JT, I know you are not a supporter of faith, but you forgot one important thing. All three faiths have the same root. Abraham. We share the best example of God to man and man to God.

AS far as the point of your piece; when the MSM attackes someone who is on the right, is not news to me. If anything, it is validation of the point of the article. ww

This is a case of projecting, except as a Public Relations defense mechanism and not a psychological one.

Your comments are accurate, well reasoned -- and completely unnecessary. If the left wasn't outraged at Coulter, it would be directed at someone else.

I've stopped caring about what they're angry about. It's always somebody, and it's always examined, inspected, explained, and generally worked to death in the media and blogs.

Frankly, I see little difference between the thinking of the left and the thinking of radical muslims, give or take a suicide bombing or two. It's like trying to understand the frantic logic of the mentally ill. It's enough to see the mental illness, without trying to explain it.

Color me sarcastic, but I don't write 982 words on something I consider not a big fuss.

Cheers,

Bill

Jews await Messiah. God sends Messiah. Jews reject Messiah because He is not exactly what they expected. There is no sugar coating it. Obedient Jews need to accept the Messiah whom God sent. Many have. Let the whiners whine.

Once again, very well said, Jay. As a Christian, one should believe that is the only way to be, religiously--if one wants to please God and seek salvation--it's what the Bible says.

However, the decision is strictly a personal choice from the heart and brain. No one can MAKE another person be Christian (i.e., prayer in school & other public places). This is the big difference between Islam and Christianity. I'm not sure if Ann expressed this point.

The term I've heard used for Jewish people who convert to Christianity is "completed Jew", as opposed to "perfected Jew". As no one on earth is perfect, completed may be a little less offensive.

It's too bad with Ann's intellect, she can not come up with a better way to get across conservative ideas---I think she hurts "the cause" quite a bit, especially with negative emphasis given to her by the press.

Michelle Malkin's works have been off my list of daily reading for sometime. She has become worse than a woman scorned. If things don't go her way politically (immigration, etc.) Her sarcasm expressed on her website has moved from witty to bitter, nasty, childish remarks--a conservative kos kid. It's a shame, once again, to waste talent.

Jewish friends of mine are not insulted at all. One of them pointed out that she is doctrinally accurate.

The volume of the cacophony is directly proportional to the ignorance.

Hmm, bobdog, U got a point.

Now let's see, which mental illness is characterized by a spectrum of phenotypes all joined by a fear of abandonment that is generally and disfunctionally dealt with by attacking others, projection and in extreme cases self-mutilation? Where rational thought and ability to learn from experience hampered by emotions that overwhelm? Who have excellent skills at manipulating others and setting up disinformation campaigns? While some higher functioning sufferers hold good jobs, many have difficulty holding any employment for extended periods? The prognosis is poor for most afflicted, though aggressive use of dialectical therapy helps some.

Unfortunately it sounds like either extreme of the spectrum., but I see a wider swath on the Left than the Right.

Islamic fundamentalists have a fixed psychosis. Those types of problems rarely improve with anything but high doses of strong medication with debilitating side effects. Their moderate brethren do resemble our extreme examples above.

You will all recall that baseball player Ryan Church got in trouble a few years back for saying basically the same thing.

Many of the opinion writers and cultural elites in this country are very liberal, Christian-wary Jews. And really, after centuries of persecution and second-class treatment by European Christians, who can blame them. Therein lies the problem.

Perhaps if Christians historically had been civil to Jews, such animosity would not exist today.

Mike,

"Many of the opinion writers and cultural elites in this country are very liberal, Christian-wary Jews."

Many of them are also Torah wary. They not only reject Christianity, but the basic tenants of their own faith. For the ones who don't, we get along just fine.

So, take a conservative bomb-thrower who admits that she's not happy until she can write or say something that causes liberals to fly into a vein-popping, spittle-flecked rage, combined with a smug, arrogant crapweasel of an interviewer whose goal was to embarrass and humiliate the conservative bomb-thrower, and what you get? A perfect storm of manufactured outrage.

oops. Make that "tenets".

Lets see what Jews think of her comment:

"ADL Condemns Ann Coulter's Comment That Jews Need 'To Be Perfected'

New York, NY, October 12, 2007 ... The Anti-Defamation League strongly condemns Ann Coulter for her anti-Semitic comment that Christians "want Jews to be perfected" in an interview with Donny Deutsch on CNBC's "The Big Idea." During her October 8 appearance, Coulter suggested that Jews should convert, adding that, "we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is."

Ann Coulter may be a political pundit but she clearly knows very little about religious theology and interfaith issues. Coulter's remarks are outrageous, offensive and a throwback to the centuries-old teaching of contempt for Jews and Judaism. The notion that Jews are religiously inferior or imperfect because they do not accept Christian beliefs was the basis for 2,000 years of church-based anti-Semitism. While she is entitled to her beliefs, using mainstream media to espouse the idea that Judaism needs to be replaced with Christianity and that each individual Jew is somehow deficient and needs to be "perfected," is rank Christian supersessionism and has been rejected by the Catholic Church and the vast majority of mainstream Christian denominations.

Clearly, Ann Coulter needs a wake-up call about the power of words to injure others and fuel hatred. She needs an education, too, about the roots of anti-Semitism and the shared values of Judaism and Christianity. Christians and Jews have worked tirelessly for more than 40 years to overcome the past and to promote a more tolerant and pluralistic vision for the future and especially for America.

Donny Deutsch is to be commended for his immediate and forceful denunciation of Coulter's statements, for calling her remarks personally offensive, and for rightly characterizing her suggestion that Jews are inferior to Christians as anti-Semitism."

Enough said about this miserable nasty spokesperson for the right wing and their beliefs.

Correction:

"Lets see what [leftist] Jews think of her comment:"

I expect that one day public spirituality will be confucian in form, private spirituality will resemble buddhism, festivals and public holydays will have a hindu air, and the cults of abraham will be marginalized as too violent.
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Liberals belive in freedom of speech unless it involves conservatives then its okay to send in some goons to try and silence the conservatives frankly next time a bunch of jerks charge the podium i suggest they get sprayed with skunk oil till the stink for a month

Jeff -

One point. The messiah, in Judaism, is not a deity, a part of a deity, or in any way part of a "g-dhead" outside of the connection to deity that all human beings have. So, no, according to Jewish tradition, the messiah has not arrived.

On to the main point. No, I understand that she was speaking doctrinally, not directly intending to cause offense. However, there are ways to say things that will get the concept across without intentionally knocking the table. I can only imagine her reaction were the comments directed at her.

Thank God you landed safely my p-braned frend.
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Lysander, when you have a mote seer so acute, beam her up.
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Lysander,

"...according to Jewish tradition, the messiah has not arrived."

That's the problem. Tradition trumps the Word of God.

"However, there are ways to say things that will get the concept across without intentionally knocking the table."

There is no way to proclaim the gospel without offense. Jesus repeatedly said so.

"I can only imagine her reaction were the comments directed at her."

I don't even know what that means. She has already had far worse said about her. She seems to get as good as she gives and then some.

JFO, you understand nothing and do not have any original thoughts. You spew whatever is posted on the leftist sites. ww

How do Christians respond the attitudes of Bin-Ladin an Amadinijad that the world would be a far better place if all Christians became Muslim? Are there people who do not know that they are actually bigots? Mt friends who are Christian clergy do not seem to share the view of Ann Coulter. The view she expressed demonstrated an alaring lack of respect for her fellow citizens.

I was raised Jewish... Not offended by what she said.

If she meant "..our religions are similar, I think mine's a little better, I think you should sign up for mine", then she is entitled to her opinion... It's not like she was trying to force me to sign up...and even if I may disagree with her, Im not offended by her having that opinion.

I agree with your summation of the attitudes toward conversion concerning the different religions though.

Jews: Are you sure you want to convert? Make sure it's what you really want before you do this; It's a serious matter. If you aren't serious about this, don't do it.

Christians: C'mon...convert! You know you want to! It'll be glorious! It's really the best thing out there!! C'mon!! Do it!! This sale won't last!!

Muslims: Convert... or else. Islam is the religion of peace. If you don't believe us, we'll kill you.

Lysander wrote, "...there are ways to say things that will get the concept across without intentionally knocking the table."

Ann Coulter is perhaps our best-known "table kocker" today. That is her schtick. I think liberals and conservatives invite her into their forums praying all the while that she will unleash a verbal onslaught, because with it she will attract a considerable amount of attention.

Jeff -

In Judaism, (whether you want to call it the word of G-d, or Tradition, or something else, no matter) the messiah is not a deity, part of a deity, or anything other than a specially-designated human being. The Nicene Creed, unless I misread it, holds that Christ is divine. Where those two positions are in play, the same individual cannot satisfy both.

That Christianity seeks to build upon Judaism, keeping the liked parts and discarding the disliked parts, sobeit. But don't treat them as two parts of the same thing, since they are not.

Jay Tea,

Great post, but I have one nit to pick. Please don't ever lump Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses in with Christians. Neither consider Christians to be saved and both use extensively rewritten and/or extended Bibles. Both deny that Christ died on the cross and was resurrected for our salvation. That is a rejection of the central tenant of Christianity.

Lysander,

Isaiah 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on his shoulders; and His name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel [God with us].

For those who have ears to hear, the OT clearly indicates Jesus' divinity (which He also claimed for Himself), Jewish tradition notwithstanding.

Jeff - Which translation are you using?

I, myself, prefer the Stone Edition TaNaCh, but JPS is pretty good.

Doc Barry, As a disciple of Christ (one who agrees that Jesus Himself proclaimed that there is NO other way to Heaven, but through Him) I can easily say that if everyone in the world was voluntarily entirely Muslim, or Jewish, or even Bahaists, the world would probably be a "far better place". No religious fighting to get in the way of stewardship matters over the earth. Most likely a one world government would be possible. So words of Bin-Ladin or Amadinijad to that effect don't set me off... make me scream, or create Anti Defamation Leagues.

Of course the issue at stake for mankind would be what happens after a man dies in such a state. What's eternity hold for them? In that aspect I would say that things would be far, far worse for individuals, and humanity as a whole.

The goals of those that follow Christ aren't to create a Christian One World Order, or to even make the USA a Theocracy. Our primary concern is what's the state of our relationship with our Creator God, and then how can we help our neighbors create a relationship with Him as well.

Let's use this as an example: Let's say that everyone who participates in Wizbang are all driving our cars on a highway headed directly west, and the sun is setting and its glare is so blinding that the drivers can't see the signs warning that the only bridge ahead is out and leads to a deadly drop.

Those drivers that happen to be wearing sunglasses can see the signs. Sure, they can stop themselves, and make adjustments to avoid the drop so they are safe. Wouldn't those that are most conscientious want to help prevent as many others as possible from driving off that bridge?

So they stop their cars, and honk their horns, or call out to other drivers trying to use other means to suggest they stop. Even if there are drivers who hear that message, and don't stop (because they believe their cars can fly, or they think the other drivers are mistaken or liars) does it make those who are warning them to stop or change their route bigots?

I think you need a different word. It's not a matter of superiority, it's a matter of practicality. A follower of Mohammed, or of Judaism can speak load and clear that they don't believe my faith is accurate. They can say I'm destined for Hell. It doesn't effect my relationship with God, it simply makes me sad for what I believe is their mistake.

It's not a matter of being "better" than someone else. In fact those Christian that believe in the integrity of the New Testament would agree with the Apostle Paul that we are the "greatest of all sinners" as we have experienced the truth, and God's grace, yet we still sin. I know I do.

For those who have ears to hear, the OT clearly indicates Jesus' divinity (which He also claimed for Himself), Jewish tradition notwithstanding.

I see Jeff digs on Coulter's Christian chauvinism. Too bad you have to ignore a lot of other passages in the OT to come to your conclusion about Isaiah's prophecy. For instance:

Psalm 82:6 - I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

Are they all messiahs? Also, the OT is replete with characters whose names had some sort of God meaning. Gabriel and Elijiah for instance. In fact the prefix "El" means god in Hebrew (from Elohim), and many names begin with El. It is not an unreasonable interpretation to think that Isaiah was merely speaking of the messiah's name, and not describing him as specifically divine. But apparently those who believe that don't "have ears to hear."

It is the Christian chauvinism that Coulter was advancing in her answer that has always been at the root of antisemitism. The reason it rubs people the wrong way is not so much because this is a view unique to Christianity (it's not), but because the long history of oppression and genocide of Jews has it's fundamental basis in the belief that such people are flawed.

What I find interesting is that more Christians aren't offended by the fact that Coulter is extremely selective in what Christian beliefs she espouses.

How do Christians respond the attitudes of Bin-Ladin an Amadinijad that the world would be a far better place if all Christians became Muslim?

Well, obviously, we don't agree. But we're not running around caterwauling about how "insensitive" and "offensive" such views are. And, speaking for myself, I can at least have some respect for such forthrightness, whereas I have none for weaselly lefties who don the mantle of "inclusivity" and "tolerance for all views" while at the same time attacking my faith every chance they get.

Mantis, are you suggesting that the original Hebrew in which the Old Testament was written can't differentiate between the word gods and the name of the Lord God? I'd say that's pretty poor scholarship on your part.

As for chauvinism, I'm afraid you'll also need to find a different word.

There's no hate represented in stating that there's only 1 way to God, whether that's stated by a Jew, Christian or Muslim.

It's also not a declaration that one group of people are superior to the other.

What OregonMuse said.

"What I find interesting is that more Christians aren't offended by the fact that Coulter is extremely selective in what Christian beliefs she espouses."

Why should they be? Those of us who grew up in evangelical churches (many Christian churches are not) *might* find predestination offensive and Sunday social clubs sad, but we've always known that people in other Christian churches are likely to hold a profound belief that *our* Christian church has missed the mark and everyone (except for a few lucky sorts, who might have got saved by accident) are going to hell.

We got over it a very long time ago, and frankly, can't understand the purpose behind getting all out of joint because someone thinks our religion is wrong or that we need to be saved. Other people's opinions don't matter.

"I can only imagine her reaction were the comments directed at her."

I can too. Same ole, same ole. There are so many Christian churches who believe that *they* alone have rightly understood scripture and that they *alone* are preaching salvation, that he undoubtedly *has* had comments like that directed at her. Christians are used to it. They don't CARE.

It's a sad thing that the doctrine of inclusivity and tolerance is actually an iron-clad doctrine of exclusivity and intolerance and the only people who seem to be able to see it are believers. Not just Christian believers. ANY believers. Because the ONLY religious belief that is ACCEPTABLE is the watered down insipid one. The one that makes no difference in a person's life. The one that no one actually believes in. The one without any consequences whatsoever. No one is allowed, under this tolerance doctrine, to believe that Truth even exists. They are supposed to go to church for the feel-good social support and belonging of it.

Religion, the acceptable sort, is put on the same level as a Moms and Tots support group.

Mantis, are you suggesting that the original Hebrew in which the Old Testament was written can't differentiate between the word gods and the name of the Lord God?

No, I'm saying i