Posted on 08/10/2014 3:14:46 PM PDT by Morgana
“I think I speak for all of the writers on this website when I say that her piece is distasteful, ridiculous, and just plain wrong,” Live Action’s Murray Vasser writes of Ann Coulter’s latest column, in which the provocatively prolific conservative commentator criticizes Dr. Kent Brantly for an Ebola-treating mission trip to Liberia, when she would rather see him treat cultural decay here in the United States.
Well, I can only go along with one of those adjectives.
I agree with Murray that it’s distasteful to question the motives of anyone who goes out of their way to help those in need, particularly when they do so at great personal inconvenience and risk. Saving lives is always worthwhile for its own sake. But what he quickly dismisses as “angry, arrogant, and judgmental posturing” contains truths that deserve serious contemplation from pro-lifers.
Anyone who’s ever tried to get friends, neighbors, or classmates to join them in political activism knows that the “path of least resistance” mentality—lining up for politically correct, feel-good causes but hiding from anything someone might dislike them for tackling—is very real. And while Dr. Brantly may not suffer from it, Christian culture isn’t immune from it, either. There are more than a few Christians who seem to think that as long as they do something good for someone, it’s an excuse to not care about the legalized mass murder going on right in front of them. If we’re going to end abortion, we need to call out that thinking a lot more.
When I was in high school, I was part of a small local group of pro-life teenagers. We did what we could to spread the pro-life message at community events, raise money for our local crisis pregnancy center, etc., but the one area that consistently disappointed us was recruitment. Whenever we grew, it was usually because one of us roped in a new friend. But our outreach efforts at local churches and religious schools were almost entirely met with cricket chirps. Having personally encountered the very “Christian narcissism” she describes, I know something other than “enjoy[ing] being angry” drove Coulter’s column.
Nor is she wrong when she points out “that the first rule of life on a riverbank is that any good that one attempts downstream is quickly overtaken by what happens upstream”:
America is the most consequential nation on Earth, and in desperate need of God at the moment. If America falls, it will be a thousand years of darkness for the entire planet.
Not only that, but it’s our country. Your country is like your family. We’re supposed to take care of our own first. The same Bible that commands us to “go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel” also says: “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”
Now, we obviously shouldn’t belittle treatment of any individual case of poverty or disease, but nor should we oversell it. Murray writes that “the cause of life is advanced whenever an individual stands up against the forces of darkness and displays love to another human being,” but with all due respect, that doesn’t refute Coulter’s point that there are differences in scale, severity, and urgency between the plights that will always afflict mankind and grave evils that are actively protected and promoted at the institutional level—especially when we’re talking numbers like 3,562 abortions a day. Add on top of that the related crises she identifies—“More than 40 percent of babies are born out of wedlock” while “our elite cultural institutions laugh at virginity and celebrate promiscuity”—and it’s clear much more needs to be done domestically.
Dr. Brantly’s work may “reflect a worldview which values the weak and the marginalized over personal comfort,” and “embod[y] the life-affirming culture which we are seeking to establish,” but how does that translate to chipping away at the cultural and intellectual forces that sustain abortionism?
I’m not saying Christians should stop taking mission trips, but is it really “ridiculous and just plain wrong” to suggest that some of our priorities are misplaced? That, as Walter Hudson puts it at PJ Media, “Sometimes — I think it fair to say most of the time — God has you where He wants you”? Just imagine how much closer we’d be to ending the abortion holocaust if churches made pro-life involvement anywhere near the priority they make missionary work—if more churches preached it as a duty of American Christians.
Ann Coulter’s core mistake is the (presumably unintentional) implication that helping the needy is an either-or proposition. But her critics err too in dismissing the reasoning beneath the rhetoric.
All good is not interchangeable. And all evil is not equal.
Ebola is some nasty stuff. I am no epidemiologist (there are plenty here in Houston), but I would think that the proper approach to this disease would be to contain it, then eradicate it. With the known latency, this can not be allowed to spread. If eradicating it means fast track approval of the experimental drug that may have saved one doctor, it should be done, with monitoring, changing the tactics as needed. In this case the regulators should stay the heck out of the way, and let the doctors make the tactical decisions. Yes, I am using battlefield analogies.
Wrong. Coulter merely pointed out that Christians can do more good works here rather than going to some despotic hellhole to help people who won't help themselves.
Coulter's column was one of her best ever.
I have a memo for you. God’s kingdom does NOT have border. I have another memo for you: there are 100 Christian workers in THIS country for every American Christian worker overseas. If you don’t think there’s enough being done here, you are delusional.
Amen. She was hateful and off base.
you are an idiot. There are many places where ministries are working specifically with people who help themselves and only those. Your ignorance is staggering and colossal.
Coulter is famous for her acerbic wit. That's her thing. Try reading past that and get to the meat of what she's saying, and she said it brilliantly.
Why are Christian missionaries helping people around the world, who are being destroyed by their own leaders, when they can do so much good by simply going into the inner-cities or feeding the homeless?
It's not a question of "calling." It's a question of plain-old common-sense.
Have you ever read the Bible? Nothing you have posted here would indicate the answer is yes.
If the answer is no, then you shouldn’t even be on this topic.
there are 100 Christian workers in THIS country for every American Christian worker overseas.
Perhaps that's true, but given the moral situation here perhaps it should be 200.
with all due respect, who the fk are YOU to decide what God is calling others to do. How arrogant. How delusional. How ignorant of the Bible ……….
If God calls you to work as a missionary, one should go. America sent thousands of missionaries over the centuries to various countries, taking the Gospel and ministering God’s love. Are there poor in America? Yes, but the poor in America have personal items even I don’t own. Not saying that there are not really poor people in America, some who do not get welfare checks, food stamps, etc. But, compared to the poor in Africa and other third world countries, most of our poor still have a house and running water, etc.
We work the food ministry at our church, which os supposed to be for the poor. Most of the ones who come for food drive a better vehicle than the majority of people I know and those of us who work at the ministry. They go from church to church to get handouts, as well. At the beginning of the school year, our church and others in the community collect book-bags and give out to poor families. But I noticed that they also make the rounds and get one from every church they can. Some of these people dress much better than I can afford, they all have iPhones or androids, (I don’t) and have jewelry I cannot afford to purchase.
We lived overseas, in the ME and Germany. I’ve seen poverty firsthand, close-up. Few Americans qualify to be labeled as poor in comparison. If you see someone in need in your community, you should help them as you can. However, saying Americans need to take care of Americans and Iraqis need to take care of Iraqis, Africaners take care of Africaners, etc. is snobish and unChristian. Yes, we’ll always have the poor among us, but some countries will never...before Jesus’ return...make it into any kind of civilized lifestyle. Pouring money into the pockets of dictators is a waste of time. Going and doing is the best way to effect good. Having been summer missionaries for several years, it also helps to give one a better worldview and changes your heart...helps you to see others as God sees them...and ourselves. If given the opportunity, I would go again.
If God calls you to work as a missionary, one should go. America sent thousands of missionaries over the centuries to various countries, taking the Gospel and ministering God’s love. Are there poor in America? Yes, but the poor in America have personal items even I don’t own. Not saying that there are not really poor people in America, some who do not get welfare checks, food stamps, etc. But, compared to the poor in Africa and other third world countries, most of our poor still have a house and running water, etc.
We work the food ministry at our church, which os supposed to be for the poor. Most of the ones who come for food drive a better vehicle than the majority of people I know and those of us who work at the ministry. They go from church to church to get handouts, as well. At the beginning of the school year, our church and others in the community collect book-bags and give out to poor families. But I noticed that they also make the rounds and get one from every church they can. Some of these people dress much better than I can afford, they all have iPhones or androids, (I don’t) and have jewelry I cannot afford to purchase.
We lived overseas, in the ME and Germany. I’ve seen poverty firsthand, close-up. Few Americans qualify to be labeled as poor in comparison. If you see someone in need in your community, you should help them as you can. However, saying Americans need to take care of Americans and Iraqis need to take care of Iraqis, Africaners take care of Africaners, etc. is snobish and unChristian. Yes, we’ll always have the poor among us, but some countries will never...before Jesus’ return...make it into any kind of civilized lifestyle. Pouring money into the pockets of dictators is a waste of time. Going and doing is the best way to effect good. Having been summer missionaries for several years, it also helps to give one a better worldview and changes your heart...helps you to see others as God sees them...and ourselves. If given the opportunity, I would go again.
“well, when you start off by including a disgraced preacher who walked away from his calling if he ever had one (Swaggart) and a pretend preacher (Osteen - Prosperity Gospel) then your point is pretty weak to start off with. “
You know they are pretend, I know they are pretend. The rest of America that does not know true Christianity does not know this. The rest of America sees all of them as tv preachers getting rich off the widow’s mite (Dateline Show) Then again all these preachers are in the public eye so I will call them on the carpet.
“A lot of churches are just phony.......”
I’ll buy that.
“If God calls you to work as a missionary, one should go. America sent thousands of missionaries over the centuries to various countries, taking the Gospel and ministering God’s love. Are there poor in America? Yes, but the poor in America have personal items even I don’t own. Not saying that there are not really poor people in America, some who do not get welfare checks, food stamps, etc. But, compared to the poor in Africa and other third world countries, most of our poor still have a house and running water, etc.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Oh they have “stuff” yes. You overlooked one important thing. They are spiritually poor!! So what if they have this or that gov program? So freaking what? Hey in West Virginia our medicade funds abortion!! Yes poor women have their abortions paid for in the Mountain State. The women seeking those abortions are spiritually poor! So every day in W.Va these poor souls go into one of Charleston’s two abortion clinics and come out the wounded mother of a dead baby.
Okay I will give it to you some are called to leave America or maybe not just travel to “West Virginiastan” to do missionary work let me give you this story. I got into it with a protestant preacher about his going back to Haiti do so work. I suggested he go to Japan instead. He told me “well in Haiti they are so poor and have nothing” okay this is true. He told me how Japan is a very developed nation and not wanting for anything, only this is half true. Yes Japan wants for nothing materially, however Japan is so spiritually poor they have a high abortion, and suicide rate among other troubles. This suicide rate is not just among women who have had abortions, it’s among a lot of their young people who go into Mt. Fugi’s forest and off themselves. They have given up. Japan is ripe for Christianity, for that matter they are desperate, but this preacher wants to “feel good” helping the poor so off to Haiti he went. Meanwhile in Japan another kid dies in the forest, feels good don’t it? /sarc
“We work the food ministry at our church, which os supposed to be for the poor.................”
That is good, but what does your church do for the spiritually poor? You know it’s not just an abortion problem. How about people on drugs. People addicted to porn. Domestic violence. Depression. These are all matters of what is spiritually poor that Christians should help others with.
“We lived overseas, in the ME and Germany. I’ve seen poverty firsthand, .....................”
I’ve seen people who came from third world countries that had nothing but were not spiritually poor. In fact I’ve found them to be better, loving Christians that most American who call themselves Christian. It’s not about “stuff”, it’s about having God.
>> I get the feeling that people/churches are going on mission trips for the “feel good” aspect of it and maybe just to take a vacation out of the country.
Seriously? You are suggesting that Brantley used his skills as a medical doctor to land himself a dream vacation working with ebola patients — the pariah’s pariah — in that vacation paradise Western Africa?
Seriously?
No I believe Ann was.
Then again she feel off the conservative wagon sometime ago.
>> Finding any pastor who condemns abortion at the pulpit is rare.
Maybe where you’re from, that’s true. So move.
Ours FREQUENTLY does.
Mine does, the churches around me a different story. Then again I live in DemocratLand what do you expect? Land of the libs, it even affect churches.
Oh lawyers and the Gov. has done more to mess up the medical industry here in America than Ebola could ever come close to. Every time I see a doc there is more legal crap to read and sign. Half of which I can’t read!
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