Posted on 08/08/2014 9:47:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The always provocative Ann Coulter raised a lot of eyebrows this week with her Wednesday column calling a Christian missionary who contracted ebola in Liberia “idiotic.” Headlines making the rounds on social media do a fair job of highlighting her pointed rhetoric without addressing her thesis. Coulter wrote:
Whatever good Dr. Kent Brantly did in Liberia has now been overwhelmed by the more than $2 million already paid by the Christian charities Samaritan’s Purse and SIM USA just to fly him and his nurse home in separate Gulfstream jets, specially equipped with medical tents, and to care for them at one of America’s premier hospitals…
She goes on to ask, “Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore?”
We can debate the wisdom of Coulter’s rhetorical packaging (though it’s fair to bet that, if she did not communicate as pointedly as she does, we would not be talking about her at all). However, the substance at the root of what Coulter wrote proves worth Christians’ prayerful consideration.
Are missions to foreign lands undertaken at the expense of needs closer to home? From a monetary perspective, in Dr. Brantly’s case, the objective answer is a resounding yes. Two million dollars could go a long way toward providing for the spread of the Gospel. But more importantly, there’s a spiritual danger in what Coulter calls “Christian narcissism,” confusing earthly mileage with spiritual accomplishment.
It may be a bit much to presume Brantly traveled to Liberia to stroke his ego, or to somehow put God in his debt. Coulter does not know his heart one way or the other, and neither do we. Only God does. Nevertheless, there remains an object lesson for the rest of us to consider which could give us a moment of prayerful pause before eagerly traveling halfway around the world before first ministering to our nearest neighbors. Sometimes — I think it fair to say most of the time — God has you where He wants you.
I suppose SHE would gripe at Father Damien who worked with the lepers in Hawaii.
Even the US Government honored him for his work.
There are times she needs to shut up or find better political battles to fight.
“...Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world....”
When she’s on target, boy, is she EVER on target...
No one knows his heart? Everyone is claiming he’s a hero
Logic, folks.
Ann can be way off she was recently praising McConnell
But I know as well as Ann that for this guy to be considered a hero takes some overlooking of his being a young family man in addition to his bringing a dread disease into our hospital system
“God has you where He wants you.”
So, I guess the doctor and the other person were where God wanted them, no?
I mean you can’t have it both ways.
Maybe no one should ever leave their home town, but quite frankly we gave that up pretty much right after we got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
Coulter nails it - her best column ever.
Her “thesis” centers on service as a zero-sum game, a pox that affects leftists. Ack! I can’t comment more on Coulter’s narrow and ridiculous screed.
Father Damien didn't need to be media-vac'ed out of Hawaii and he didn't risk bringing his disease to the mainland of the USA. In fact, he chose to die there.
You don’t have to go to foreign lands to be a missionary anymore. Ubama is bringing all their poor here.
I always like to point out to our church missions group and the Christian private school my kids attend that goes on mission trips to Europe every year, there is no need to plan these mission trips to Europe, South America, and the like when you can find needy and unbelievers with 100 miles of your home. If you want to travel go to Appalachia or the deep south.
To second guess the charity’s decision to spend money to bring their missionary’s home is reminiscent of Judas’s complaint about the woman pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’s feet.
I don’t think anyone has the right to second guess a doctor who puts his life on the line by treating deadly diseases in a third world country.
The decision to bring him home at whatever expense, was almost certainly the charities decision probably in conjunction with the CDC who may have had their own reasons for wanting them transported to the U.S. It was their decision to make and nobody else’s.
We can question the CDC letting the disease into the country. But to question the expense incurred by the charity is just rather snarky. I realize Ann was probably shooting from the hip, which she usually does well, but this time she is out of line.
“Go ye therefore and teach those nations which are near to you or most convenient to meet your needs.” - Matthew 28:19, Coulter Standard Version
I worked for a charity that supported foreign missionaries. Their stance was that if someone wanted to hear the gospel in the U.S., they easily could. In fact it was hart to avoid the gospel here.
But overseas it's not always that easy to hear the word.
Doctors love to go on medical missions because they actually get to practice real medicine instead of DEALING WITH CHEESY LAWYERS LIKE ANN COULTER.
Coulter’s column is ridiculous and presumes to speak for God.
The man and the woman both are heroes, why you despise them so much and are so relenting in your attacks on those two and Christian missionaries is baffling.
And no one has brought in Ebola into “our hospital system”
You seem to be on a one man crusade to destroy these people and their Evangelical Christian work.
Are you Catholic?
Is there a new push against Evangelical Christians being launched?
“Crocodile Crock: Sir Elton Attacks Christian Missions—and We’re Paying for It!”
“”What is wholly offensive, however, is Sir Elton John’s attack on Christian missionaries is being funded by U.S. taxpayers—Us!—and distributed to the very nations that are in dire need of help. This Voice of America video is titled “AIDS 2014—Living in the Shadows.” It’s a series of stories of truly terrible treatment of people suffering from AIDS, or survivors whose family members died of AIDS. There’s nothing wrong with showing compassion for these desperate people.
There’s a lot wrong, however, with Elton John pushing the idea that the spread of AIDS is the fault of Christians, especially American Evangelicals, who have “targeted Africa for thirty years.”
(snip)
The world has just witnessed an amazing story of Christian missionaries facing death by Ebola for the sake of Christ. Dr. Kent Brantly and his colleague, Nancy Writebol, were airlifted from West Africa to Emory University to an isolation unit. Both of these Christian medical missionaries serve with Samaritan’s Purse, the aid organization founded by Dr. Franklin Graham. He’s the son of famed evangelist, Billy Graham.
Both of these missionaries risked death to treat victims of another deadly plague.
This Elton John attack video—promoted by the Obama administration—could not come at a worse time. Throughout Africa, the Mideast, and South Asia, Christians are suffering persecution worse than at any time since the eighth century. Daily, Christians are murdered, raped, tortured, and driven from their homes. They are ordered to convert to Islam, pay a jizya tax, or be killed.
In the face of this historic evil, the Obama administration’s record of muted response and a blind eye is a shameful one. But worst of all, when Christians are being attacked, the Government of the United States is weighing in with this bigoted video.
It seems the Obama administration’s foreign policy—which is in total meltdown—consists of making the culture war a world war. Sir Elton John’s participation in the Voice of America video is but the latest example of this administration’s hostility to Christian practice and belief.””
I dunno. The two Americans brought home and treated with the new magic tabacco serum has created a climate of awareness about them that could lead to them being fast tracked and put into the field years sooner than it would have been otherwise, thus potentially saving thousands of lives over the next ten years.
God has his own plans. That $2 million bucks may have been very cost effective method of painting the FDA regulators into a corner where they have to cooperate with instead of frustrate the process.
"For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" JesusThere is no way to put a price on a soul.
2. Why go overseas?
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," Jesus.Christians are commanded to meet real needs and spread the Gospel here and overseas.
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