Ann Coulter: Maybe She's the Narcissist?

At one time I actually thought Ann Coulter might have something valuable to say.  As it turns out, she would rather nastify than enlighten. (If nastify isn't a word, I claim credit here for making it up!).

Recently, she has treated US citizens poorly (picking on children of illegals born in the US – uhm, they’re citizens by law), argued somewhat strangely that soccer is a liberal sport while clearly having no understanding of it, and now, in perhaps her most egregious and off-putting column, literally accuses Dr. Kent Brantly of being idiotic.  Dr. Brantly, if you don’t know, is the doctor who was treating Ebola patients in Africa and became infected himself.  He was then transported back to the United States where he is, as best I am aware, recovering.

Coulter is entitled to her opinion, of course.  However, she again shows a mastery of not understanding that upon which she comments.  Coulter seems to think that Christians in America should only act on behalf of Christians in America.  She conflates patriotism with the gospel message in the kind of syncretistic way that has given evangelicals a bad name for years.  Many younger evangelicals rightfully reject this kind of thinking (although I find myself at odds with their “solutions” much of the time).  Older evangelicals take note: Coulter is going to get roasted by everyone, everywhere, from every political and religious persuasion and rightly so.

Interestingly, World News Daily, which typically carries Coulter’s column, had it up earlier today (August 7, 2014) and has apparently already taken it down.  WND isn’t exactly a website that worries too much about offending, but, perhaps, this was even too much for them.  I hope so.

No one has ever accused Coulter of being winsome.  Nor has she cultivated such an attitude.  Since Dr. Albert Mohler has already commented on the gospel issues Coulter misses (Mohler's Response Here) I won’t rehash his arguments.   Rather, I want to focus on Coulter’s peculiar notion of what it means to be a Christian in America.

I have a friend who I’ll call Bob (just in case he doesn’t want his name used – I didn’t have time to ask him in advance).  Bob used much of his vacation, year after year, to work at a Central American orphanage where the children had AIDS.  There came a point where Bob decided to leave his well-paying job to spend several years at the orphanage as sort of a house father to the children.  He told me that people asked him why the Central American country where this orphanage is located.  He said that people in the United States have much easier access to help, generally speaking, whereas this country is poor, and those who are in greatest need often simply go without.  He wanted to help where the need was greater.

So Ann Coulter doesn’t get this?  Well, since compassion undoubtedly smacks of liberalism in her ears, she probably can’t understand it.  I would ask this question, though: isn’t voluntarily helping other people, acting generously without thought of reward and without seeking notoriety (no one ever heard of Dr. Brantly until now and only a small group of people know about my friend), and seeking to affect the world in a positive way while sharing the life-saving, peace-bringing, eternity-qualifying good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ the epitome of being a Christian in America?  If not, what is?

I’ve never gone on an overseas mission trip, but I know many who have.  I can’t think of a single person who went based on some sort of narcissism.  Everyone I know went because they wanted to do something for people who needed humanitarian, social, financial, medical, educational, and spiritual help.  Americans as a people, being rich beyond comprehension to probably about 90 percent of the rest of the world, are in a unique position to do these things.  That so few of us actually do it is the shame, not that Coulter’s so-called narcissists volunteer.

One last example.  My sister Becky went to Kenya for two years with the Peace Corps as a teacher.  She found the kids there anxious and willing to learn.  They were still kids, of course, but lacked the entitlement mentality of so many children in the United States.  My sister wasn’t there as a Christian missionary, but knowing her, I know that at all times she conducted herself in a manner befitting Christ.  She is every bit as conservative as Ann Coulter in terms of political thinking (maybe more!).  She wanted to help.  That desire to help runs deep in the American Christian spirit – whether we help here or elsewhere.

I don’t know if Ann Coulter will apologize for this awful and, frankly, utterly wrong-headed article.  She should immediately, if nothing else, remove it from her website (I assume it’s up there) and ask every outlet that carries her columns to remove it as well.

In the meantime, Ann needs to seriously re-think her theology because if she claims any allegiance to Christianity, she clearly doesn’t understand it at all.  She once again proves she can willingly comment despite her ignorance.  Making people mad just for the sake of making them mad serves no purpose other than a . . . dare I say it . . . narcissistic one?