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Sunday, July 9, 2006
Jesusless: The Church of Conservatism: By attacking 'the liberal hostility to God-based
religions,' Coulter exposes her own hostility to Jesus-based religion
Author(s): Robert S. McElvaine Special to The Chicago Sun-Times Date:
July 9, 2006 Page: B3 Section: Controversy
In Godless, her latest and most
ill-tempered book-length rant, Ann Coulter asserts that liberalism is a
"godless" religion. In fact, however, the most fundamental problem
in Christianity in America and the world today is that the
"fundamentalist" religion that most loudly proclaims itself to be "Christian" is Jesusless.
Coulter demonstrates how Jesusless she and her
cohorts who have co-opted the name of Christianity are when she identifies
"Americans' Christian destiny" as "jet skis, steak on the
electric grill, hot showers and night skiing." For some reason, she
fails to cite her source in the Gospels for her definition of Christian
destiny, which amounts to:
Jesus
died for our jet skis.
Read the
Gospels from beginning to end and nowhere will you find Jesus suggesting
anything like what Coulter sees as the destiny of Christians. Quite the
contrary. Indeed, there is no source in anything Jesus said for most of what
the best-known "Christians" preach in his name these days. While
Coulter fumes that "liberalism is the opposition party to God," the
clear truth is that what passes for "Christianity" today is the
opposition party to Jesus. She attacks "the liberal hostility to
God-based religions," while exposing her own hostility to Jesus-based
religion.
The Church of Coulter -- and that of the loudest
"Christians" today -- should be called what it plainly is: Jesusless: The Church of Mammon.
Coulter
makes millions by calling others treasonous and Godless and saying, "We
should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity." Conversion should start at home, and Coulter first needs
to convert herself from Mammonism to Christianity.
In my
opinion, those who complain about a "War on Christianity" are
right. The generals conducting that war include, in addition to
Kill-a-Muslim-for-Christ Coulter, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard, James Dobson, and the whole Unheavenly
Host of televangelists and megachurch moneychangers
and wolves in sheep's clothing who have expropriated the moral assets of
Jesus and turned them to their own purposes. They never met a dollar they
didn't like. They prefer profits to prophecy and pretend that Jesus did, too.
They favor the rich over the poor and invert Jesus to contend that he did,
too. They favor war over peace and lie by saying that Jesus did, too.
Coulter
and millions of her fellow adherents to ChristianityLite
-- a "religion" that is the equivalent of a "Lose weight
without diet or exercise" scam ("Easy Jesus! Be saved without
sacrifice or good works!") -- have aborted Jesus and rewritten his
teachings to suit their own selfish desires. Their revision of the Beatitudes
-- what we might call the Be-Ann-itudes -- goes
something like this:
Blessed are the haughty in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who exult over others,
for they shall be further rewarded.
Blessed are the arrogant, for they shall
inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for domination, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are those who show no mercy, for
they shall obtain the wealth of others.
Blessed are the hard in heart, for they
shall see God.
Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall
be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who persecute for their
own sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when you revile others and
persecute others and utter all sorts of evil against
them falsely on my
account.
Onward Jesusless "Christian" soldiers, marching others
into war.
Robert S.
McElvaine teaches history at Millsaps College and is the author of Eve's Seed (McGraw-Hill).
From the
newsletter of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago
Divinity School.
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