Ann Coulter, Jews, and Christians

There are few people who speak less tactfully and more controversially than Ann Coulter, and I certainly don’t wish to be on her bandwagon. Over at the Daily Greensboring Beth has featured a very controversial quotation by Ann Coulter in an interview with Donny Deutsch.

I think the interview must have been connected to promotion/discussion of Coulter’s new book. In the course of the interview Coulter speaks about Christians as “perfected Jews” and says that Jews need to become Christians to be perfected as Jews. She uses language to the effect that Christians are “on the fast track,” whereas Jews “have to obey laws.”

Ann Coulter is no theologian, and not a very good popular speaker on the subject of Christianity. There are many things about what she says that are just not right. For example, Gentile Christians are certainly not perfected Jews. In the language of the New Testament, Gentile Christians may be thought of as “spiritual Jews,” or as the “true Israel of God.” And whereas that language may be irksome to Jews it doesn’t make Gentile Christians into perfected Jews.

And it also true that Christians see the Old Covenant as pointing to and being fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth in his person and ministry. It is of the essence of Biblical Christianity that Jesus in his person and work is the fulfillment and completion of the Old Covenant. He is viewed as the promised "anointed one" or "Messiah" longed for by the Jews of Jesus' day. That’s what makes Christianity Christianity. Uh, "Christ" means "Messiah." Is this some sort of secret? Jews and Christians then, and Jews and Christians today, don’t agree about Jesus. Jews think Christians are wrong. Christians think Jews are wrong. Muslims think both are wrong. Duh.

The fact that Jews and Christians disagree about these things does not make any one of them anti the other in the sense of being “anti-Semitic” or “anti-Christian” or whatever, in the prejudicial sense of the word. It means that as neighbors and even as friends we disagree about ultimate issues. And that is fine.

What about ethnic Jews who become Christians? Yes, Christians would say that in a real sense that they are perfected. Remember that Christianity arose out of Judaism. Not only was Jesus but all the disciples and apostles were Jews. Christianity's roots were and are in the word, life, and history of the covenant between YHWH God and His people Israel. Thus, Christianity was from the beginning a kind of “Jewish cult,” claiming that in Jesus, its leader, a very big new thing was happening in the history of God and His people as a fulfillment of all that had come before.

If a person believes that Jesus of Nazareth is who the New Testament Bible says that he is, and that Jesus did what the Bible said that he did, then obviously Christians are right to want Jews to become Christians. Given that set of premises, that would be the right thing to desire.

And if those premises are not right, and Jesus isn’t who the New Testament says he is, then obviously Jews should be concerned for Christians whose leader (a Jew) would have been justly condemned for blaspheming their God.

It does not offend me one bit if a Jew in his heart of hearts is worried over my fate, since I would be in his eyes following after a false messiah and believing all sorts of terribly wrong things about God. I hope he would be worried for me. I hope he would try to convince me otherwise. He perhaps would and should want me to convert to Judaism. He should want me to do that, well, if he is Jewish because he thinks Judaism is true, rather than for some other reason.

Ann Coulter has a way of putting things that creates offense even if the content and intent of her words are not inherently offensive. I think her words are more shallow and kind of pathetic than anything.

For one thing, the idea of Christians “having a fast track” and Jews “having to obey rules” is simplistic beyond belief. Christian discipleship is grueling as well as joyful, and there are more than enough commandments right from Jesus’ own mouth to keep Christians striving their whole lives with all of their hearts to be obedient to Him. Rather, in New Testament terms, Christians would say that they are not (or are "no longer" if they are converted Jews) “under Torah.” They would say that even Jewish believers in Jesus are no longer “under Torah.” They would even say that Jews who become Christians must no longer be “under Torah.” This means that the Torah is no longer the operative center of the godly life, or of the Christian life – Jesus is. To submit to part of Torah would be to submit to it all, which puts the person back under the Torah’s curse, whereas, it is believed by Christians, Jesus suffered the covenant curse for His people (the Jews) and also opened up access to their God to Gentiles.

But you can see that these are nuanced and complex arguments. I could write volumes just trying to explain what this does and does not mean. To reduce this stuff to slogans (and bad slogans at that) as Ann Coulter does I find to be offensive to reason, to neighborliness, and to the seriousness of the issues.

But look, if you are a Jew, I think it would be totally appropriate for you to think that I, as a Christian, am wrong. That does not offend me. I hope that together we can stick up for each other’s rights for free assembly and free expression, for life and liberty and pursuit of happiness, even as me may otherwise disagree about these ultimate matters.