Beck: People don't recognize 'Obama's version of Christianity'

By Matt DeLong

Updated at 2:05 p.m.

Just one day after he drew a sea of conservative activists to see him speak on the National Mall, Fox News host Glenn Beck appeared on "Fox News Sunday" to discuss the event. Beck said his rally -- at which former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also spoke -- drew "on the low end 300,000" attendees up to "as many as 650,000." Unofficial estimates of the crowd size have varied wildly. CBS estimated 87,000 attendees based on aerial photographs, while NBC quoted an anonymous park service official who said there were 300,000 in the audience. The Park Service did not release an official estimate. Beck said there is 'not a chance' of a Beck-Palin GOP ticket in 2012. He said he has "zero desire" to run for president. "I don't think I would be electable," he said.

Beck explained that the gathering, which took place on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in the same location, was intended to reclaim the mantle of the civil rights movement from politics for "people of faith." Beck dismissed his critics who say that he has frequently engaged in racial politics by saying "race should not be in politics."

Beck said he didn't agree with King's calls for economic justice. "The real agenda should be equal justice, an equal shot," Beck said. "The dream was to judge man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. I don't know that we've done that." He added that the Justice Department is "certainly not doing that" in the case of the New Black Panther Party, referencing an alleged incident of voter intimidation on Election Day in 2008 -- a controversy driven in no small part by Beck's television show that many on the left have cited as evidence of Beck's willingness to stoke racial fear among white people. Beck said "African Americans should be equally outraged" over the incident.

(Full coverage: Beck and Palin rally at the Lincoln Memorial)

The conservative commentator said he regrets his infamous comments that President Obama is a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred of white people." He said he was "miscasting as racism" the president's "liberation theology" ideology, which he said relies on the lens of "oppressor and victim" to understand the world. Beck said Obama made the case in a speech to students that "your salvation is directly tied to collective salvation," which Beck said was "a direct opposite of what the gospel talks about ... Jesus came for personal salvation." Beck said "people aren't recognizing [Obama's] version of Christianity."

To his critics who attack his wealth, Beck said the money doesn't matter. "I think it's going to be worthless," he said, adding that he doesn't know "if it's going to be gold or acorns" that America will use as currency in the future.

