Dear Meghan,
I have been watching what you have been saying over the last few days and while I think that you are a nice girl, It has become clear \ that you are a nice girl who has been making some mistakes.
To quote you:
I straight up don’t understand this woman or her popularity. I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time. But no matter how much you or I disagree with her, the cult that follows Coulter cannot be denied.
With all due respect, when you do not understand someone or something would it not be wise to take the time to find out instead of just making allegations that just happened to look very much like the nonsense you see in the leftist elite media? Instead of taking the time to get informed you decided to trash Ann Coulter (and the people who read her books) based on the ignorance which you fully admitted to.
I am very concerned that you have leveled an ugly charge of anti-semitism against Ann Coulter when ten minutes of fact checking shows you to be demonstrably false. Lets toss aside the fact that Ann has always been a supporter of Israel and examine what Ann said, essentially that Christians believe that Christianity is the perfection of Judaism. The truth is that this is long ago established Christian doctrine and here is the proof:
The Catholic Encyclopedia from its entry on the New Testament:
Other doctrines, specifically Christian, are not added on to Judaism to develop, but rather to supersede it. In reality, between the New and Old Testaments there is a direct but not revolutionary succession as a superficial observer might be inclined to believe; just as in living beings, the imperfect state of yesterday must give way before the perfection of today although the one has normally prepared the other. If the mystery of the Trinity and the spiritual character of the Messianic Kingdom are ranked among the peculiarly Christian dogmas, it is because the Old Testament was of itself insufficient to establish the doctrine of the New Testament on this subject; and still more because, at the time of Jesus, the opinions current among the Jews went decidedly in the opposite direction.
The Oxford University Guide To the New Testament makes this same point in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews:
The Epistle to the Hebrews asserts the superiority of Christ to the prophets, the angels, Moses, Joshua, and the Jewish priesthood. Christ brings a superior covenant, a superior tabernacle, and makes a superior sacrifice. Like many other authors whose task is Christian self-definition, this author uses the Hebrew Scriptures to illustrate the authenticity of his claims. For example, several Old Testament prophets mention a new covenant that God will make with the Jews. Drawing on Platonic thought, this author argues that the old covenant was a foreshadowing of the new, an imperfect reflection of a perfect reality.
Scholars do not know when or where this book was written. It is clear, though, that the author was concerned to define group boundaries. He argued that Christianity represented the perfection of Judaism. Christianity was the religion foretold by the prophets. Those who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, moreover, were not the true people of God.
With all due respect, if that doesn’t satisfy you here are what some prominent Rabbi’s had to say about Coulter’s remarks:
Rabbi Levin, a spokesman for the Rabbinical Alliance for America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the matter saying: “It is a fact that millions of Christians believe in evangelizing and preaching the gospel and it is their belief for a Jew to accept the tenets of Christianity and accept the divinity somehow completes them and brings them to perfection.”
Levin stressed, “That’s obviously not our belief; that’s not the traditional Jewish belief at all.”
“But the fact that Miss Coulter was asked to try to say that this is now anti-semitism, I believe is off the mark, is even sad and dangerous in certain ways,” continued Rabbi Levin. “Because I’m concerned that many Christians out there will hear her merely saying what they have been taught in their religion and having that referred to as anti-semitism could put a strain on relations. People will say, ‘I’m not entitled to have my religious opinions on the subject of evangelizing and what’s considered to be perfect’.”
The spokesman for some thousand orthodox rabbis concluded, “So, I very strongly feel it’s important to say that saying things like this does not an anti-Semite make.”
http://catholicexchange.com/2007/10/16/86631/
One of the most revered and respected rabbi’s among conservatives is Dennis Prager. Prager insists that there is not an anti-semitic bone in Ann Coulter. Read his words carefully:
Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism.
I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, a past college instructor in Jewish history, co-author of a widely read book on anti-Semitism, recipient of the American Jewish Press Association’s Prize for Excellence in Jewish Commentary, instructor in Torah at the American Jewish University, and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life.
There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?
What damage has she ever done to Jews? What is wrong with a person believing that it would be better if another person adopted their faith? Is there one liberal who doesn’t believe that a conservative would be better — “perfected,” if you will — by embracing liberal beliefs and values? Why is it laudable for a liberal to hope that conservatives convert to liberalism, but dangerous and hate-filled when a Christian hopes that Jews or anyone else will go to heaven (that is, after all, Ann Coulter’s and most other Christians’ primary concern) by believing in Jesus?
I have read Jewish and non-Jewish writers who argue that Ann Coulter’s words will lead to another Auschwitz. How does one respond to irrationality? How does one respond to hysteria?
There is also a move to boycott Ann Coulter, so dangerous are her words. Of course, there is no such Jewish or liberal boycott of former President Jimmy Carter, who has done real damage to the Jewish people by describing Israel as an “apartheid” state in the very title of his anti-Israel book. In fact, Carter was invited to speak on his loathsome book at Brandeis University, an ostensibly Jewish university. But for many Jews and liberals, real hatred, real damage to Jewish security can only come from the right, especially from Christians on the right. So Ann Coulter, who has done nothing in her life to compromise Jewish welfare, is to be boycotted, but Jimmy Carter is worthy of invitations to speak. Jewish groups even invite John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, the authors of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” which is essentially a tempered modern-day version of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” But Ann Coulter is beyond the pale. And she said nothing to harm Jews.
She said she believes that Jews who accept Jesus as their savior are “perfected.” I fail to see why this is some form of hate-speech, let alone the basis of anti-Semitism, as stated by Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, which often defames conservative Christians, whom he and his organization hold to be the greatest domestic threats to America.
As a practicing Jew, I do not agree with Ann Coulter’s theology any more than those attacking her do. But I am neither offended by her nor frightened by her or her beliefs. She believes that Christianity is better than Judaism. So what? Why is that in any way different from liberals thinking that liberalism is truer and morally superior to conservatism? Or conservatives thinking that their values are superior to liberal values?
Liberals not only believe that conservatives are philosophically imperfect, but they often believe that conservatives are bad human beings (something in no way implied by Coulter about Jews).
http://townhall.com/Columnists/DennisPrager/2007/10/16/ann_coulter_wants_jews_to_become_christian_–_so_what
Prager is stating what is obvious; Muslims believe people should me Muslim, Jews believe people should convert and Christians believe people should accept Jesus Christ and His teachings. With all due respect, you have shown a great deal of ignorance by acting like one should be surprised by such a concept. As a result, by calling Coulter an anti-semite you have helped create a false narrative that Reagan wing conservatives such as Coulter are against Israel, when in fact most hostility against Israel is from the left and most of the support for Israel comes from the right.
I have experienced this truth first hand because as someone who is finishing a new degree at a university, I have taken heat from the left for standing up against anti-semitism among some of the far left faculty.
You have stated that you do not understand Ann Coulter or why she does what she does and then proceeded to call her names and this had made you popular on the morning TV shows. Smearing someone to get the approval of the Andrea Mitchell’s of the world is a sign of bad character.
Again with all due respect, I would like to help you understand.
Ann Coulter is a political satirist and likely the sharpest tongued satirist alive. Satirists use metaphor, humor, use absurdity to demonstrate absurdity, and use rhetorical sting as literary devices to make a point. The whole idea is that the person reading the satire is supposed to be smart enough to see the intellectual substance behind the satire.
Satire is a literary tradition in politics dating back to the ancient Greeks and truth be told; Coulter’s satire is positively mild compared to what was done in this country in the first 150 years of its history and considered to come with the territory of politics. Face it, political discourse gets mighty dry by always couching it in straight laced policy debates.
The millions of people who read Ann Coulter are not a part of a “cult” as you put it. They are very smart people who appreciate effective satire. Ann Coulter has a stack of number one best sellers on her resume for that very reason.
Before I conclude there is something else that you need to understand.
The elite media can and will be happy to use you, manipulate you, and kiss up to you as long as you are bashing other Republicans and calling them names, but you should keep in mind that Ann Coulter is a part of the very large Reagan wing of the party and even if you do not consider yourself a part of the Reagan wing; on the majority of individual policy issues you, me, your father, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter and most of those people who attended CPAC by and large do agree. So when you call Ann Coulter names, that allows the far left and the elite media to take any policy position taken by her and portray it as extreme even if it happens to be a policy issue that you and her agree on and why???……because Meghan McCain said so.
Always remember that your father was the elite media’s favorite Republican. They wanted him on whenever he had a fight with members of his own party. When your father took a stand against Barack Obama look at what the New York Times did; they accused your father of having an affair with a 40 year old lobbyist and stopped printing his op-ed letters. The rest of the elite media launched unfair attacks against him, they attacked your mother, and look at what the lies and smears they did to Sarah Palin.
Two months later it is now clear that your father was right about Barack Obama on many things. Where is the elite media begging to have him on now…. no wait, they can have his daughter on because she is bashing Republicans and smearing them with ugly charges of anti-semitism.
The elite media will be happy to use you and manipulate you for this purpose for now, but the time will come when you take a stand based on a conservative principle in opposition to an elite media favorite like Obama and when that happens the elite media will stop being interested in your opinion and they will use any excuse to smear and destroy you. If you don’t think that these elite media people who are showing you so much attention would do that to a young woman, just ask Bristol Palin.
And when you are done talking with her ask Clearence Thomas, Robert Bork and Miguel Estrada what it is like to have every manufactured, politically motivated, far left allegation against you presented as fact.
With all due respect, you should apologize to Ann Coulter and be grateful she has (so far) decided to show restraint and not turn her sharp tongue on you. It may make you less popular with the Today Show, but it is the honorable thing to do.
Chuck Norton, Editor
UPDATE – You can see video of one of Meghan’s elite media appearances at Hotair.com.
UPDATE II – Tammy Bruce has comments on this issue HERE.
