A Review of Glenn Beck’s Book, The Snow Angel

Jeff Crippen ♦ 24th January 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.

***

[October 31, 2022: There have been some changes made to this post. For more information, read the Editors’ notes at the bottom of the post. Editors.]

I had the opportunity to read The Snow Angel this week, published in 2011 by Mercury Radio Arts (Simon and Schuster, NY). I am glad that I did and enjoyed the story very much. It is a story of an abusive home and, subsequently, of an abusive marriage. In it, we meet Rachel, the daughter of a drunken, abusive mother whose father was, as Beck describes him, “powerless before the one he loved.” The Snow Angel is a story of awakening from the dark, deceptive, denial of abuse and of redemption from it. The Bible is mentioned, as is the church (though which church is not specified), and Rachel’s pastor’s wife turns out to be one of the key players in Rachel’s life. Christ and His redemption through the cross is never mentioned however — which is a shame, as He is our ultimate and only true Redeemer and Savior. Ironically, much of the story occurs at Christmas time.

While The Snow Angel has some very excellent insights into the mentality and tactics of abuse, and of the terrible effects upon its victims and is certainly worth reading, it has two serious weaknesses which I think most people knowledgeable of abuse will identify. They are:

• The very dangerous and less-than-wise manner in which Rachel ultimately confronts her abuser. In real life, her method would be very likely to result in death or very serious injury.
• An unrealistic, fantasy ending which presents the victim as completely freed, off to live happily ever after with her daughter, never to be meddled with or persecuted by her abuser again.

The ending may cause most people to shed a tear, but victims of abuse who have left their abusers — especially if they have children — will readily see the fiction in all of it. And we certainly would not recommend that victims follow the method Rachel does in confronting her abuser. It would be a formula for disaster in many real-life cases.

[October 31, 2022: Editors’ notes:

—For some comments made prior to October 31, 2022 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to October 31, 2022 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to October 31, 2022 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (October 31, 2022), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]