Others tell me it is “schtick” meant to “make us think” but if that’s what Ann Coulter is serving up with her “charity begins at home” number, she’s doing it badly. Leading people into productive thought shouldn’t involve dragging them through a toxic swamp, where all sorts of rank and dubious detritus may become attached to our thinking. Writes Coulter: America is the most consequential nation on Earth, and in desperate need of God at the moment.…. And how does she think Americans will be inspired to seek out God? By turning their backs on the needs of people facing horrific realities, and encouraging medical doctors who might help them to move to where the rich people are and preach the gospel to them while cutting their bunions.
If you’ve hung ‘round these parts for any length of time, my attitude toward organized religion should come as no surprise. I don’t believe in God…though I hate being labeled an “atheist.” I hate being categorized and put in that box. Like Gandhi, I don’t fear Christianity, but Christians tend to scare the Hell out of me (no pun intended…or was there??). I don’t need a God to tell me that my religion is kindness…and trust me, getting that bar is a pretty tough challenge some days.
I’ll grant that I’m generalizing, but Christianity today is built more on enforcing social conformity than on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” has morphed into “Do unto others before they do something dastardly unto you.” Yes, there are those who endeavor to live Christ-like lives and make a concerted effort to live their beliefs. These folks may well be a majority, but they’re a comparatively (and disturbingly) silent one. The people who attract attention are the zealots, the bigots, the haters, and the racists who wield their Christianity as if it was a club. They use that club to bludgeon those they feel to be “less than” and not enlightened enough to share their beliefs. Since when is being insufficiently hateful a Christian failing?
I promised a long time ago that I was done writing about Ann Coulter. I believe then, as I do now, that acknowledging her despicable hatefulness only provides her with what she craves. This is less about Coulter’s odious, self-superior Conservative Christianity than it is about the mindset she displays, which characterizes the theology of a large number of American Christians. It’s less about compassion than it is destroying those deemed less worthy (i.e.- foreigners, Liberals, and/or nonChristians). Loving thy brother as thyself seems such a quaint and naive notion to Coulter and those who believe in what’s been referred to as “muscular Christianity.” Their flavor Almighty God is all about displaying his might, is quick to anger and even quicker to smite those who cross Him…which doesn’t happen nearly enough to suit the tastes and blood lust of the haters. Jesus Christ kicks ass and takes names.
Their God is a strange one, steeped as He is in a theology of anger, racism, self-righteousness, and rage. I may not believe in God, but I was force-fed enough Sunday School as a child to understand that the God of the Radical Christian Right has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Their God is about hatred, anger, racism, and retribution- not love, charity, and compassion, which the American Taliban view as weakness and lack of true faith.
Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world.
Yes, isn’t that just like those benighted third world ninnies? So obsessed with this childish, petty desire to stay alive. Why can’t they think about important matters, like the spiritual state of people watching movies in America? No, all the time it’s, “Wah, wah, my eyes are bleeding” with them. Ugh, foreigners.
Somehow Coulter and her fellow “Christians” have anointed America as the world’s moral compass and shining light, more consequential and morally relevant than any other nation: “If America falls, it will be a thousand years of darkness for the entire planet”. How they can justify this belief using Scripture defies description. Evidently xenophobia and American Exceptionalism were among the most basic and fundamental tenets taught by Jesus Christ- right after He cautioned against feeding the poor. That’s Socialism and would only create dependence upon government and those unwilling to take advantages of the boundless opportunities America offers.
There’s no reason to care for the sick, because their illness is directly attributable to their weakness. Caring for the poor means providing handouts to those too lazy to do for themselves. And don’t even get me started on feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless….
I recognize that this school of thought is about as reflective of true Christianity as my skill with a 9-iron is indicative of my chances of winning a U.S. Open. What I truly don’t understand is why so many of those who honestly seek to lead a Christ-like live sit idly (and silently) by while the American Taliban hijacks Christianity. Because if Ann Coulter’s a Christian, I’m Vlad the Impaler.
