Thank you, Glenn Beck.

Glenn Beck urges listeners to leave churches that preach social justice

courtesy of Maxx Lee, via Timo Chen.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank you, Glenn Beck. I think you're going to get me to go back to church.

It's hard to be angry, and harder to be effectively angry. I've been depressed and done my best to self-lobotomize myself over the last year or two, so it's been really, really hard to get angry or worked up about anything other than my own insignificant life.

And now, this.

I thank you, Glenn Beck. You, and those like you, give my life meaning in ways that no friend, no ally, no mentor can. You remind me that there is evil in this world, and that there is good, and that there are limits, however challenging to articulate and clarify at any given moment, to what a man of conscience can and ought to tolerate.

With this radio broadcast, you reminded me of all the good and decent people I have lived and worked with at churches and temples in Montebello, Claremont, and Ithaca. You reminded me how they brought the best out of me, even though that personal and unshakable faith in Christianity still escapes me. You reminded me of the sermon by Taryn Mattice at Cornell about how the romantic vision of giving all for God and Christ must often give way to a less celebrated, but more honest and effective series of small and anonymous sacrifices and deeds.

Without an enemy, we lose sight of both what we need to do and the sense of urgency that ought to accompany our actions. As many of us place our hopes and dreams in one person -- maybe Christ, maybe a president, maybe a loved one -- so do we also find it valuable to place all our hate and rage at the foot of another. Socially, and perhaps biologically, a hierarchical mindset almost guarantees this outcome.

I don't have a talk show; I don't have any real platform at all from which to speak. Some days, I don't even have my sanity. But I do have family, and I do have friends. Some might be inclined to listen to you, and some might even agree with your sentiments, here and elsewhere.

They deserve better than to start following you. And I owe it to them to be better at engaging and understanding them on their own terms. We'll probably never agree on a lot of things, but hopefully we can save each other from whatever you and others would have us become.

I cannot and will not oppose evil in faraway lands until I confront it here and now. And apathy or depression or ignorance in the face of this is effectively complicity.

I'm going to go back to church, not because I believe completely, but because it makes me a better person, and because I respect the honor and integrity of those I know there.


Perhaps, if I'm lucky, the knowledge that every day I stay depressed I somehow help your cause will speed my recovery.

Again, thank you in advance for helping me to find meaning and my heart.