Faithful Hooked on '12-Step' Beck

Recovering alcoholic Glenn Beck has somehow managed to get us all hooked on the emotional, often religion-heavy 12 steps of an "Alcoholics Anonymous playbook," writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. "Addiction has been a defining part" of Beck's life, and "recovery is a process inseparable" from the Beck program and from the "Beckapalooza" he staged in DC, notes Parker. "His emotional, public breakdowns are replicated in AA meetings in towns and cities every day. Taking others along for the ride—aka evangelism—is also part of the cure."

Now the American public is an integral part of Beck's bigger-than-life recovery that encompasses his role as a "national crusader for faith, hope and charity," centered on a mammoth push for "God and country," Parker adds. Beck is a new-age "messianic" revivalist who "betrays the grandiosity of the addict," notes Parker. "Let's hope Glenn gets well soon."
(More Glenn Beck stories.)