Thursday, August 07, 2014

Ann Coulter, Missionaries, and Archbishop Lefebvre

Our underground correspondent in an eastern seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, just sent me the link to the following article by Albert Mohler, "Are Christian Missionaries Narcissistic Idiots? — A Response to Ann Coulter" (AlbertMohler.com, August 7, 2014), in which Mohler responds to some wild-eyed remarks by the indomitable Ann Coulter about an Ebola doctor who was flown back to the United States (“Ebola Doc’s Condition Downgraded to ‘Idiotic.”).

Noir commented: "I am not sure what I think of this: I tend to think both all three have points. I also think Coulter is always hysterical.

"But it also raises the larger question, is there still such a thing as Catholic missionaries? I really don't think so. Also makes me think of this rather moving trailer."

The video he linked to was this:


[Hat tip to JM]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Coulter is bonkers.

See essay: “Ann Coulter’s Xenophobic Anti-Gospel of Hate” at http://t.co/aQGhLuWwtD.

Coulter condemns Christians for practicing their faith just as she has condemned conservatives for being principled. In her Ebola diatribe, Christian missionaries are hypocrites seeking to be seen as heroic but are really cowards for not staying in America to fight the culture wars.

See The Gospel According to Ann Coulter at www.coulterwatch.com/gospel.pdf.

JM said...

Or see Ross Douthat, who essentially says Coulter. outrageous as she is, raises a valid point (which is what I thought controversialists were supposed to do):

"It’s revolting that Coulter accuses this man who, with his family, risked their lives to serve poor Africans, of doing so for the personal glory. Something is deeply wrong with that woman.

That said, I sometimes wonder about the priorities we American Christians have (and I count myself in this number too). I think there’s nothing wrong, and everything right, about going overseas to serve the poorest of the poor. Do not misunderstand me here. The problem is, how often do we think about the suffering of the poorest people in our own country? Unlike Ann Coulter, I don’t believe it’s an either-or question, nor do I question the motives of people who do what I have never done: go overseas to help the poor.

It’s extremely easy to hate Coulter’s column (you just have to have a heart, or a soul), BUT to be honest, I think it’s fair to ask ourselves, as Christians, if at least some of us have a Mrs. Jellyby thing going on regarding foreign missionary work."

Pertinacious Papist said...

I think that was Rod Dreher.

JM said...

Indeed!

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/ann-coulter-kent-brantly-telescopic-philanthropy/

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

Something bothers me about this: these romantic-idealist Christians live their dream by going to Africa to help the poorest of the poor, etc etc. Like the "Freedom Summer" doofuses of the sixties, who flitted down to Mississipi and Alabama to rescue their child-like black brethren with breathless shows of sanctity and brotherly love, only to find that the fire hoses that blew them halfway across the street, and the nightsticks that whacked their skulls, and the jail mattresses on which they were forced to rest their pampered bodies, were REAL, that sacrifice was more than onanistic self-indulgence. PAIN is real. DEATH is real.

So God whispers in their ears about the poor Ebola victims in Africa. God tells them, they want to believe, to go and Do Great Things in His Name. We Are All Saints! But when the consequences of their Great Gesture is not praise and face time on camera, but the dreaded virus itself, come to kill them no less than it has killed so many of their brethren, their intense self-regard melts away, and they whine, come rescue me, as my brethren will not be rescued: I really don't want to cast my lot with them after all.

Yes, these words are harsh, maybe even brutal. That is beside the point, if they are true.

Anonymous said...

An unrepentant Coulter has written a second Ebola diatribe. Very substantive criticisms of Coulter were made by many people, encapsulated in this essay: “Ann Coulter’s Ebola Fallout” at http://t.co/xz2W3HBcLF.

Ann Coulter has been almost universally criticized for her supremely anti-gospel Ebola polemic against faith-filled Christians seeking to do God’s will in overseas missions. She was almost uniformly excoriated across the Christian community – from biblical scholars, to evangelists, to missionary leaders, to lay members.

Those rare individuals who defended Coulter did so almost uniformly in support of her accurate observations about America’s need for spiritual reformation. Coulter accurately diagnosed a set of serious cultural problems in America that are at root spiritual in nature. But Coulter’s solution – that Christians should be less Christian and not follow God’s call in their lives – is ludicrous.

See The Gospel According to Ann Coulter at www.coulterwatch.com/gospel.pdf.