personal responsibility as advocated by Glenn Beck is nonsense. It is born out of the nonsense of Mormonism, and ultimately contributes to society's problems. If personal responsibility is to be upheld as a virtue, then it must take into account what God has to say on the subject, and that starts with man's fall into sin, the sin nature passed on to all human beings, and God's ultimate solution to the problem. Glenn Beck and his Mormonism rejects those starting points, and hence he should be rejected as offering anything of value when discussing personal responsibility, because it means nothing more than his personal, nonsensical opinion.

NEXT: Glenn Beck on Friendship