Ann Coulter and the Power of Shame
If she isn’t one of the faithful, why would she say those embarrassing things?
Ann Coulter is no stranger to controversy, and that seems to be the way she likes it. Many feel she’s less a political pundit than a ‘shock artist’ — something like the Andrew Dice Clay of the US political scene. Some of the things she says read like hyper-aggressive charicatures of Christian doctrine. Her throwaway comments about bombing Muslim nations and forcing their leaders to convert to Christianity are famous, for example. Few thoughtful Christians I know demonstrate anything but embarrassment when she’s brought up — her consistently spiteful attack-dog style often crosses lines of traditional Evangelical taboos, too. Yet she’s still regarded as ‘part of the team’ by many conservative Christians.
One of her kerfuffles back in 2007 provides some useful insights into why she’s accepted. In an interview with CNBC anchor Donny Deutsch, she muttered a shockingly tone-deaf pull-quote: “That is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews.” The host, who happened to be, y’know, Jewish, took offense and the conversation circled around this point for a while. The idea that Jews are ‘imperfect’ and need to be ‘perfected’ by converting to Christianity is a rather controversial thing to say in our country, but Coulter reiterated the idea a couple of times and stated that “This is what Christians believe.”
All linguistic and doctrinal subtleties aside, many Christians do believe that in some way, those who follow Christ are engaging in a ‘perfected’ version of Judaism the religion. In Scripture (say, Hebrews and Romans), the idea is made very clear that Judaism was essentially God’s cultural prequel for Christianity. The thinking goes, Judaism set up certain conceptual models for people, like sin and blood sacrifice and ritual purity, that only Jesus could ‘complete.’ This is uncomfortable to say directly because it touches on the idea of religious exclusivity and (when not carefully articulated) anti-semitism. Both are taboo in our culture and, thus, people are reluctant to broach them even if they believe the underlying doctrine.
In other words, in the everyday world of casual dialog there’s no way to express these essential Christian doctrines without sounding like a condescending git who just might be a closet anti-semite.
And that, friends, is where we come to the interesting part. Coulter’s dialogue artlessly (or artfully, depending on one’s view of her motivations) blurs the distinction between Christian beliefs about “Jews” and Christian beliefs about “Judaism”. But for those inside the Christian culture who take Paul’s words about Christians being ‘Grafted onto the vine’ seriously, Coulter shamelessly and boldly articulated an unpopular but true tenet of Christian belief in a national forum and refused to back down when challenged.
Forget the fact that she’s said profoundly ugly things and directly contradicted Christ’s words in similar forums, and thinks nothing of the ‘gentler’ but no less important commands given by Christ. The fact that she speaks unpopular ideas that many Christians believe but are afraid to say openly means that she is, by many, felt to be a bold defender rather than a shameless provocateur.
This “speaking unpleasant truths so I don’t have to be ostracized” dynamic is really part of the essential appeal of controversial characters like Coulter and Limbaugh. While they might transgress in all sorts of other areas, their willingness to hold to the unpopular and controversial positions traditionally associated with Christianity gives them a degree of distorted credibility in the Christian community. After all… If they weren’t true believers, what could motivate them to say offensive and controversial things?
