Witch: But we spell it differently

One of my favorite musicals is Brigadoon. And one of my favorite lines in the show come when the townspeople of Brigadoon are telling New Yorker, Jeff Douglas, about the witches that threatened the village. Jeff responds, "We have them where I come from too, only we spell it differently." That has always been my approach to Ann Coulter, but she makes some truly outrageous claims in her column when she tries to demonstrate her knowledge of the Bible and fails miserably. It comes in her rather lame response to the rather lame comments by a well-meaning democrat as reflected in the bumper sticker at the top of the post. In response to the incredibly stupid remarks by Rudy and Sarah at the repubcon, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said: "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor." I have been amazed at the groundswell of righteous or not so righteous indignation emanating from the religious non-left.

An editorial by the publisher Loné Beasley of an Ada, Oklahoma newspaper said: "Jesus was not a community organizer. For anyone to say so as a way of promoting a political candidate shows as gross a misunderstanding as has ever been generated by a presidential campaign. Jesus dealt with individuals and individuals only, not entire communities."

The publisher needs to look at the gospels again. He will find that Jesus entire ministry took place in communities, both large and small. When he was in town, the crowds were so big, people had to tear through the roof to get to him. When he walked by the sea, he had to get into a boat to keep from being pressed by the crowd. Even when he went up on the mountain side, the crowds followed him. How could he have fed 5,000 and 4,000 people dealing with "individuals and individuals only." I wonder what the publisher thinks Jesus was doing when he organized his own community called "the church."

Pastor Chris, Gig Harbor, Washington, said: "Let me make one thing clear – as an actually believer in Jesus: 'Jesus was not a "community organizer.' Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, the savior of humanity. Demeaning Jesus as a "community organizer" is an insult to every Christian believer in the world. But, more importantly, it is a reckless, blasphemous and profane attack on the Divine Person who sits at the right hand of God the Father.

He goes on to give a dire warning to those who would stoop to such political skullduggery, "I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anyone who throws around such mischaracterizations of the Living God for political gain."

I guess Pastor Chris forgot that part of the Christian creed that says that Jesus was fully human as well as being fully divine. Somehow, in light of many of his teachings, I don't think the human part of Jesus would object to being known as a community organizer. Remember that the teaching of Jesus that is emphasized more than any other by nearly all of the New Testament writers is "Love your neighbor as yourself." Do publisher Loné and pastor Chris think all of those neighbors were living out in the wilderness all by themselves? Perhaps there were some communities around somewhere.

I really liked the comment by the guy who said that even if Jesus was a community organizer, Pilate was not a governor, he was a prefect. If this guy will do just a little more homework he will find out that a prefect is one level of Roman governor.

But the best (worst) comments from the aforemention witch (check spelling) who in her regular fashion produces some poorly written attempts at being ironic or satirical saying, "Rep. Cohen would be well-advised to stay away from New Testament references. As anyone familiar with the New Testament can confirm for him, there are no parables about Jesus passing out cigarettes for votes, lobbying the Romans for less restrictive workfare rules or filing for grants under the Community Redevelopment Act. No time for soul-saving now! First, we lobby Fannie Mae to ease off those lending standards and demand a windfall profits tax on the money-changers in the temple."

If she really knew as much about the New Testament as she wants us to believe, she would know that Jesus spent very little time "saving souls." That was left to his followers after he ascended back to heaven. Those closest to him at the time (the community of twelve) really did think he was "organizing" the Jews to throw off the Roman oppressors and bring on the kingdom of God. She also makes her weak little attempts to insult the work of community organizers.

But her number one, super-stupid remark comes earlier in the column when she tries to make a case for George Washington being pro-life because in a speech to his troops before going into battle in 1776, he said, "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of the army." She says, "So Washington . . . gave us one of the earliest known references to the rights of the "unborn." That's right! George Washington was a "pro-life extremist," just like Sarah Palin. I've know her to say some crazy stuff, but that one pretty much tops them all.