I want to preface this post with a few things. Unlike many non-neocons, I do not find Ann Coulter offensive or revolting. I find her highly amusing, and if she had her own talk show, I’d tune in regularly just to watch her antics. I also find it highly entertaining that she reduces many liberals into misogynistic rapists. Any comments section dealing with Ann Coulter will undoubtedly contain several comments such as “Fucking Ann Coulter. You know what she needs? A good [insert graphic sex act here]! That’s what she needs!”
On Monday night Ann Coulter appeared on “The Big Idea” with Danny Deutsch. At one point in the show Ann said that the world would be a much easier place if everyone were Christian, and then she proceeded to say that Christians “want Jews to be perfected.” Deutsch was appropriately horrified at her “anti-Semitic” comments, and he told her so in no uncertain terms. After the commercial break Coulter explained why she didn’t feel her comment was offensive:
No. I’m sorry. It [the comment] is not intended to be [offensive]. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.
I also don’t know why Deutsch found this offensive. According to many sects of Christianity, the only way a person can reach Heaven is through baptism and acceptance of Christ as a savior. Catholicism does include an exemption of sorts, which basically says that some people mysteriously sneak past St. Peter anyway, but acceptance of Christ is pretty much the basis of the Christian faith. Hence the freaking name: CHRISTian.
Maybe I just understand religions differently than other people, but I was under the assumption that most religions think they’ve got the exclusive pass into the netherworld-nightclub. If you believe fervently in your religion then why is it offensive to tell someone else that they’ll be burning in Hell? If that’s what you believe then you’d be a hypocrite not to say it.
Again, I’m not advocating this mindset, but if you’re going to be a Christian then that means you think everyone else is wrong, whether they be Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or Pastafarians. And it works backwards for every other religion, too.
Plus, if you’re already of opposite religions, why should a heretic’s prediction about your eternal fate have any impact on you at all? You already believe they’re absolutely wrong, so their pronouncement of damnation should mean nothing. Deutsch isn’t Christian, he’s Jewish, so what’s he care if some goofy-ass Johnny-come-lately follower thinks he’s not “perfected?” Deutsch is part of the “chosen race,” anyway, so he’s pretty much already perfected, right?
I don’t necessarily agree with everything Richard Dawkins has said about religion and atheisim, but I do think this quote is appropriate: “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. [Atheists] just go one god further.”
Well, Mark, I would call myself a Christian – and I would want to distance myself vastly from Coulter’s offensive statements, as I read them on the transcript of the show.
As a matter of pure fact, not all Christians believe that Christianity is the only way to God. Many believe that’s a matter for God to decide, that Christian faith is a gift for anyone who wants it, and that Romans 9-11 would at least give the impression that St Paul felt that God’s original covenant with the Jewish people still held/holds good. A major aspect of Christianity is supposed to be humility – and I think that means humility about outcomes and destinations too.
Clearly I would hold that, say, Muslims are not entirely correct in all that they believe, but I also believe that their faith is, at its best, worthy or respect, and that God will do his own good thing with them, as God chooses.
And, BTW, Dawkins is arguably just as extreme in his views as any religious fundamentalist, in my opinion!