Monday, August 11, 2014

Against Ann Coulter

There is only one rebuttal to the claim that political conservatism is un-Christian, and that is to say that while Christian conservatives are as concerned about the less fortunate as liberals, this concern should be rightly expressed through private, as opposed to governmental, agency. Such governmental efforts invariably, the conservative says, do more harm than good and undermine freedom.

The above is an interesting, and debatable position.

Ann Coulter, however, criticizes private efforts to respond to the Ebola virus in Africa. This strikes me as hopelessly unbiblical.

7 comments:

John B. Moore said...

Conservatives might truly believe that government efforts to help the poor "do more harm than good and undermine freedom," but what about government efforts to help the flow of vehicular traffic?

You might expect stop signs and traffic lights also to do more harm than good, and I'm sure the highway patrol undermines my freedom. So why the double standard?

Ilíon said...

^ What a God-damned fool!

=========
VR, did you even *try* to understand the heart of her rant?

She's criticizing "boutique charity/missions", which are all about the "charitable person" being seen as "charitable", rather than about the act of charity.

There is a reason Christ said, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ..."

Ilíon said...

VR: "There is only one rebuttal to the claim that political conservatism is un-Christian, and that is to say that while Christian conservatives are as concerned about the less fortunate as liberals, this concern should be rightly expressed through private, as opposed to governmental, agency. Such governmental efforts invariably, the conservative says, do more harm than good and undermine freedom."

Bullshit!

The *correct* response is: "I reject your false categories and your leftist question-begging."

Ilíon said...

I sometimes overhear one of the hygienists at my dentist's office
(and she's told me directly when my regular hygienist wasn't there) talking about her "mission trips" ... which are really just really expensive vacations disguised as "helping the needy overseas".

oozzielionel said...

Ilion:
There are mission trips that are vacations and mission trips that are actually mission effective. I am happy and sad to say that I have participated in both kinds. Surprisingly, even the vacation kind was effective in it more minor way.

Ilíon said...

Why Conservatism Inc. Complained When Ann Coulter Called Out Christian Cowards

Ilíon said...

let's try that link again --

Why Conservatism Inc. Complained When Ann Coulter Called Out Christian Cowards