Since I'm unemployed, I'm often very bored during the day and I actually found myself deciding to tune in to see what Glenn Beck had to rant about. It didn't take long for Beck to annoy me enough to make me turn off the TV. In this case, it was the absolute ridiculous use of a John Winthrop quote to defend Beck's cost cutting moves.

The thing that really got me was that the quote seemed more like a call to socialism than anything else. Beck sang the praises of Winthrop's City on the Hill speech but can you imagine if President Obama ever said something like this:

"To doe justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our god, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly affeccion... Wee must delight in eache other, make others condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together...but if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good land whether wee passe over this vast sea to possesse it; therefore lett us choose life... And cleaveing to him, for hee is our life, and our prosperity."

Call me crazy, but someone saying that we should suffer together and rejoice together and treat everyone like brothers and make others problems our own all the while not getting caught up in our own personal profits and pleasures seems a bit like a socialist to me. Never mind that while Beck is crying about no handouts, Winthrop thought that it was the duty of the rich to take care of the poor. "The care of the public must oversway all private respects by which not only conscience but mere civil policy doth bind us."

Usually Beck cherrypicks bits and pieces of quotes to fit his view but in this case, it almost seems like he has a complete misreading of the quote (and one that I still don't understand) in order to further his rant.