Right-wing Christians have never been comfortable with secularization of Christmas. Nor have they liked the answer that schools and the rest of society came up with in rolling all the Jewish, Christian and secular holidays together and coming up with the more generic and inclusive, a.k.a. The Holiday Season. We have a brother-in-law, for instance, who after a religious transformation refuses to let his two children read write or watch anything that deals with the story of Santa Claus because of such concerns.

So leave it to right-wing commentator Glenn Beck to find a way to cash in on the holiday. Beck, best know for his teary-eyed rants, penned a semi-autobiographical novel titled the “Christmas Sweater” about his difficult childhood, which included the real-life drowning death of his mother. Beck uses his personal turmoil to spin yet another snow-kissed morality tale, as if the Christmas season weren’t already crowded with 100 years of this baggage. Even better, Beck brings the tale “to life” with a stage show that was simulcast across the country last year and is set for an encore presentation this season. For a mere $20 you too can share in Beck’s personal transformation from child of a broken home to the public face of right-wing ignorance and intolerance. If this is the 21^st Century’s version of “It’s A Wonderful Life” I’ll need some more eggnog. WTF?

This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.

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Glenn Beck's Sideshow

by Source Weekly, The Source - Bend, Oregon
November 18, 2009

<h1>Glenn Beck&apos;s Sideshow</h1> <p class="byline">by Source Weekly, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />November 18, 2009</p> <p><p />Right-wing Christians have never been comfortable with secularization of Christmas. Nor have they liked the answer that schools and the rest of society came up with in rolling all the Jewish, Christian and secular holidays together and coming up with the more generic and inclusive, a.k.a. The Holiday Season. We have a brother-in-law, for instance, who after a religious transformation refuses to let his two children read write or watch anything that deals with the story of Santa Claus because of such concerns.<br /> </p> <p>So leave it to right-wing commentator Glenn Beck to find a way to cash in on the holiday. Beck, best know for his teary-eyed rants, penned a semi-autobiographical novel titled the "Christmas Sweater" about his difficult childhood, which included the real-life drowning death of his mother. Beck uses his personal turmoil to spin yet another snow-kissed morality tale, as if the Christmas season weren&apos;t already crowded with 100 years of this baggage. Even better, Beck brings the tale "to life" with a stage show that was simulcast across the country last year and is set for an encore presentation this season. For a mere $20 you too can share in Beck&apos;s personal transformation from child of a broken home to the public face of right-wing ignorance and intolerance. If this is the 21^st Century&apos;s version of "It&apos;s A Wonderful Life" I&apos;ll need some more eggnog. WTF?</p></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/glenn-beckandaposs-sideshow-2134622/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=12771&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/glenn-beckandaposs-sideshow-2134622/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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