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Oct
11
Gawd – so we can all be like…her? Yah. I don’t think so.
Ann Coulter needs meds something bad.
From Fox News’ transcript from her appearance on 10/8/07 Danny Deutsch’s show, The Big Idea: [emphasis is in Fox's original, not mine]
DEUTSCH: Let me ask you a question. We’re going to get off strengths and weakness for a second. If you had your way, and all of your — forget that any of them —
COULTER: I like this.
DEUTSCH: — are calculated marketing teases, and your dreams, which are genuine, came true having to do with immigration, having to do with women’s — with abortion — what would this country look like?
COULTER: UMMMMM (pause) … It would look like New York City during the Republican National Convention. In fact, that’s what I think heaven is going to look like.
DEUTSCH: And what did that look like?
COULTER: Happy, joyful Republicans in the greatest city in the world.
DEUTSCH: No, no, no, no, but I’m talking about this country. You don’t want to make this country — it’s not about Republicans. I’m saying, what would the fabric of this country look like? Forget that the Republicans would be running the show.
COULTER: Well, everyone would root for America, the Democratic Party would look like Joe Lieberman, the Republican Party would look like Duncan Hunter —
DEUTSCH: No, no, no, I don’t want — I’m not talking about politically the landscape. What would our — would we be safer? Would people be happier? Would they be more —
COULTER: We would be a lot safer.
DEUTSCH: Would there be more tolerance? Would there be — would women be happier, would the races get along better? The Ann Coulter subscription — prescription. What — tell me what would be different in our fabric of country, because —
COULTER: Well, all of those things.
DEUTSCH: I can give — I can give you an argument there would be more divisiveness, that there would be more hate —
COULTER: Oh, no.
DEUTSCH: That there would be a bigger difference between the rich and the poor, a lot of other — tell me what — why this would be a better world? Let’s give you — I’m going to give you — say this is your show.
COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America, they —
DEUTSCH: Christian — so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?
COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?
DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?
COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you’re not.
DEUTSCH: I actually am. That’s not true. I really am. But — so we would be better if we were — if people — if there were no Jews, no Buddhists —
COULTER: Whenever I’m harangued by —
DEUTSCH: — in this country? You can’t believe that.
COULTER: — you know, liberals on diversity —
DEUTSCH: Here you go again.
COULTER: No, it’s true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that’s really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it’s like they have a chip on their shoulder. They’re just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And —
DEUTSCH: I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don’t see any more or less chips there either way. That’s erroneous.
COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire “Seinfeld” episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you’re lying.
DEUTSCH: Oh, because of some “Seinfeld” episode? OK.
COULTER: But yeah, I think that’s reflective of what’s going on in the culture, but it is completely striking that at these huge megachurches — the idea that, you know, the more Christian you are, the less tolerant you would be is preposterous.
DEUTSCH: That isn’t what I said, but you said I should not — we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or —
COULTER: Yeah.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.
DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly believe that.
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly — you’re too educated, you can’t — you’re like my friend in —
COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.
DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean —
COULTER: We have the fast-track program.
DEUTSCH: Why don’t I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can’t believe that.
COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.
DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, “Let’s wipe Israel” —
COULTER: I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention.
DEUTSCH: “Let’s wipe Israel off the earth.” I mean, what, no Jews?
COULTER: No, we think — we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.
DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn’t really say that, did you?
COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we’re all sinners —
DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued — when you say something absurd like that, there’s no —
COULTER: What’s absurd?
DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I’m going to go off and try to perfect myself —
COULTER: Well, that’s what the New Testament says.
DEUTSCH: Ann Coulter, author of “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans,” and if Ann Coulter had any brains, she would not say Jews need to be perfected. I’m offended by that personally. And we’ll have more “Big Idea” when we come back.
(BREAK)
DEUTSCH: Welcome back to “The Big Idea.” During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I’m going to give her a chance. So you don’t think that was offensive?
COULTER: No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. 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.
DEUTSCH: You said — your exact words were, “Jews need to be perfected.” Those are the words out of your mouth.
COULTER: No, I’m saying that’s what a Christian is.
DEUTSCH: But that’s what you said — don’t you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic —
COULTER: No!
DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You’re an educated woman. How do you not see that?
COULTER: That isn’t hateful at all.
DEUTSCH: But that’s even a scarier thought. OK —
COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean (Jerry) Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.
DEUTSCH: We will let the audience decide then, won’t we? Ann Coulter. New book. More “Big Idea” straight ahead.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:03 pm October 11th, 2007 in Jewish, Judaism
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22 Responses to “Ann Coulter: throw away Judaism, be a Christian”
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i am speechless…..
I was wondering when you would discover the latest from Ann. I suppose you’ll be busily “perfecting” yourself, whatever the hell that means. Of course, Ms. Coulter once famously said we should invade and conquer Muslim nations and force them to convert to Christianity. I would have asked her if I was in for Donny Deutsch if she would consider that for Jews. Of course she really didn’t mean that, did she? Of course not (sarcasm alert). The woman is completely unhinged but her raging clown act is protected by the right wing media (Fox and their flying monkey minions) which allows her to get away with this sort of thing. She is their most useful idiot. And a lot of right wing guys have the hots for her. Ick.
When I saw Ann say this, I immediately wondered what a practicing Jew would think about it. Because what Anne said is basically standard mainstream Evangelical Christianity. I don’t see it as hateful or anti-semitic in any way, but perhaps for the non-evangelicals among us, certain things about evangelical thinking need to be explained.
No one wants or expects that Jews will go away, but that in a sense Christians are sons of Abraham as well, but by faith, not by nature. So we are all chosen but as far as the New Testament shows, the Jews that were converted to Christianity remained Jews in most aspects of their life. And that’s what we see today with the Messianic Jews.
It should also be pointed out that Christians would like Jews to convert, but conversions can only happen through the decision of the Jews themselves, so that Jews who reject Christianity can rest assured that they fear nothing more than annoying (to the Jews) conversations from well-meaning Christians.
Evangelical Christians, of which Anne is one, as she says so here, are probably the most pro-semitic people on the planet. In fact as one Jew has said, the Evanglicals are our only friends!
Wow. She’s more full of shit than I thought she was.
Amazing.
Dave:
However. . .
http://blog.case.edu/singham/2005/05/12/jews_israel_and_the_rapture
From the above cite:
“As Chris Hedges points out in his essay in the May 2005 issue of Harper’s Magazine, the Dominionist belief in the Rapture has a role for Jews that is not very appealing. They believe that “Israel must rule the Biblical land in order for Christ to return, though when he does, all Jews who do not convert to Christianity supposedly will be incinerated as the believers are lifted into heaven.”
Gene Lyons, in his November 2004 Harper’s Magazine review of the Left Behind novels points out that “Israeli Jews play a strange role in the Left Behind series, existing to be converted or slaughtered. As God’s chosen, they are to be protected from harm until the battle of Armageddon, at which point they must accept Jesus as the Messiah or die.”
Jill:
Both Jews and Christians are challenged by the fact that we live in the present time while our holiest scriptures are thousands of years old. Those scriptures tell the story of one people’s walk with God during those times.
Other scriptures and books of wisdom followed: For Jews, the Torah expanded to the Tanakh, the Talmud, and other writings. For Christians, the Tanakh was followed by the New Testament. For Muslims, the Tanakh, some of the Christian Gospels, and the Qur’an comprise their holy books. Mormons add the Book of Mormon to the New Testament.
And these are only the Judeo-Christian-Muslim traditions. These books are silent about the people of the rest of the world (although the Mormons believe Jesus visited North American as well during his ministry).
The Judeo-Christian-Muslim traditions all describe beliefs and behaviors which are sometimes difficult to understand by their followers, and even harder to follow. From those ancient times, the People of the Book have spent most of their history splintering into sects and fighting wars over the differences. The rest of the time is spent in angst over not being able to rise to the standards required by the faith (a little hyperbole here).
Coulter’s choice of words was not helpful, but it is an accurate reflection of centerline Christian doctrine. One of the most direct commands of Jesus to his disciples was “Go out and make disciples of all people.” Christians may argue about how to go about doing that, but you cannot profess to be a Christian and deny that command.
I recorded a lecture by John Haught, who you may know as a Professor of Theology at Georgetown. He spoke about the way evolution is the mechanism God uses to perfect the universe. He uses the verb ‘to perfect’ to mean moving closer to God, and I expect this is the way Coulter used it as well. I don’t know law as do you, but I think ‘to perfect’ has a similar connotation there as well – ‘to make complete’
I’m no fan of Coulter, be she was accurate in what she said about mainstream Christian theology, in that Christians believe our walk with the Christ further perfects (and some would say eases) mankind’s journey towards God.
And here’s where I separate with the the more conservative of my faith: I don’t think it’s the only path. Just as I think it is amazingly egocentric to believe that in all the universe, only Earth has life, I also think it is egocentric for Christians to think our roadmap is the only one that gets mankind to our eventual destination.
I am absolutely not suprised by this. She has been saying hateful things about just about every group she has ever come into contact with. Ann Coulter is a racist, a homophobe, an anti-semite and completely useless and irrelevant. Hopefully now that she has stepped into it for about the twelfth time this year we can finally get newspapers to drop her column and get publishers to cancel their contract with her. She can then go off and find something else to do…like be a spokesman for the KKK.
Ann Coulter is a train wreck. What continues to baffle me, and maybe it’s because I am not one, is the term ‘Christian.’ I always assumed that Catholics, Protestants were all Christian. Why is that only the evangelical ones get to use the one word definition? It’s what makes the cross over from just a religion to political force more scary to me. Even John Danforth, for whom I have plenty of respect, has come out and said the extreme right wing needs to be cut out of the control room of the Republican Party.
Back to Ann’s remarks: why do people keep giving her a platform? It’s bad enough she has her own venues; and yes she has a new book? So what! If I were Donny Deutche I would not be inviting her on my show. Just like OJ wouldn’t get on my show. Can someone give me a show plz! And PS: yes it was offensive
Oh, dear. I spent my formative years in her right-wing fundamentalist camp. They really believe that the Jews are still G-d’s chosen– but it’s a shame they’re all going to hell. You know, I never got that memo about Jews getting into heaven before I converted.
Constantly reminded that “There is only one path to salvation” and “Being a good person is pointless without JC” can really spoil a holistic and global view of humanity.
While I’ve come to appreciate the teachings of JC as a fellow Jew, I’m really enjoying learning about the Baha’i faith. If you’re between religions, an atheist or agnostic check this one out. It’s a religion that basically says “If there is one G-d, humanity is one, so why kvetch about the details.” As someone who loves sci-fi, religious studies and equality I’m inspired by the logic of it.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issues with the Baha’i, Jews and gays, and I’m assuming anyone espousing a differing opinion than his own. I’m sure he’s no follower of my blog on MySpace.
To all of the uptight religious zealots out there, I would like to say, “Just go hug a Vorlon!”
Keith – my favorite part of your comment makes me laugh every time I read it – hots for her and “ick” – lol. She just seems very a-sexual to me, but what do I know.
There has got to be a more useful use for her by those for whom she speaks – why they aren’t working her over on that, I can’t imagine.
Rob – have you gotten your speech back yet?
I hope you’ll check out the Wide Open back and forth on the topic.
Dave – I know this is out there, “Evangelical Christians, of which Anne is one, as she says so here, are probably the most pro-semitic people on the planet. In fact as one Jew has said, the Evanglicals are our only friends!” but I have to tell you, this notion of “pro-semitic” – it’s a creation of non-Jews. It has absolutely no meaning to me. Likewise – Messianic Jews? I don’t know who those are. Jews don’t use such terms to describe one another.
I don’t believe Jews care in particular whether people like Jews or not – we just don’t want people telling us that we’re doomed to hell if we don’t accept Christ or that we’re the reason for all the problems in the world or that we need to become more perfect.
What we’d like is to be allowed to practice our religion without others look askance at us and mumbling, or shouting, YOU NEED CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE!
I don’t. I mean, I really don’t.
Thank you very much.
And it is this tug of war between those who feel compelled to convince me and me feeling compelled to say I don’t need to be convinced that I consider to be a real problem in today’s world, as far as religious practice in the public domain goes.
Intellectually accepting something is not the same as saying it’s okay to bug me about being a Perfected Jew.
Paul wrote: “And here’s where I separate with the the more conservative of my faith: I don’t think it’s the only path. Just as I think it is amazingly egocentric to believe that in all the universe, only Earth has life, I also think it is egocentric for Christians to think our roadmap is the only one that gets mankind to our eventual destination.”
Correct. This I can empathize with.
But what is the solution for how we live in the world…side by side? Not side by side? If someone feels commanded (or doomed to hell if they don’t try) to convert Jews, how do we, as a society say, well, you know, in this pluralistic society, you’re just going to have to reign that in?
How do we not deny someone their faith and still protect the sanctity of another’s? This is really, really hard stuff.
Ryan – thanks for the comment. I’m going to believe that some of it is tongue in cheek exhaustion with Coulter – which I completely share.
What is her stance on the KKK? Has she said much about them? Just curious.
Hey Carole – thanks for commenting (hope you’ll consider checking out the discussion about it on Wide Open).
I agree about the not giving her a platform and I don’t know what the deal is with Deutsch – sounds as though he likes the sparks for his show as well. Not that that should surprise any of us.
As for a show of your own, sounds good to me!
Wendy – thanks for leaving a comment! (and reading of course) Thanks for leaving a bit about your background on this topic.
Yes – the Baha’i faith is a very interesting one. Do you know who Suzanne Alexander is? She’s a freelance writer in the Cleveland area and she and her husband have written some good stuff based on Baha’i beliefs. I’m pretty sure that she’s been to the Baha’i temple in Haifa too (I visited it a couple of times when I lived in Israel – dated a guy who lived in Haifa so went past it a lot).
Ok – tell me – what’s a Vorlon?
I can just google too but..I thought I’d ask first.
Messianic Jews; Jews for Jesus. They visited my ex husband and I every christmas day for four years. They had a service/church in a house on my street. They were polite and did not return the fifth year we lived in the house. When we moved we had a Chabad house at the end of our street instead
Ah, thank you. My older brother went through that phase. He and his family belong to a Reform shul now – have for years. But that’s what I mean – we don’t use that term to refer to other Jews. Sigh. Whatever.
I remember the Lubovitch-mobile that sat outside the Yale campus all the years I was growing up in New Haven. We just looked and watched. Otherwise – no interest.
Jill:
Hard stuff indeed. I would hope we could all have a tolerance for each other and our individual faith traditions.
The trouble is that sometimes those faith traditions call for assertive behavior, including some unbelievably violent acts. Try explaining to teenagers why a God of love would ever order his army to wipe out a city, killing every man, woman, child and beast, and leaving no stone one upon the other.
I don’t know if mankind will ever outgrow its propensity for warfare. There’s always and Us and a Them, and eventually it comes to blows.
So I don’t worry so much about world affairs and global issues. There is plenty to be done in the name of justice and compassion within 20 miles of my house.
Paul – you write a lot of very truthful words, and that last paragraph is one of the most truthful I’ve ever read, period. Thanks for keeping it all in perspective. I agree 100%.
the main difference between jews and christians is jeseus. Jews dont believe jesus was the messiah, only a minor profit. While christians believe that jesus was the messiah who was sent down to earth to die for all of our sins. So, to me to say a christian is a “perfected jew” is completely controdictary to Judiasm in general.
Also, if her thinking that the Christian bible is just a continuation of the Torah, and everyone should just convert to christianity, then should we not all be muslim instead? Since in the Islamic faith they believe that the Quoran is a continuation of the New Testement. I want to know how she can be so educated yet so blind to other areas of religion. My feeling is that if you are going to preach a certain religion, then you should at least be somewhat knowledgeable about ither religions.
Scott – I know you are not alone in asking these questions or having these expectations. Only Ms. Coulter can respond, such as that is.