fluidfaith   ver. 0.4.3

Ann Coulter is just like the rest of us 

Reader's Guide: This post should not be read as a "See, I told you so."
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Ann Coulter had an appearance Thursday night at Philander Smith College -- a private christian college in central Arkansas -- at which she reportedly joked about liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee."

There you have it: brutality masquerading as wit. In a world of violence and anger we often encounter viciousness disguised as political discourse, vengeance as self-defense, and open war as defense of freedom.

But really, Ann Coulter is not the problem; she is simply a troubling symptom of a much larger problem, one which goes deep into each of our hearts. A pernicious streak of violence runs through our collective way of life, one in which we all are perpetrators and our world is the victim. The ways in which we participate in such violence should be obvious to us; that it is not obvious is just another symptom of our disease.

When we buy their books, listen to their radio programs, pay their speaking fees, or attend their speeches we are granting an audience to such violent speech and giving it the credibility and currency of our presence. In a media-culture economy that seeks to quanitify every person as a rating point, book-buyer, conference-attendee or some other unit of consumption, our viewing eyes, listening ears or seat-filling bodies are not simply passive receivers of what is being said.

Every cheer and jeer, every angry epithet hurled from either side contributes to the culture of violence and to the fame of those who incite it. And it is Fame which is fuel for the fire, the oxygen which keeps it burning. Fame is the supply train for the army of ideologues who would gladly dominate our world with their 'Truth' by winning an open war with other ideologues who also threaten to dominate our world with their 'Truth.'

I believe that we should not abandon ourselves to a world of violence and retribution. And yet, we do. Often. And in so doing we lose our way, neglecting the path of peace to which we were called. Unwittingly and unreflectively, we become complicit in the violence which surrounds us. Don't we?

-- When we dehumanize our enemies or torture the detainee don't we debase ourselves as well?

-- When we cast our vote to elect a President who vows to kill in our name (which I will remind you was BOTH of the major party candidates in the 2004 election), haven't we committed ourselves to his path, perhaps even prostrated ourselves before the throne of vengeance?

-- When we build our wealth on the labor of those who cannot sue for wages don't we join in the global oppression of the poor and participate in the violent injustice which uses the powerlessness of the weak to increase the economic power of the strong?

You see, Ann Coulter is in many ways just like the rest of us; her violent speech is merely emblematic of the sins which engulf us all in this empire of wealth, profit, and power.

I believe that as followers of Jesus, we should no sooner participate in the abusive speech of political punditry than we should oppress the poor, do violence to our enemy or take revenge on those who do us harm. But since we are so frequently engaged in or complicit in these latter sins, it should not surprise us that we so easily tolerate the former.

As I've mentioned before, I live very near to the campus of a private christian college in central Arkansas -- my alma mater, Harding University -- that first invited and then uninvited Ms. Coulter to speak as part of a university lecture series. It was big news; I won't rehash it here.

But in the end, I'm quite glad (even grateful!) that such things will not be spoken this semester from the stage of this valuable christian institution. (Reader's Guide, pt. 2: This post can be read as "Whew! That was a close one!")

Resisting the opportunity to promote this way of speaking, refusing to lend our ears and the credibility of our presense to these ideological 'truths' -- this is an important first step in resisting the violence of our age.

After that comes a second step which is more difficult by far.

To persuade our institutions (colleges and churches) and our theologians, ministers, professors and thinkers to assist us in the birthing of a new way of thinking about our world.

To imagine and practice a politics and economics of resistance against the consumptive, exploitive, violent ways which dominate our existence.

To recognize "the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth." To name that blindness and live as a people who see "with and not through the eye."

To live in solidarity with the world's poorest citizens and to refuse every opporuntity we are given to profit by exploiting them. To abhor violence and seek true reconciliation at every turn even if doing so has disastrous results for our own wealth, position or power.

Of course, what I'm suggesting will almost certainly not increase the Endowments of our colleges or the offerings in our churches. But it just might help to form us as the people of God committed to the redemption, reconciliation, and justice we find revealed in Jesus our Lord.