No Glen Beck apologist, there are few public figures with whom I feel less simpatico.  I would, very frankly, be happy to never hear from or of him again.  However, I thought I would share with you a recurring sentiment I heard again and again on my mission.

I served in the Japan Kobe Mission about 2 years after the Kobe earthquake.  At that time,  the Kobe mission included the Osaka region, and I spent most of my mission in that city.  Famous for its’ beef and wild boars, Kobe is also home of one of the biggest organized crime families.  And THAT is what I heard about again and again.  While the vast majority of Japanese people had little to no interest in talking to me about my religion, I heard fairly regularly that the earthquake in neighboring Kobe had been God’s punishment for all the evil there, as evidenced by the Yakuza presence and Kobe’s tolerance of that influence.

In that, Glen Beck is not alone–many in Osaka Japan, at least, agree.  For whatever reason, humans like to assign blame for bad things, be it natural disaster, poor health, and bad marriages.  Somehow, having someone to blame makes us feel better, even when the assignment is so often ungenerous and insulting to people who are already down.

And I tend to think that the more you say, the more likely you are to say something really stupid–professional talkers likes Glen Beck are especially susceptible–a job hazard, I suppose.