Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Lisa Miller: OnFaith on washingtonpost.com

“Perfected Jews” may have been Coulter’s version of saying “completed Jews,” which in some conservative evangelical circles means Jewish converts to Christianity. The phrase came into the mainstream in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was popularized by groups like Jews for Jesus who claimed they could retain their Jewish identity and practice while at the same time believing in the divinity of Jesus (a claim that most mainstream Jewish theologians find ludicrous). For them, “completed” made better sense than “converted,” because in their view they weren’t abandoning their Jewishness. Today these same people use terms like “fulfilled Jews” or “believing Jews.” “By believing that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel, we’ve been completed in our Jewish identity by embracing the hope of our people,” says David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus. The term “completed Jews” has filtered into the evangelical world. In 2001, the Christian addiction-treatment group Teen Challenge came under fire when an executive there said in a Senate hearing that some Jewish clients became “completed”–or Christian.

When you take a deep breath, you see that from a Christian perspective, the term “completed Jew” makes a certain kind of sense. For Christians, Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Pentateuch. He is the risen Lord and the way to salvation. For a Christian, the Torah is just half of the story. For a Jew, the Torah is the whole story; the phrase offends some Jews because it implies that without Jesus, they are incomplete or imperfect.

Here, then, is the question that underlies Coulter’s mouthing-off: why should I, a Jew, be offended because Coulter or any other Christian believes that her religion is superior to mine? The difference between Jews and Christians is 2,000 years old and rests on this fundamental: Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jews believe the Messiah is yet to come. Each group believes at some basic level that theirs is the right, best path, or they would choose a different one. In a nation that protects the religious freedom of all with all its might, at a time in history when Jews in America may proclaim their own religious truth without fearing for their lives, why not imagine a polite way to talk about our differences instead of pasting them over or throwing rhetorical bombs? The problem with Ann Coulter is not, in this particular case, that she thinks her way is more perfect than mine but that she incites and revels in hate talk for profit. Nobody’s perfect, least of all Coulter–and I’m not worried about what she thinks about me.

Tim Rutten, Coulter’s anti-Semitic comment too dangerous to ignore, Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2007

Earlier this week, Coulter went on “The Big Idea,” a talk show aired on CNBC, the cable channel devoted to business news. Its host, Donny Deutsch, is a preternaturally affable businessman who invites successful people on to talk about how they turn their ideas into money. Coulter was there to describe how she had — in our vulgar commercial argot –”branded” herself. At one point, Deutsch asked her what an ideal country would be like, and she replied that it would be one in which everyone was “a Christian.” Deutsch, who happens to be Jewish, protested that Coulter was advocating his people’s elimination. She responded that she simply hoped to see Jews “perfected” through conversion to Christianity….

Meanwhile, Coulter was on the Kevin McCullough radio talk show, making the utterly absurd case that Deutsch somehow had ambushed her. On his blog later in the day, McCullough agreed. Deutsch, he said, “is an angry anti-Christian bigot, looking to make a name for himself by biting into Christian icons.”

Rosner, Is it okay for Ann Coulter to want all Jews to become Christian? - Haaretz, October 14, 2007

DEUTSCH: Christian - so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

Query for Rev. Coulter: Is the Pope Catholic?, Media Matters, June 7, 2006

In Ann Coulter’s world — as described in her new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum) — Jews are Christians, but apparently Episcopalians are not.

A footnote on Page 3 of the book reads: “Throughout this book, I often refer to Christians and Christianity because I am a Christian and I have a fairly good idea of what they believe, but the term is intended to include anyone who subscribes to the Bible of the God of Abraham, including Jews and others.” [emphasis added]

Yes, you read that correctly. As far as Coulter is concerned, Jews are Christians. Mazel tov!

As for Episcopalians, they might be disheartened to learn that they will not be welcoming their newly Christian Jewish friends into the brotherhood of Christ, because they don’t quite measure up as a church. Coulter writes on Page 5, “Howard Dean left the Episcopal Church — which is barely even a church — because his church, in Montpelier, Vermont, would not cede land for a bike path.” [emphasis added]

On CNBC’s The Big Idea, Coulter said that “we” Christians “just want Jews to be perfected”, Media Matters, October 10, 2007

During the October 8 edition of CNBC’s The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: “If you had your way … and your dreams, which are genuine, came true … what would this country look like?” Coulter responded, “It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that’s what I think heaven is going to look like.” She described the convention as follows: “People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America.” Deutsch then asked, “It would be better if we were all Christian?” to which Coulter responded, “Yes.” Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: “[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians,” and Coulter again replied, “Yes.” When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like “the head of Iran” and “wipe Israel off the Earth,” Coulter stated: “No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. … That’s what Christianity is.