Sure, she’s just another talking head looking for attention. What she does or does not believe doesn’t really matter. But when you have access to the national airwaves, what you say matters very much.
What angers and frightens me is her influence on the discussion. This young fool calls himself a “soldier of truth”. As is true of so many fundamentalists, he can’t even imagine being wrong (except for some reason he feels a need to censor comments that he doesn’t agree with). Remember what a soldier’s job is? Too kill the enemy. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Just to catch you up, Ann repeated the old anti-semitic rants on how Christians are just Jews who got it right, meaning Jews are wrong, and it is just doing them a favor to point it out and try to “perfect” them.
I’m trying really, really hard not to succumb to Godwin’s Law here…
Enough of Ann, and on to her minions (not minyans)…
Young Braden is so deluded by his “truth” that he doesn’t realize that threatening someones identity threatens their very existence, and is an example of hate rather than love. Jews don’t want to be “perfected”–they want to be left alone to live their lives.
To repeat the canard that he is criticizing the religion rather than the “nationality” (hate the sin not the sinner?) is one of the oldest excuses of anti-semites.
If I informed him that his world-view, and his very identity as a person was wrong, and that he needed to listen to me to become “perfected” , he would be skeptical.
If you are Jewish and here that message, you feel threatened, and with good reason.
Yes, Braden, sometimes it is “anti-semitic to tell people what you believe if you are a Christian” because the belief itself is anti-semitic.
Look deep inside yourself…what I see is an embryonic hate-monger with potential for reform.
Remember, religion is like masturbation…best practiced in private.
October 14, 2007 at 6:29 pm |
Wow, what a great topic. You must have a great deal of time on your hands to devote entire blogs to what you perceive as my foolish rants. Thanks for the extra traffic. I could always use a little extra promotion, even if it is from people who disagree with me.
October 15, 2007 at 4:02 pm |
Hey thanks for pointing me to Braden’s blog. I’ll be sure to check it out.
Ann Coulter has every right to speak her mind on religion, politics, or whatever she so chooses. She certainly is no danger to anyone, Jew or not.
Have a look inside yourself and you will see that you are a narrow-minded little bigot.
October 15, 2007 at 5:38 pm |
She has a right to speak her mind, but does it make sense for the media to amplify her voice? I mean, you’ve got to wonder who they think they’re catering to by having Ann Coulter speak. Almost nothing she says is productive or stands up to scrutiny.
October 15, 2007 at 5:47 pm |
You shouldn’t worry about what Ann Coulter has to say. I am a fundamentalist, but find her to be just another inconsistent reactionary. She needs to be contentious, because her popularity is caused by people irrationally attacking her so she can poke fun at them. Don’t take the bait.
You will have to learn to deal with the fact that Christians recognize Jesus as the Messiah. You should not be frightened by people who have different beliefs than yourself. (Unless their beliefs include harming you, of course.) Fundamentalist Christians; however, should consider you more important than themselves. That doesn’t sound so threatening, now, does it?
October 15, 2007 at 5:53 pm |
Personally, I have no problem with folks like you. I don’t care whether people think Jesus is the Messiah, or believe in the Flying Speghetti Monster, as long as they don’t speak publically about my beliefs or identity being wrong and needing correction. That’s where the trouble begins. I have no interest in converting christians into anything…most seem pretty happy with their beliefs, and it’s none of my business.
It becomes a problem is when people publically declare that others are “imperfect” etc. It is not anti-christian to speak out against that–it is self-preservation. My identity as a person, as a human being, is inexorably tied into my ethnic/religious identity, and for idiots like Ann or Braden to say that i don’t have the right to be offended, well…that’s just wrong.
October 15, 2007 at 6:31 pm |
For more go to http://www.onlymoments.wordpress.com/
This is what results with such prejudicial exclusionary beliefs-utter hateful intolerance that people will actually explain away and condone and indeed have done so in blogs and commentaries. This seemingly innocuous public stance of her support by invoking Jesus’ name is “paving the road to hell with good intentions.” Ignorance and intolerance go hand in hand. We are now a nation of blithering idiots to allow this woman to make a living selling books.
Most religions are exclusionary and therefore prejudicial to each other. One would do well to research and go back to the dawn of real civilization and the far Eastern religions that Jesus learned and used in the attempt at the reformation of Judaism. St. Paul borrowed from the pagan religion of Mithras to forge and recreate Judaism into a cult of “The Christ” from the Greek term Christos and Jesus of Nazareth became Jesus Christ. The cult of Mithras predates St. Paul by a least a thousand years. The Roman army first encountered the cult of Mithras in Persia (now Iran) during the reign of the emperor Nero, its origins in India have been traced back to 1400 BC.
There were over 17 different religious cults that spawned from this movement that began by this reformation and the Pauline Christians eventually became the most accepted. Paul broke away from the original teachings of Judaism by allowing dietary laws and circumcision (an integral part of being Jewish) to no longer be a part of this reformation because of the difficulty of gaining converts. Hmm, let’s see, I can’t eat this, this, and this, and I have to do what with my penis?? Pretty tough job gaining conversions hence his actions. James, Jesus’ brother called Paul back to Jerusalem and chastised him for taking such liberties doing this. Nonetheless, Paul was undaunted and history is written by those who succeed or conquer. Jesus was made Divine by humans; transformed to a Diety in 325 AD by the pagan King Constantine and the now “Holy Roman” Catholic Church. This merger created a new Europe, literally, by combining East and West to band together for the first time in history. The New Testament was created at this council by the selection and editing of “holy” scrolls that they now called “gospels” literally meaning good tiding or good news, and combining them together with the Old Testament. This “codex” as it was called was then declared the basis for this merger of Paganism (the worship of Helios, Ra, and the Mithras cult) and Christianity. These are the facts. Fanatics and obstinate believers of “their God only” will always distort, smokescreen, deliniate, obscure, and alter these facts to their advantage. Always.
Now to get back to present day, this absolute “MY WAY OR ELSE” that Ann Coulter and many others promote is the basic cause for millions of innocent lives murdered throughout history to this very day. There is no one way to God. Your consciousness is all that you have in this dimension. Whatever you believe, that is the psychosis that you create. I don’t expect hard line believers to understand this, as no one that is so wrapped up the My God Only contingent ever does. To not address real history and other beliefs such as Shintos, Budhhists (which actually is not a religion but a way of life), Hindus, Bahá’í Faiths, Zoroastrianists, Native American religions, African traditional religions, Taoists, Judaism, Islamics, Gnostics, and hundreds of other both current and ancient makes one just as prejudiced as Ms. Coulter.
Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, LDS Mormoms or any other Christian groups are totally different from one other. Each one’s dogma is substantially different so does that make them less than perfect as well? According to the spiritual leader of Catholics, only Catholic dogma is correct, therefore they are the only real Christians. The Catholic church tolerates those other “cults” in public, but not when it comes to strict doctrine. They are the only “true” Christians within Christianity, that is the only true religion, because they have bishops. Hey Ann, go fight that one out with the Pope. This whole thing makes me want to go see “The Life Of Brian” by Monty Python again. “…..Judean People’s Front? We’re the People’s Front of Judea” “. ….. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the (expletive) Judean People’s Front.” “…Oh! I thought we were the Popular Front. Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?” (points to an old man) “He’s over there.”
Guess what people? No one has a monopoly on the belief of a God, a Divine Being, The Creator. To call it by a name, “do it well to count the angels dancing on pin.”
Unless you study history with an open mind and stop reading the Bible literally, this obliqueness of understanding will always be present. Yes, Ann and others like her; you believe in only your god, on your terms, in your mind. My god is on my terms, in my mind. I’ve died and come back and experienced crossing over. It’s all about what you’ve experienced and I know love and understand that it is all there is, but yet very ignorant and undereducated know-it-alls allow and promote the bloodshed that continues unabated because of such closed minds. And really just to make money. Isn’t that why Jesus threw the moneychangers (the vendors who were making money) out of the sacred Temple of Jerusalem during the high holy days? A great example if I’ve ever seen one. Why don’t you start by following that example? He rejected the making of profit from religion. For him it was about the individual’s devotion to spirituality of man to God, not the act of being saved by someone else. Look to the inside for the salvation of your soul, look to the inside to see the essence of God, of the eternal. You don’t have a choice-your mind perceives all that you are-look inside yourself for answers, they are there. Jesus was a great man, his ideas still hold great promise if people knew what they were through the obscurity of what someone else tells them. Your are the temple of God, you are all that is now. It’s all about love, love of the self, and sacrifice for each other, get it yet? If you don’t, well, that is less than perfect.
October 15, 2007 at 7:01 pm |
More religions – more ways to be wrong. I guess if people want waste their time inventing religions and pretending faith is real then there is no law against stupidity. Just don’t try to infect me with it.
October 15, 2007 at 8:03 pm |
Is her voice any more rational than another or just louder due to media attention? In truth, it seems more important to teach that all media (and perhaps every human being on the planet) has a bias. What will make us different or the same as Ann Coulter is not in the forum we speak, but in our belief in what she has said.
Plus, I feel completely greatful that she said it aloud–on national TV–for all the world to hear. Its easier to keep track of the insane when they paint a target on themselves! Its the ones that sit quietly behind a TV screen and agree with her that I worry about. And, what I do find interesting is her cowardice at not attacking ALL the non-Christian religions….especially the more violent ones. It tells me that she is smart enough to want the PR, but not stupid enough to invite violence!
October 15, 2007 at 8:13 pm |
As an evangelical, I’ve been railing against Ann Coulter for some time.
Yes, I believe that I know something that non-Christians don’t. Just as an Orthodox Jew would believe that I’ve misunderstood the Scriptures and fallen for a deception. And a Mormon would think that I’ve missed on a new revelation; a Muslim would think that all three of us are wrong … and so on.
As long as we can talk rationally, we’re fine. Even if the day ends with each of us still convinced that we’re right and the other three are wrong, we’re doing fine.
Coulter, though, lacks credibility. She’s on record as hating everyone who doesn’t think exactly like her — “Treason,” “Godless,” “If Democrats Had Brains …,” “How to Speak to A Liberal,” etc.. If Coulter was in that conversation, the conversation wouldn’t be held in the spirit of love and honest concern about each others’ souls.
She just wants to make you concede that she’s right and, perhaps more important, that you’ve been wrong.
October 16, 2007 at 3:30 am |
PaulMD – I would say you must have more confidence. When someone attacks my faith, I generally don’t get offended nor feel threatened, because my faith is not built on their opinions; but rather, on my own research. Seek out the core of your beliefs, validate it, and choose the appropriate way: move forward with confidence; or seek another path. Good luck to you.
’serious liberal’ – Interesting double standard. You don’t want others ‘infecting’ you with their views, yet you have no trouble spewing yours here. And rather harsh views, at that. I’m sorry to hear that you find people of faith stupid and feel a need to anonymously thrust that into this thread.
October 16, 2007 at 9:06 am |
I said: “More religions – more ways to be wrong. I guess if people want waste their time inventing religions and pretending faith is real then there is no law against stupidity. Just don’t try to infect me with it.”
What’s harsh about saying that stupidity is stupid? Or that I want no part in it?
And what “research” can make you believe in magic?
And I think that my name is substantially less anonymous than yours!
October 16, 2007 at 9:56 am |
I’m guessing you are now trolling, but here goes: it is not your name that is anonymous. It is the fact that it is just a name. My name is a link to my main blog where people can find out a lot about who I am. From there it is also possible to see my other blogs. People can establish whether I am engaging in their discussion threads or just stirring up trouble. In this sense, I am not anonymous. To the rest of us, your entire identity consisted of 36 words you shared with us. No history, no connection to your background or life. In that sense, you are anonymous.
Calling people’s faiths ’stupid’ or ‘magic’ is both arrogant and harsh. I don’t know if you consider yourself Atheist, but if you do, then this is particularly arrogant, since non-existence is impossible to definitively prove. Being an Atheist takes amazing faith, there’s just no getting around this logically. (There are a lot of things which I think don’t exist, but I have to acknowledge that I could be wrong.)
I’m sorry that my comment riled you up.
October 16, 2007 at 6:11 pm |
Anonymity: I don’t see any requirement to provide a CV before contributing. I am sorry that you don’t know me yet, but one must start somewhere. Who knows – we may grow to know and love each other.
Magic: Most religious people believe in some sort of miraculous activity. Maybe you don’t – I don’t know. What is the difference between something which is miraculous and something which is magic?
Atheism: You are quite right that non-existence is impossible to prove. It is, for example, not possible to prove the non existence of fairies. But most people do not take this to be proof of their actual existence. I would assume that you would hold to the same position.
Harsh Language: As far as calling ideas “stupid” goes there is no doubt that some ideas are stupid. For example that the earth is 6,000 years old; that white people are somehow better than black people; or that female genital mutilation is a good idea. I trust that you would join me in recognizing that all these ideas – some of which have a religious component – are stupid. People who hear me denounce them as ignorant or, indeed, medieval might thing my language is harsh. I’m sorry but direct language is sometimes necessary.
December 5, 2007 at 5:42 am |
Because neither the existence nor the nonexistence of a deity can be proven, it is wrong for either religion or atheism to be ridiculed. Stop stooping to the Fundies’ level.
September 3, 2009 at 3:52 pm |
Excellent site, keep up the good work