printThe verbose, vacuous Donny Deutsch had the leggy, one-trick Coulter on his big bore of a show, “The Big Idea.”
“Deutsch said to her: ‘You said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians,’ and Coulter again replied, ‘Yes.’ When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like ‘the head of Iran’ and ‘wipe Israel off the Earth,’ Coulter stated: ‘No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. … That’s what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws.’”
Deutsch promptly took offense. Left-liberals, Jews included, followed. I don’t have the time or patience to search for links to their apoplexy (here’s one). However, let me say this: If Coulter was more than a brash babe (she’s looking bonny), she’d have explained (as I did in “Unlearend Rabbi Rages at Ratzinger“) that a filament of the Christian faith is the belief that the path to God is predicated on accepting Christ. The centrality in Christianity of accepting Christ is a doctrinal issue, plain and simple. To get past the Pearly Gates, Christians believe one has to accept Christ.
So what? I don’t hear Christians telling orthodox Jews to ditch their maddening dietary laws, because these make people of other faiths feel excluded.
So long as they don’t use the Rack to convert others, why do these immutable doctrinal issues matter?
On a slightly different tack (but still on the topic of Coulter and Christianity), I wrote the following in February, 2005:
“Most real people had a 9/11 moment. Ann Coulter’s call to arms was particularly memorable. For exhorting, ‘We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,’ she was even banished from National Review. This was indeed a puzzling purge, considering neoconservatives promptly adopted her recommendations, invaded Muslim countries, and killed their leaders.
The neocons have adopted all of Coulter’s recommendations, save the peaceful one. So long as it’s voluntary and doesn’t involve The Rack, I think that unleashing an army of missionaries on the Islamic patrimony would be far more efficacious than the military offensives currently underway. In fact, I’ve always suspected that an aversion to Christian conversion was at the core of the ‘girlie boys’’ horrified response to Coulter’s cri de coeur.”
Update (12:25 AM): A brief comment on Coulter’s clinging to the instant clemency Christianity offers:
Here’s more of Coulter the theologian, in the punch-up with Deutsch:
“[The New Testament] is more like Federal Express,” she barked at Deutsch. “You have to obey laws. … As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to 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.”
Yes, a Jew can’t expect to go to heaven if he whoops it up for an unjust war, and pimps for a corrupt president (that is if you believe all the heaven hocus pocus; I don’t). In Judaism, your actions determine your fate on earth and in the hereafter (the first being more important than the last).
A rabbi can’t wave a wand and absolve the wicked, as a priest does following confession. A Jew has to obey certain imperatives toward G-d and his fellow man. In other words, he must live justly and do good deeds.
So, yes: I can see the appeal amnesty express à la Christianity would hold for Coulter.