False Prophets

A Commentary on Ann Coulter's Godless - Ch. 1 - "On the Seventh Day, God Rested and Liberals Schemed"

"They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator...Therefore, God gave them up to the passions of dishonor; for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature." - Romans 1:25-26

That is the DaVinci code way that Coulter begins her rant of liberals, equating liberalism with heathenism and liberals with those who are eternally damned to hell. By comparing liberal theology that has been imposed in every aspect of American society to correct and good theology that has its based in Judeo-Christian beliefs, Coulter does more than make fun of or point out the faults of liberals. She essentially makes it a battle between good and evil, angels and demons, right and wrong.

This is no shock considering that has been the conservative narrative that has helped them win every election they've won in the past century. After the Russians, they needed a new enemy to regain the office, so that was where the terrorists came in. But terrorism was the vague word used to describe the Muslim and Arab nations of the world. And through this Dirty Harry cowboy and Indian narrative, they were able to portray themselves as the hero of the West who was simply trying to live ruggedly and through hard work, find themselves in a comfortable life. Every relationship that occurs between America and another nation is simply a work of neighborly love rather than an attempt to rape, pillage, and destroy. War has only happened through the provocation of others. Right now, since conservatives are trying to portray the Iraqis as our friends and the Iranians as our enemies, it is hard to tell the difference. So we must pick a new enemy. An enemy that poses the most direct challenge for them now as the midterm elections are coming. An enemy known as liberals.

Her initial point is a good one as she points out, "Liberals love to boast that they are not 'religious,' which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion." While liberals may deny it and instead, exalt themselves to be objective citizens that play no favoritism, they are every bit as subjective as conservatives. They are every bit as corrupt as conservatives. They have their own set of beliefs that constitute the way they accept or deny others into their social and political circles. To Coulter, their sacraments include abortion, holy writ is Roe vs. Wade, clergy are public school teachers, churches are government schools, and the creation myth known as evolution. While there are many faults in her little rant (she usually gets into the most trouble in her rants), the intial point is a good one. My problem is not with her statement that liberals is in a twisted way, their own religion. My problem is not with the fact that liberals have won many battles in American society (though conservatives have won the same if not more). My problem is not with her feeling so strongly about her own conservative beliefs. My problem is with her use of defining liberalism to evil, a belief system without morals or God, while defining conservatism to good, a belief system that knows no selfishness or corruption. She not only believes that if Jesus were here on earth, he would not only be a proud Bush supporter and registered Republican voter; she believes that Jesus is Bush and quite possibly, Bush is God.

The gist of this first chapter is pitting conservatism in the red corner - where Jesus is - and liberalism in the blue corner - where sex, violence, and drugs reign. By using Christianity and conservatism interchangeably, Coulter is contrasting liberalism with Christianity more so than liberalism with conservatism, while not questioning the faults conservative policies have with Christian tenets.

Her first bone to pick is with environmentalism. She writes, "The core of Judeo-Christian tradition says that we are utterly and distinctly apart from other species. We have dominion over the plants and the animals on Earth...Environmentalists want mass infanticide, zero population growth, reduced standards of living, and vegetarianism...The core of environmentalism is that they hate mankind...We believe in invention and creation; they catalogue with stupefaction the current state of our diminishing resources and tell us to stop consuming."

I assume she was referring to Genesis 1:28-29, where God tells Adam to fill the earth, subdue it, rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the air...everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every plant for food. Well done, Coulter. You have read your Bible, but even Lucifer is better bible scholar than C.S. Lewis. One of the sad things of today's Christians is that they like to pick and choose verses out of the Bible to justify their beliefs and actions. But if Coulter only read a few lines down, she would have seen the following in Genesis 2: 15, where God takes Adam to the garden to "work it and take care of it." When the two verses are put side by side, God clearly supports omnivores and he has given us the right things in this world to survive. But he also charges his people with the power and responsibility to take care of the beautiful world that He has created. It is not merely birds and manitees that his children should care for. It is God's creation that we should fully respect in the same way that we were put as stewards over our money and talents as well. Liberals not proponents of zero population growth, but like any good parent, we would like to give our children a gift of an environment that provides safety and beauty, not black gas and a rising number of endangered species. As much as couples want to have children, they want to be sure that their children grows up in a healthy environment. So do liberals hate mankind? I would argue that conservatives in their lack of responsibility, do not have the right to make that claim. And in terms of a reduced standard living, liberals are only asking for something small such as the wisdom and responsibility to throw your trash into the blue recycle bin. In our day and age, everything else is counted as icing on the cake.

When she says that liberals also "deny the biblical idea of dominion and progress, the most ringing affirmation of which is the United States of America," I am not sure which biblical concept she is speaking of, especially when they come at the expense of other people in the form of sweatshops, et al. If she wants to talk about progress, we see Jesus making great progress in his ministry through his miracles and on his way to the cross. But in his progress, he seemed to have the patience and love to stop in crowds and individually go to people who needed his love and affection at the expense of his schedule and progress.

Another ludicrous statement exclaims, "Environmentalists' energy plan is the repudiation of American and Christian destiny, which is Jet Skis, steak on an electric grill, hot showers, and night skiing." Since when did night skiing have ANYTHING to do with Christian destiny?

Coulter's next point in her chapter makes hypocrites of liberals by saying, "Liberals are more upset when a tree is chopped down than when a child is aborted." When speaking of abortion, her naivete comes up time and time again by drawing a picture of thousands of hippies who celebrate each time an abortion occurs. If she has ever been in many abortion clinics, I am sure she will find many would-be mothers who irresponsibly throw away the life of their future children, but she would also see many more mothers who has seen that as the hardest decision they have ever had to make, and through circumstances that others do not choose to understand, she makes them. Liberals are not upset for the tree that is chopped down, but for mankind that has to suffer the losses of a tree being chopped down for the sake of building a game room. Liberals are also not celebrating when a child is aborted, but are facing the realistic circumstances of a fallen world that no law that bans it will solve. Though I am not a supporter of abortion, I believe Coulter and the conservatives' wishful thinking will not solve much more.

The remaining parts of the chapter are mired in contradictions and poor research from beginning to the end. At one point, she believes that our world has begun listening to the "lies" of Julia Roberts and George Clooney simply because of their beauty: "Today's worship of physical perfection is more grotesque than Hitler's notion of the Aryan." Yet, her next sentence is: "Ugly feminists impotently rail against 'sexist men'." Coulter also constantly asks liberals why they must save Tookie Williams and Mumia Abu-Jamal over unborn children, withotu providing the controversial history of Williams and Mumia. For those who do not know, Williams was a leader of the Crips gang and was executed for several murders. During his time in prison, however, he began to make changes in his behavior and became an anti-gang activists on Death Row, while renouncing his gang affiliation and apologized for his past activities. Nonetheless, Coulter would not accept the ability of a person's behavior to change. In her constant reference to Christianity, she once again forgets the adulteress that Jesus saves by asking the potential stoners, "May the one who has no sin cast the first stone" and that was even before the adultress agreed to change. If Coulter understood the role of grace in her faith, which is what the entire Christian religion is based on, she may have seen the situation a tad differently. In the case of Mumia, he was also on death row for killing a cop. But the controversy ensued when three of the prosecution's eyewitnesses discredited their own testimony stating that they lied about Mumia because they were threatened, coerced, or made promises by the police to get them to give false testimonies about them. The truth is still questionable, but it seems that Coulter's trigger happy finger would rather push the button on possible innocent citizens and apologize for it later. For someone who claims to be such a huge American patriot, she has forgotten to read one of our basic tenets in the judicial system: Innocent until proven guilty.

Coulter summarizes liberals as people who "subscribe to a platform that essentially consists of breaking the Ten Commandments" by commiting adultery (Clinton), lying about adultery (Clinton), covetousness, killing the unborn, and stealing from the middle class (rich) and giving it to teachers (poor). First of all, she makes synonyms of public school teachers and college professors, a gap so wide that it is like comparing apples to gorillas. Secondly, did Coulter forget murder (Iraq), lying about murder (Bush), and misuse of God's name (making synonyms of God and a political belief system)? As for adultery and lying about it, why don't Christians get a divorce rate lower than everyone else at above 50% before Coulter makes that statement. And finally, has Coulter forgotten the two most important commandments - Love God and Love your neighbors, for the entire Law comes out of these two, as Jesus says.

So do conservatives love? Or let us start with whether or not Ann Coulter loves. What about this quote by Coulter?: "This is something else that can't be taught in government schools: Muslims' predilection for violence," or "At least the crazy Muslims get funding from Saudi Arabia for their madrasses." Her religious superiority without noticing her own imperfection makes her the ultimate breaker of the commandments.

Once again, I am not trying to reverse her argument into saying that liberals are good and conservatives are evil. Instead of flipping, I intend on clarifying that both are politically suffocating stances that have their virtues and their vices. But to identify one with Christ and the other with Lucifer is where she goes wrong. And if this is the basis for the entire book, I will have a long two weeks ahead of me.

One more quote from Coulter: "The stupidest of college students become journalists, churning out illiterate attacks on dissidents of the liberal religion." To back up her statement, she uses three examples in the past five years that have misquoted the speaker. Through three examples of misquotations, Coulter devalues the entire profession. A profession that had the power to make Indonesia and India and Katrina known to the world, so that help could be provided. A profession that singlehandedly destroyed McCarythyism (an era she rejects similar to Iran rejecting the Holocaust). A profession that has improved the social conditions of thousands because of the power of their words. A profession that she rejects simply because of her own illiterate attacks on the dissidents of the conservative religion.

In the same way that she began her first chapter with a passage from the Bible, I will end my first chapter's commentary with one as well:

"Then the Lord said to me, 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of their own minds." - Jeremiah 14:14