- BIG NEWS:
- Barack Obama
- |
- Joe Lieberman
- |
- Sarah Palin
- |
- GOP
- |
Jews, Jesus and Republicans: Playing Ann Coulter's Game
Read More:
2008 Election, Ann Coulter, Politics, Religion And Politics, Republican Presidential Candidate,
Home News
To read Jon Wiener's most recent post, "[Expletive] the Jews. They didn't vote for us anyway": Republicans and Israel, click here.
The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.
When Ann Coulter remarked on CNBC that Jews should become Christians, it wasn't "a faux pas," and she wasn't being "an idiot," as many commentators suggested. Instead she was playing her game -- provoking her critics to get her into the media spotlight that helps sell her books. That raises the question: should the Republican candidates be asked whether they agree with Ann Coulter that America would be a better place if we were all Christians? Or is that simply playing Ann Coulter's game?
Many people are playing her game this time around: Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, denounced Coulter for speaking in "the classic language of anti-Semites throughout the millennia." The National Jewish Democratic Council asked broadcast news organizations not to give Coulter airtime. Then right wing talk radio got to yell at liberals for trying to deny Ann Coulter her right to free speech.
So it's happened again: Ann Coulter is controversial. Ann Coulter is important. We all need to take a stand for or against Ann Coulter's right to express her views, no matter how repugnant they may be.
But what if we ignored her latest publicity ploy? What if we didn't play Ann Coulter's game - again?
That would be a mistake, Tim Rutten argued recently in the LA Times. We need to press the issue on the candidates, and others, this time -- because, Rutten writes, "the implications of these latest remarks simply are too threatening to be allowed to stand."
Yes, it's worked for her many times before, propelling her books to the top of the best-seller list. Her readers buy her books precisely because they love the way she provokes liberals to screaming outrage. That's why in the past, when asked about our enemies in the Middle East, she said "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"; that's why she insulted the 9-11widows.
But this time, Rutten argues, it's different. That's because Coulter's argument - that Christianity "perfects" Judaism, and that Jews need "perfecting" -- is the major theological underpinning of anti-Semitism (along with the notion to that the Jews killed Jesus). The Catholic church, and most Protestant denominations, have explicitly broken with that claim. The Republican candidates ought to do the same thing.
"It's a scandal that in this pluralist nation it falls to the voices of organized Jewry to make this case," Rutten writes, "because it is a case whose outcome is of the greatest consequence to us all. For too long we've pretended that the brutal political rhetoric that now characterizes our partisan politics can be quarantined, that it won't inevitably leach over into every other aspect of our lives."
So it would be good to ask Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and their rivals: Ann Coulter is a best-selling Republican pundit; do you agree with her that the ideal America is a Christian America?
Read more OffTheBus coverage here.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Why does it always have to be right-winged? See, that is the difference between republicans and democrats...when a democrat does not agree they bring up right-winged and do nothing but call names! That only proves they are narrow-minded and are trying to create a contoversial atmosphere! Whether you agree or dis-agree with someone should not weigh factor to whether you are a D or an R!
For real?
"Liberal" has been used as a curse for the last thirty years, almost always by a member of the GOP and their associates.
Anyone who thinks the Democrats are bifurcating this nation needs to wake up.
Ann Coulter is a right wing pundit - if you disagree with her then you disagree with the right wing.
By the way if a life boat were in the ocean and occupied by ann coulter, hannity, limbaugh, beck, and o'rielly and a big storm blew in and capsized the boat - who would survive?
There are actually two correct answers.
...........................................
...........................................
...........................................
Answer#1- Who cares?
Answer#2- None hopefully
Ummmm, Urangel? Your comment just proved you do the same thing.
True Coulters sarcasm sells books, true GOP pundits seem to love her. True ignoramouses appear to believe her crap. She is a big mouth with a name that sells books with no substance that ignorant uninformed and apparently uneducated people seem to love. I would find it hard to believe that a truly informed individual would take her seriously.
Coulter is not important. Coulter is a distracting gnat that needs to be ignored.
Revelations Chapter 7 prophesizes that 144,000 sons of Israel will recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and they will be saved from God's wrath. Ann is merely hoping to push as many as possible to become part of that 144,000 quickly.
Agreeing with Ann is agreeing with the Bible, here.
The concept of a completed Jew is nothing new. It is mentioned in many different ways thru-out the New Testament. Luke tells us that those scattered went out, "speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone" (11:19). Up until this point in time, those who were 'saved' were Jews. When they were saved, they remained Jews. They were what Evangelical Christians now call "completed Jews," but they were still Jews. They continued to observe the Jewish holy days and festivals, and to worship in the temple or to gather at a synagogue.
Coulter thinks that Christianity is a 'corrected' form of Judaism and therefore Judaism isn't worth keeping around. The word "perfected" is another way of diluting the word "completed" She believes that Judaism stopped evolving, that it is guided by the Old Testament. Judaism is a religion of blind obedience rather than one of constant debate and interpretation. This reflects an ignorance of Judaism. It's the same old story. After many centuries of bad experiences, Jews are understandably suspicious of any Christian, trying to show them the way to salvation and to heaven.
But who cares about all of this? I am not offended ( I am a Jewish kitten) and I don't understand why so many are wasting so much valuable time on this. If this is what she believes, this is what she believes. I think the notion of the Rapture is silly, personally, but if that's what "they" believe, then let them speak. We don't have to listen. And, isn't the notion of heaven and salvation a Christian notion? I don't think "Jews" are worried about these concepts. I mean, don't we live on in the memories of those who knew and loved us? Do we need the promise of salvation to lead a good life?
If there weren't right wing media outlets 'churning' support and justification for Anne Coulter, do you think she would still have a career?
I think not.
Ann is a goofball, no doubt. And yes, the media gives her time because she sells.
But I find nothing she says such a big threat. She is sarcastic and yes she goes overboard with her sarcasim.
Her and the Iranian president speak the same lingo. The only difference is the Iranian president is serious, Ann is not. Oh, and far leftist make excuses for the Iranian President, not for Ann.
Interesting - I've never heard any far left make excuses for the Iranian Pres. This must be another right wing lie put out by the pundits.
Great information. All the nasty "far left" people believe that there was no holocaust? My, my. All those pictures of people in concentration camps that made me cry my eyes out as a kid and kept me awake night were a joke. Well, thank goodness that the President of Iran woke me, and apparently all the other left wingers, up. Or could you possibly be talking out of your A##?
Colbert is sarcastic. AC is an anti-semite. Nice try.
The 'Ideal America' would be free of both dangerous Social Narcotics: Gov't & Religion!
As long as we continue to allow the criminals, that pretend to represent us, to define the crimes we will continue to suffer their biased stupidity and folly!
Just SAY NO... to Gov't & Religious Idiots!
Understanding What's Behind the Rants of Ann Coulter - A Shocking Expose
So many people are easily fooled and basically crazy, and Anne Coulter is making a fortune exploiting this situation. She is fooling nearly everybody, particularly those who get so very upset at her feigned lunacy. Everybody--listen up: She is only pretending to be a total Christian fundamentalist nutcase but is an undercover secular humanist!
I can spot an infidel a mile away, no matter what disguise she assumes. You've heard of gaydar, that sixth sense some folks, mostly gays, have for discerning subtle clues of homosexuality? Well, as an infidel myself, I have something alled stealthfidelity, an innate capacity to see through fake piety that enables me to spot an infidel a mile away. That's how I can out Ann.
I have concluded that this seemingly goofy, whacky and unhinged Right Wing commentator who gets more air time than President Bush and sells more books in five minutes than I have moved in 30 years is a Trojan Horse for atheism. Don't be fooled.
Ann's latest media spotlight-attention-getting, bank-account building hoax was to suggest (on CNBC) that Jews should become Christians.
That's really something a serious believer would say not!
Ann you can't fool me. And pretty soon, everyone else is going to catch...
As the old saying goes, "She's as dumb, as a fox."
Controversy sells, and sells, BIG time!
If you ignore her, she'll go away!
If Ann Coulter, and the rest of Christian America, will finally realize, that Jesus of Nazereth, (not, Christ) was born a Jew, through & through, and died as one, then perhaps they'll have him hanging off a Star of David?
Yuh, think?
There once was a blonde Neocon
Who everyone wants to be gone
When she shouts out her hate
The media always takes the bait
And her diatribe goes on and on
Relax. It's not like the new testament doesn't say outright that non-believers will go to hell. She's just repeating the obvious, which people don't like, because they don't like to evaluate their core beliefs.
No. That is a different issue. As a Jew I don't believe in hell (nor the new testament for that matter) so the biblical text is irrelevant to me.
When AC(DC) says that she just wants Jews to be "perfected" that is anti-Semitic bigotry. That thinking is the basis for a considerable amount of anti-Semitism.
"Believers" are those who believe in GOD, not that Christianity is the only WAY to God. Don't be confused. AC's form of "christianity" is actually out and out anti-semitism.
I don't know of any logical, thoughtful or intelligent people who pay any attention to her. She's really weird, and I would not be surprised if she's in the closet, afraid to come out.
That's right. Whenever you can't think of any other insults to call someone, you can always stoop to "the ultimate insult" and call them a queer. Oh, pleeeeezze. Isn't that a page right out of Ann's money-making handbook? When she could come up with nothing else to call John Edwards, she called him a "faggot."
While ignoring her, shall we just keep reinforcing the lie that there's something "wrong" with being gay? Or being a Jew?
I'm referring to the typical right hypocrisy. They are afraid of it.
Ann Coulter is alien to American Culture and
can never be assimilated.
When we argue about her fascistic venom, we are only pretending she is actually American.
She is not.
Ann Coulter utters some provocative nonsense, American media do what they do when a new, shiny object is dangled before them--get distracted by it and focus much time and energy on it, Ann Coulter makes another small fortune selling books, and the Right dominates the news cycle--again. Ann Coulter should be ignored, period. Ditto for the White House so-called Press Secretary, which is to say that nothing the White House--or any member of the Bush Regime--says should be repeated or reported-on until after it has been completely checked for accuracy, and then it should be reported only in the context of the accuracy-check. We don't report what wild-eyed people on the street rant about, and this bunch are little more than wild-eyed people ranting on the street, albeit with a purpose--to confuse, distort, distract, drown-out real news and dominate.
The only ones who can silence Coulter are the group she is pandering to...the right wing, ultra-conservative republicans she speaks for. Once they reject her rants she will be exposed for the empty shell of a person she is. For myself I will not give her the time of day but I will pray for her. Enough said.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
