Coulter mentions how Al Gore tried to attract Christians during the second presidential debate in the 2000 campaign. She writes:
"...he utterly mangled Scripture - and not one mainstream media reporter noticed. By way of explaining his nutty environmental beliefs, Gore said, "In my faith tradition, it is written in the book of Matthew, 'Where your heart is, there's your treasure also.' And I believe that we ought to recognize the value to our children and grandchildren of taking steps that preserve the environment in a way that's good for them."
Gore had not merely transformed a core Christian belief into a Confucian fortune cookie, he had reversed Christian doctrine. The actual Bible - Matthew 6:21 - says precisely the opposite of what Gore said, admonishing us to make heaven our only treasure - "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Ann goes on and mentions how the Bible illiterates in the media totally missed Gore's faux pas. What's worse is how absolutely clueless the mainstream media (msm) really is when it comes to Bible knowledge and Godly wisdom because they praised him for his brilliant use of Scripture to appeal to the God voters!
She mentions several other liberal politicians and their 'Bible relating faux pas while trying to appear religious', such as Howard Dean's famous, "my favorite book of the New Testament is Job" one. But I will save an analysis of Dean (on second thought...do I really have to?) for another post.
Getting back to Gore, it's interesting to see the verses in Matthew just before 6:21
Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Gore (and Clinton) sure have shown us a lot about (and how to get away with) corruption in the 8 years that they were in office. But I don't really want to get into any of that. I'm just so glad those days are over.
Notice how the additional verses show how ridiculously and inaccurately Gore used Matthew verse 6:21 while trying to make his own point. This is a typical mistake made by those who do not actually read and study the Bible. They attempt to apply their own interpretation (esogesis) to what is written rather than discovering the true meaning(s) being conveyed by the writer(exegesis).
I'll be back for more commentary a bit later. Feel free to share any comments. And, for my leftists readers, try to keep calm and keep it civil. Wouldn't want anyone to burst a blood vessel!
Meanwhile, I wanted to share a review (by someone who hasn't read the book yet...heh heh!) of the over 460 reader reviews about Ann's book from the Amazon.com link.
Fred Jones (Bubba) writes:
This lady has driven some of you mad. If you are a liberal by choice... no need to read it, or at least beyond the part that puts your blood pressure over the edge... that's part of what makes a liberal a liberal... gotta love'em... God does, and most of them truly know it... just before they expire. If you are in the middle... you laugh at the sarcasm... and wish you understood what all the controversy is about... and some may wonder if God is going to really forgive you for all the things you did wrong... as you pick up and dust off the old Book to look up some of the references and find... it is still just too hard to interpret. If the conservative gets a hold of this stuff... watch out... as if banging people over the head with their Bible and Rush Limbaugh wasn't enough... this stuff will cut like a razor and drive like a sledge hammer. Liberals... I love you because I see through the eyes of the One who paid for you and me... and that's what He said to do. Middle of the roads... I love you for the same reason and because you almost always end up following the One who called you in the end. Far Right... I love you for the same first and right reasons and because even though you bruise most of the fruit or try to pick it before it is ripe as you 'fight for the right' at least you are in the field and working at it... and when your hair turns grey... usually wisdom takes over if you persevere. Since so few actually enter at the Narrow Gate... it would bring great joy if this stuff at least mindfully helps some detour off the broad road of the herd, and find there true pilgrimage through this short temporary existence and find themselves connecting to the One who filled there body with a unique one of a kind being. Look deep into your own eyes in the mirror today... look beyond the physical shell you see... and ask God... show me the way... now. Ask Jesus if He is real... to show you a confirmation of the truth. If you mean it... He will touch you with His Holy Spirit... guaranteed. And to the reviewer of reviews... you have way too much time on your hands bubba.
*******
Add-on: Found this commentary about Matthew 6:19-21 fascinating!
From Jamieson, Fausett & Brown:
Mat 6:19-34 . CONCLUDING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE KINGDOM--HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS AND FILIAL CONFIDENCE.
19. Lay not up for ourselves treasures upon earth--hoard not.
where moth--a "clothes-moth." Eastern treasures, consisting partly in costly dresses stored up ( Job 27:16 ), were liable to be consumed by moths ( Job 13:28 Isa 50:9 51:8 ). In Jam 5:2 there is an evident reference to our Lord's words here.
and rust--any "eating into" or "consuming"; here, probably, "wear and tear."
doth corrupt--cause to disappear. By this reference to moth and rust our Lord would teach how perishable are such earthly treasures.
and where thieves break through and steal--Treasures these, how precarious!
20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven--The language in Luke ( Luk 12:33 ) is very bold--"Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not," &c.
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal--Treasures these, imperishable and unassailable! (Compare Col 3:2 ).
21. For where your treasure is--that which ye value most.
there will your heart be also--"Thy treasure--thy heart" is probably the true reading here: "your," in Luk 12:34 , from which it seems to have come in here. Obvious though this maxim be, by what multitudes who profess to bow to the teaching of Christ is it practically disregarded! "What a man loves," says LUTHER, quoted by THOLUCK, "that is his God. For he carries it in his heart, he goes about with it night and day, he sleeps and wakes with it; be it what it may--wealth or pelf*, pleasure or renown." But because "laying up" is not in itself sinful, nay, in some cases enjoined ( 2Cr 12:14 ), and honest industry and sagacious enterprise are usually rewarded with prosperity, many flatter themselves that all is right between them and God, while their closest attention, anxiety, zeal, and time are exhausted upon these earthly pursuits. To put this right, our Lord adds what follows, in which there is profound practical wisdom.
Adding on the following verses, we see further the difference between man's wisdom and God's wisdom:
Mat 6:22
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great [is] that darkness!
Commentary continued:
22. The light--the lamp.
of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single--simple, clear. As applied to the outward eye, this means general soundness; particularly, not looking two ways. Here, as also in classical Greek, it is used figuratively to denote the simplicity of the mind's eye, singleness of purpose, looking right at its object, as opposed to having two ends in view. (See Pro 4:25-27 ).
thy whole body shall be full of light--illuminated. As with the bodily vision, the man who looks with a good, sound eye, walks in light, seeing every object clear; so a simple and persistent purpose to serve and please God in everything will make the whole character consistent and bright.
23. But if thine eye be evil--distempered, or, as we should say, If we have got a bad eye.
thy whole body shall be full of darkness--darkened. As a vitiated** eye, or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mind and heart divided between heaven and earth is all dark.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!--As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man's inward purpose, scope, aim in life, determines his character--if these be not simple and heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all the other faculties and principles of our nature be which take their direction and character from these, and what must the whole man and the whole life be but a mass of darkness? In Luke ( Luk 11:36 ) the converse of this statement very strikingly expresses what pure, beautiful, broad perceptions the clarity of the inward eye imparts: "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light."*******
*pelf: Wealth or riches, especially when dishonestly acquired.
**vitiated:
To reduce the value or impair the quality of.
To corrupt morally; debase.
To make ineffective; invalidate. See Synonyms at corrupt.
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8 comments:
Someone over at Amazon used Ann's initials: AC. Just like AC (an air conditioner) cools the hot air in your home or car, AC Ann has a unique ability to cool the hot air of liberalism in her book!
[Note to Juan...I know how you just love my lame analogies! hah hah]
Loved the following Amazon review comment. It's just one example of a former hot air liberal whose jets were cooled by truth!
"Ann Coulter continues to educate and entertain. Being a born-again conservative (liberal by birth, not choice) my eyes are further opened to Ann's explanation of current events and things that happened when I was a child and too young to question.
I was never given all the information and assumed I was told the truth by parents, teachers, friends and the media. I now realize the lies that exist today were rampant back then too.
I would like to say this book is for all political philosophies, but it is not - a great read for conservative types and an annoyance to liberals. She does go too far sometimes, but that is what makes it so funny.
Thanks Ann."
This review, by Stephen S. Kane is priceless:
"As a white, male Christian who has, accordingly, been branded a "beast" by liberals for the past 40 years, I have to thank Ann Coulter for the laugh I experienced on every page of "Godless." For most of that time we conservatives were afraid to strike back at the fatuous inanities and fantastical ideology of mediocre people who enshrined themselves as better, more moral, kinder, and more intelligent than the rest of us poor fools who failed to share their absurd views or endorse their disastrous policies. That state of vulnerability and silence has now passed and conservatives are ready and willing to take on liberals (or "progressives," or whatever they call themselves this week)whenever and wherever we can. Do the libs protest that Ann is "just not nice?" Well, we conservatives do not think it particularly nice that they have made every effort to destroy America for the past 70 years. Will the few liberals who actually read "Godless" be left with the haunting feeling that, perhaps, their day is done?
It is probably too scary for liberals. They have palpitations if anyone even mildly disagrees with them. Maybe political books should have ratings like movies to avoid liberal post-traumatic stress disorder, but no conservative should miss it."
I laughed out loud when I read this one:
"This book is a direct, factual look and the underbelly of liberalism. Although the title is "Godless", Coulter makes a compelling case to demonstrate with solid facts and witty prose, that while not religious in the traditional sense, liberals have unique religion whose principals shall not be questioned, lest one be labelled a heretic or worse, a "neocon".
Ann expresses the truths everyday ordinary Americans experience in the church of liberalism from indoctrination of the young via the public school system, to the suppression of all dissent through liberal monopolistic mainstream media bombastic ridicule and the ever popular accusation of "Nazi" when facts fail to support their arguments.
This book is an essential handbook for the patriotic American to identify, classify and counteract the attacks on our culture by the church of liberalism.
If for nothing else, it should be purchased and read in front of your favorite liberal merely to watch their heads explode."
(bold mine)
P.S. Remember folks...it's just hyperbole...
More excellent reviews:
"Ann Coulter has written several great books about the hypocritical and mean-spirited ways of the Left, but this is, by far, her masterpiece. She exposes the wicked, amoral attacks of the Left upon America's traditional Judeo-Christian value system, in an attempt to replace it with their own godless religion--liberalism.
Coulter debunks Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution so brilliantly and completely that anyone even daring to challenge her logic and facts would appear utterly foolish. To be sure, the Left allows no questions on the subject; kids in public schools must be taught evolution as fact.
The most effective argument she makes, however, is that no matter how compassionate and caring the Left attempts to paint themselves, the facts are clear: all mass murderers, including Hitler, used Darwin as their reference point. As she correctly states, though Christianity is viewed by the Left as dangerous, somehow it always is the case that the most evil people (especially in the twentieth century) were indeed godless. A mere coincidence?
Again, this book is a materpiece that everyone should read. Simply superb." by S. DiStefano
*******
I'm including this review in here, not because I agree with it...but because I couldn't resist showing you the person's screen name, his accusation that Ann (and the readers who like the book) must be filled with "hate" (the usual liberal gibberish response toward anything or anyone they disagree with), and last but not least, the irony of the person's chosen screen name with their screeching thoughts!
" This book is the perfect way to round up the conservative sheep. The mindless clog of conservatives who flock to this book in an attempt to fulfill their simple minded liberal bashing desires will be in heaven over this one. In a world of 'Scooter' Libbies, Karl Roves, Jack Abramoffs, a vice presidents shooting a guy in the face, an incompetent secretary of defense who must derive strategies from a video game, and a president who the majority of the world thinks is a joke, I think that making fun of Liberals is the thing to do. Many liberals are never short on flaws that can be made fun of or criticized, but conservatives do not have a leg to stand on at this point. However, Ann Coulter manages to craft a wonderful prosthetic leg with the finest of wood. This book strokes the massive ego of conservative America better than most any other publication out there. So, if your full of hate and have an ego that won't let you admit to being wrong, than this book is pretty much perfect. Hate groups definitely want to pick this bad boy up. Thanks." written by Charmingsnake!
Guess he didn't like it...huh? No surprise. The hard-headed mind of liberalism apparently trumps the truth that is exposed by Ann.
(bold mine)
Charming?...nope. Whose the hater here? Read the bold parts.
Snake?...ya got that right buddy!!
I'm just having too much fun while reading the Amazon.com book reviews on "Godless."
Take a look at this:
" religious nut, June 16, 2006
Reviewer: Zen Quaker "A loving liberal" (Kettering, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
Ann Coulter is just living proof of the religious nuts (evangelic christians) who support hate and violence in the name of God. She certainly doesn't understand believers who are liberal and who embrace all humans and everything in the universe as one. She is attempting to segregate groups of people instead of bringing us together. I pray that she will learn to truly love and embrace all humanity and live for peace and not hatred."
The best part has to be the screen name. Zen Quaker the "Loving" liberal?? Notice the hate spewed by this "loving liberal" (labeling evangelic [notice misspelling!]Christians as "religious nuts" while accusing the same of "supporting hate and violence in the name of God."
Yeah...right.
Earth to Zen Quaker!!! And the radical Muslim extremists involved in terrorism [including suicide/homicide bombings, beheadings, roadside bombings etc. etc.] are just "misunderstood" and if they knew you, Zen, they'd "embrace all humans and everything in the universe as one", take your hand, put down their arms and sit in a circle singing Kumbaya??
Oh goody...I don't have to create a blogpost about the pathetic religiosity of Howard Dean. CNS News has already written a piece about Dean. I wonder...does he still hold fast to his view that, "the book of Job is his favorite New Testament book? HT: SmartChristian
Hi Christine -
Sounds like some of these folks studied at the Archie Bunker School of Theology.
Blessings,
Anna
I don't read Ann Coulter books but I have heard enough that I think she is in touch with the majority of conservatives unlike the vast majority of commentators.
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