Ann Coulter was Right!

Baptist Press - Jesus, yes; coercion, no - News with a Christian Perspective

A couple of weeks ago Ann Coulter came under fire for saying that she wished all Jews would become Christians. She became the target of charges of antisemitism because of these statements. I can understand why some Jews might feel that way. Their people have been persecuted throughout the centuries. Sadly much of that persecution came from so called Christians who either sought their conversion by force, or who blamed them for the crucifixion of Christ. To say that becoming Christian would be "perfecting" of the Jews could be taken as a rather insulting comment if you are Jewish. And then Ann has a history of intentionally offending those who disagree with her in the political arena. She seeks to be confrontational and controversial in order to sell her books. Apparently that works well because she is selling a lot of books!

However, I don't think she was seeking to offend on this point. Ann believes, as Jesus taught, that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Far from being antisemitic, it is very loving to want Jews, and anyone else who will, to come to faith in Jesus. May we as Christians never worship at the altar of the politically correct doctrine of all roads leading to to heaven. Jesus clearly taught that all roads do not lead to heaven. He said the way was narrow. He said there were few that were on the narrow road. Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. He didn't say the free gift of life was in Jesus Christ our Lord, or any other faith that we were really sincere about! What kind of God would our heavenly Father be if he sent his son to the cross to die for our sins when any other path would have done just fine?

What concerned me about the Ann Coulter "perfecting Jews" controversy was the response of many professing Christian journalists. When confronted by a fellow (Jewish) journalist about why he didn't grill Ann Coulter on this point, Bill O'Reilly simply stated that he doesn't discuss theology with non-theologians. The implication was to say that she just didn't know what she was talking about and he wanted to talk with her about politics instead. By implying that Ann didn't know what she was talking about, Bill endorsed the "one religion is as good as another" doctrine of the great Church of Tolerance.

As Americans we believe in religious liberty. Under the law all religions should be equal. That is, they should all enjoy the same protections. People of all faiths should be free to practice those faiths without governmental interference. No one should be able to coerce anyone else to "convert" to his or her faith. But there is a vast different in being equal under the law, and being equally true. It would be the height of antisemitism for any Christian to NOT want Jews to come to Jesus, whom we believe, and the New Testament teaches, is the Jewish Messiah. For a Christian not to wish others to come to Christ is to wish that they not receive salvation. The "all faiths are equal crowd" finds that statement offensive. But to abandon our belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation is to abandon our entire faith. That is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without it the whole building comes crumbling down. To attack a Christian for believing that only those who believe in Christ are going to heaven is the height of religious intolerance. To ask a Christian to believe anything else is to demand that they renounce their faith and deny Christ. But is seems that Christianity is the one faith that it is politically correct to attack in American Culture today.