Monday, October 15, 2007

Perfected Jews?

I have been away for a bit of time, because my wife had surgery and I have been busy.

The latest Ann Coulter controversy has me in a quandary. Two things I have written about a lot coming together. First Ann is outspoken as usual. I have written before that sometimes I think Ann goes too far. This time I don't think she went too far as much as she explained her point, in a rather clunky way.

I have also written before that I just don't understand the hostility on the left to people who espouse religious belief in public. In this case secular people and left leaning Jewish people (note no right leaning Jews were offended at all at least in a public way) are deeply offended that she used the phrase perfected Jews. I don't know if that is the best way to describe a Jew who has come to believe in Christ as Messiah, but it is a way of describing it.

My confusion comes from this, Christians have a belief, called the 'great commission'. This is not new. It comes from Jesus himself. To quote the bible where it appears:
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20) "

Christians have followed this to various degrees since that date. Some Christians have followed it in evil ways. The Inquisition comes to mind. I don't think Ann Coulter has designs on being a modern day Torquemada. We have all been exposed to a Christian who makes a nuisance of himself (or herself). I personally don't believe this is what Jesus had in mind. It is my belief that it is our job as Christians to introduce non-believers to Christ. Jesus is the one through the holy spirit who brings them to Jesus.

That being said, Ann Coulter did exactly that. She spoke that Christians believe everything Jews believe with the New Testament in addition. The true controversy comes in at this point. The people I have heard and read that are offended by this seem appalled that she would insinuate that Jews are not perfected. First of all her use of perfected does not insist that Christians are perfect, it simply infers that belief in Jesus as the Messiah completes the Old Testament, Jews don't believe that, so there we are. How exactly is that offensive? No one creates petitions to prevent vegans from appearing on network chat shows. They daily insist that we all need to be vegans. Same with feminists. Same with University presidents who invite murderous dictators to Columbia.

Others have brought up that some people that listen to her might be driven to violence against Jews. We of course had the same argument made about the Passion of the Christ. These incidents never came about predictably. This also brings a question, who does Ann Coulter speak for? She is a well known pundit. She is not a politician, she represents no one. If we read Ann are we required to take part in some anti Jewish acts? Of course not. What silliness!! I think Michael Moore is an embarrassment. No one is trying to silence him. Same with Keith Olberman, (although when he gets to zero viewers even he may be silenced).

This is more of the same behavior from the left. They want the absolute right to declare anything a prominent conservative says to be offensive and declare that they no longer have the right to breathe free air. Am I exaggerating? Most leftists want Rush Limbaugh banned from Armed forces radio. The lefts continuous efforts to reinstate the fairness doctrine, and the list goes on. Just a short time ago Barry Manilow would not appear on The View because **gasp** there is a conservative on there!! (He doesn't feel comfortable that the show is mostly liberals, not entirely liberals). What are they afraid of? I continue to be confused. Debate is healthy, so is religious tolerance, even from those who believe they are already tolerant, they love anyone who is not a religious conservative. If they were truly honest I believe they would admit that the conservative part is much more offensive to them than the Christian part. Just my opinion as usual.