The Good Rabbi's Blog

Well, here's an interesting topic (albeit a couple days behind schedule). The other night on CNBC's Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, Donny had Ann Coulter on. During the course of the interview, Donny asked her what her vision of heaven would be like. She responded that it would be "like New York during the Republican convention." As odd as I find that, she went on to open her mouth and insert her foot. Describing everyone as "good Christians" prompted Donny Deutsch to ask her about other peoples, and whether or not they'd be included, specifically Jews (Donny is Jewish). She basically said that good evangelical Christians (like herself) just want Jews to perfect themselves by becoming Christian.

Now, I have two reactions to this. First, Ann Coulter has always substituted shrillness for intellect, and has always been quite the publicity whore. She doesn't care whether it's good or bad, as long as people are talking about her. For that reason alone, I'm sort of reluctant to post this, as I feel like I'm playing into her hands that way (not that I have a huge readership, but still). I'm not sure why people are surprised that she made this comment, as she ALWAYS tends to say things specifically to get a rise out of people. One of these days we'll just ignore her.

The second reaction I have to this, is that she's actually right (I bet you didn't see that one coming). Now, I'm not defending Ms. Coulter here, but she articulated perfectly exactly how most evangelical Christians see Jews. See, in particular there are two verses of the New Testatment that evangelicals really hold to. First, in John 14:6 (KJV), Jesus tells Thomas (his disciple):

...I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

For by one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,

In this way, many evangelicals think that Jews are just about there, and need to take that one final step to become, well, perfected. I'm sure that many will call Ann an anti-semite, and this would be a tremendous mistake. She's not anti-semitic, she's simply stating (quite articulately at that) what a lot of people think.

This sort of religious dick-waving (my god has a bigger dick than your god) is completely pointless, and anyone that gets involved in it is just proving that they are backward tribal people who wouldn't know modernity if it bit them in the ass. The best response here is to simply ignore both her, and the professional victims that will undoubtedly call her an anti-semite (rumour has it that Abraham Foxman is on his way across the country, so he can sneak into a lecture and be deeply offended, as is his usual M.O.). I hope that people are better than this, but to be honest, I haven't been very impressed by either the Jewish people I've seen or the evangelicals. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong.