Ann Coulter on Mel Gibson and Christianity...

[mrph]

The Passion of the Liberal.

An excerpt which captures the spirit of the thing...

According to liberals, the message of Jesus, which somehow Gibson missed, is something along the lines of "be nice to people" (which to them means "raise taxes on the productive").

You don't need a religion like Christianity, which is a rather large and complex endeavor, in order to flag that message. All you need is a moron driving around in a Volvo with a bumper sticker that says "be nice to people." Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of "kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed"). But to call it the "message" of Jesus requires ... well, the brain of Maureen Dowd.

In fact, Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it. That is the reason He is called "Christ the Redeemer" rather than "Christ the Moron Driving Around in a Volvo With a 'Be Nice to People' Bumper Sticker on It."

I'm not entirely sure, but I think there might be a typical Ann spin on that... :)

Comments

[smogo.livejournal.com]

Who is this Ann Coulter woman? Is she like, Robert Kilroy-Silk's best mate or something?

[mrph.livejournal.com]

She's an American right-wing journalist. Think of Julie Burchill with the volume turned up to 11.

Ann famously called for the US to "invade their countries, execute their leaders and forcibly convert them to Christianity" after September 11th. Although she was eventually forced to apologise for that one...

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Quote's from memory, btw. But I'm pretty sure it's right.

[zotz]

There was an interesting point made recently )I think - I certainly read it recently) about Pasolini. As a Marxist, you can be damn sure he kept the rich-man/camel/eye-of-needle in when he made his biblical film.

It also reminds me a bit of something Bertrand Russell said (abviously far longer ago) about the bible and the most important bit. A few centuries ago people around these parts might well have said that the most important bit of it was about not suffering a witch to live. Not many people would say that now. When I was at school, the ministers and RE teachers reckoned that the most important bit - the core message - was to love your neighbour (including your "enemy") as yourself. I think the parable of the Good Samaritan probably gets a lot more airtime over here than over there.

Good Samaritan

[inulro.livejournal.com]

One of the very few Bible stories I knew before I started undergrad English lit and therefore had to learn about the bible was the Good Samaritan.

Certainly, the United Church of Canada was very big on it in Sunday school - I didn't go much but I heard it lots. Probably second to the Nativity story.

However, the United Church is probably about as far from typical US-based Protestantism as you can get. We had women ministers when I was about 10, and sermon topics on things like still loving your gay child or pregnant teenager.

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

She's such a psycho. Like Bill O'Reilley and Rush Limbaugh. And George W.

[distressme.livejournal.com]

hi, just noticed you have mattewp and sweethippygrrl on your friends list and you live in Cov, your name came up on one of those odd "who's not on your friends list and should be..." thingies. So anyway... I've just added you coz you made me laugh, hope you don't mind.

D

I feel dirty for saying this:

[mrbear.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there is some Ann spin in there somewhere, the problem is that the final paragraph of that quote is not far off what the bible teaches. I suppose even right wing nutbars get thair facts straight occasionally.

Re: I feel dirty for saying this:

[mrph.livejournal.com]

The last paragraph may not be too far off the mark (even if "People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it" phrasing sounds very like the Coulter view of America's place in the world...).

But Ann accentuates it by playing down and ridiculing the "be nice" bit throughout the rest of her article. If Jesus thought that side of things was so "incidental", I have to wonder he talked about it so much. No, it's not in itself the way to redemption. But neither is it completely irrelevant, just the "bumper sticker" she claims... surely the two need to go together?

IMHO, of course. And my theology is a little rusty.