Who knew Glenn Beck was such a virtuoso trumpet player?
The conservative commentator who runs TheBlaze and is said to be worth about $250 million, played Santa this year by paying off all the layaway accounts at a Walmart in North Richland, Texas, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News. He coughed up $27,000 for this spectacular act of giving.
It is undeniably an act of kindness to give someone the shirt off your back, to donate money to starving children or to pay strangers’ layaway accounts just weeks away from the holiday that extols the birth of Jesus.
I’m obviously not Christian. But I have heard of the New Testament.
Let’s turn to Matthew 6:3:
So, when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be praised by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
But, my God, Beck did not just sound his trumpet, he brought a whole marching band.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Beck and his wife “broadcasted live from the store Saturday evening.” Then they live-streamed the altruistic trip to the store on his Facebook page. Beck also talked about it on his radio program Monday, chattering away about specific individual accounts. He’s also been yakking about it on Twitter. Walmart shoppers he helped were steeped in debt anywhere from $24 to $500.
Customers were sobbing. Of course, they were relieved that their accounts had been paid. Some even got the news on speakerphone during the live-streaming.
“As long as the Lord gives me strength and the ability to do that, I want to do that every year,” Beck told the Dallas newspaper.
All that giving made Beck burst with joy as he gave and gave and hit those Facebook buttons to prove it. He even urged exiled broadcast reporter Megyn Kelly to take a stab at giving. Her show’s time slot has been doing well ever since she left after defending “blackface” for Halloween.
According to online reports, Beck, who has endured many hardships in his life, was baptized at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1999. He believes God saved him from a wretched life of drug and alcohol addiction. He was raised Roman Catholic but is now Mormon and author of An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck.
(The key word being: unlikely.)
Although Beck was vehemently anti-Donald Trump in 2016, he plans to vote for him in 2020. He blamed the media for his switcheroo. Speaking of media, Tomi Lahren, now at Fox News (Beck’s alma mater), sued Beck for wrongful termination from TheBlaze after she went on ABC’s “The View” and said she favored abortion rights. They ultimately settled and Lahren was freed from her contract.
No doubt Beck is a religious man.
But he sure has no interest in keeping his giving a secret.