Ann Coulter, in a nationally televised interview, said Jews need perfecting. By “perfecting” she means that Jews need Jesus.
AC wants a nation devoted to JC. It would be more convenient and efficient, she said. Pluralism and freedom are messy. And messy is just what the terrorists want. So come on, Heebs, if you are really loyal Americans you will accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Ann Coulter’s capacity to outrage is in direct proportion to her capacity to make money, so the fact that she said this doesn’t surprise me. I have no intension of picking a fight with her. In fact, I think she has provided us with a wonderful opportunity to gauge the heart of Christian America.
In an age when Christians complain that American Muslims don’t speak up when their coreligionists attack America (verbally and otherwise) it will be interesting to see which if any Christian leaders speak out against the anti-Semitic ravings of one of their own.
Judging from her mock surprise that Jews might be insulted by her notion that they need perfecting, I suspect few true-red Christian will find anything offensive in her comments. After all, as far as they are concerned only Christians are going to heaven, and Jews (along with everyone else outside their self-defined circle of the saved) are damned to hell for all eternity. So what’s to be shocked? We have heard this crap for two thousand years. We should be used to it by now.
But wait, this isn’t supposed to happen in America. George Washington promised us that America not was a Christian nation and would welcome Jews. Thomas Jefferson said there is a wall between church and state that would protect us from state sanctioned religious persecution. America is different.
But America may not be America any more. Driven more by fear than reason, blaming everything from 9/11 to Iraq on Jews and the Israeli Lobby, informed by a media obsessed with ratings, and mistaking decibels for dialogue, we are a people more and more willing to sacrifice our values to secure our vices. As we move closer to electing a new president we seem to be thoughtlessly condoning increased levels of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. We are afraid to stand up for what we used to stand for, and toss our civil rights aside for fear of being soft on terrorism.
Ann Coulter certainly isn’t soft on terrorism, and neither is her Jesus. The Jesus Ms. Coulter wants us Jews to accept is more about the Kingdom of Greed than the Kingdom of God. He is more about sanctioning war than preaching peace. He is a Christ of conformity who wants a nation of June and Ward Cleevers. He is a Jesus whose baptism is water boarding, and whose sacrament is swallowing our conscience.
I hope to hear a lot of good Christians decrying Ann’s anti-Semitism. I won’t be surprised if I don’t. Sad, but not surprised.
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2 comments:
I beg to differ with Coulter. I am perfect. My bubbe and Zayde told me so.
Dear Rebbe Shapiro: Thank you for such a concise, in-one's-face analysis. Yours is a remarkable post with a punch-to-the-gut truth that we know the media would never expose as such. Those of us who are Orthodox Christians, with a high regard for Judaism and the Tanach and the Noahide Laws, were sorely pained when we heard of Coulter's broadcast hate-speech. What Coulter and her cohorts don't realize is that the perfection of creation (and of humanity) is a co-operative work between humanity and Hashem, a relationship that calls to the fore inclusion, vulnerability, honesty, mutual work, equality and equity - everything Coulter is disengaged from. Please know we aren't all faux-Christians as Coulter, and we, too, are offended by her politico-capitalistic agenda at the expense of the Jews (and a mispresentation of Jesus). Many of us are stunned that she receives air-time and dares to speak for us when she has no authority (or dignity) to do so. Please don't think that what the media presents (or obfuscates) is reflective of pan-Christianity in the USA, even if you don't hear the group voice of Christians disavowing Coulter. Please, Rebbe, know we, too, are outraged, and the same mechanisms that minimize and often negate your concerns do the same to ours. Again, thank you for speaking from the heart, something Coulter certainly lacks in full measure. With respect and admiration,
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