Ann Coulter And The Spiritual Poverty In America

I imagine everyone has, at some point, had someone show up at their doorstep trying to welcome them to their church.  “Representatives” from Jehovah’s Kingdom bring me the latest copy of their Watchtower.  Members of a new Baptist church a few miles away from where I live drive up, walk down the pathway to my door and try mightily to encourage me to “visit” in hopes of making their church my new spiritual “home”.  The young missionaries of the Mormon Church, lads dressed in black slacks and white long-sleeved shirts and black ties, walk throughout my neighborhood spreading the Word knocking on doors along the way.  Their devotion is nothing to sneer at.  

The Gospel is poured out on our society in great quantity via some 1,000 Christian radio stations.  Despite this America is becoming more and more godless.

Years ago, a sister of one of my best friends, was “called” to go on a missionary trip.  The State Department vigorously warned U.S. Citizens against traveling there due to the extremely high level of crime and violence.

Thinking only of her safety and well-being, I tried to discourage her, fearful that the group she would be traveling with may not be able to protect her from the criminal elements to which she would undoubtedly be exposed. 

My best friend gave me the tongue lashing of my life.  I was told that her sister had been “called” to spread the gospel and the Lord would protect her.  She continued to sputter reason upon reason as to why I should not have caused her sister to doubt the mission and summarily informed me we could no longer be friends.  My estranged friend is not a religious zealot.  She was immensely proud of her sister’s courage; something she confessed she lacked.

I learned a valuable lesson that day:  missionary service isn’t always about doing the safe thing; it’s about being obedient to God.

This brings me to the latest piece by Ann Coulter in which she mocked the work of Dr. Kent Brantly and his nurse Nancy Writebol who were stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

Ms. Coulter writes, “There's little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital. But why do we have to deal with this at all?”

“Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first ‘risk factor’ listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola—an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate—is: ‘Travel to Africa.’"

“Can't anyone serve Christ in America anymore?”

[SNIP]

“If Dr. Brantly had practiced at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia. Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world.”

Coulter is notorious for making statements that are provocative.  I feel, in this case, she was over the top.  She clearly is convinced that Christians from this country go for short stints to “disease-ridden cesspools” as a form of missionary tourism.  As I learned in the harshest way from my former best friend, it is not tourism but a peek into God’s Heart.

Coulter’s jingoism is her god.  “Can’t anyone serve Christ in America anymore?  No—because we’re doing just fine.  America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul.”

Coulter’s passionate deprecation of Dr. Brantly is swaddled in the American flag.  She has determined which acts of sacrifice are worthy of undertaking and which souls are worth saving.  Her tortured thinking, calling Dr. Brantly a narcissist for following the call to God, is wrong.