Perfectly Ridiculous: Danny Deutsch baits Ann Coulter

Oh my. So Ann Coulter is getting lambasted across the Internet and around water coolers as an anti-semitic bigot because she said "Jews need to be perfected" during an interview with Danny Deutsch (who is Jewish).

Kevin McCullough takes us through the essential backstory here. Evidently Coulter and Deutsch have known each other for some time, on friendly terms. Deutsch clearly capitalized upon the fact that Coulter was off-guard and pushed her until he had got what he wanted out of her: a quotation that was - to his mind - damning (As McCullough shows in another video clip, he's done this to guests before).

Watch the video with Coulter and see how it plays out:


Now, Coulter is using the term "perfected" in a theologically precise way. I'd bet dollars-to-donuts that Danny Deutsch doesn't know what she actually meant by "perfected." He clearly took it to mean that all Jews are imperfect (i.e., sinful) and need to become Christian to become perfect (=holy). That would have been exactly the kind of incendiary comment he was seeking. And I guess he doesn't allow truth to get in the way of soundbites.

Coulter, of course, did not mean to say that Jews are inherently sinful or uniquely imperfect, at least if she was using the term correctly (and I think her later attempts at clarification reveal that she does have a basic grasp of the concepts). At this point, she did miss a golden opportunity to quickly and definitively clarify what she meant. She should have said, "That's okay, Danny, Christians believe they need to be perfected, too!"

Lost opportunities aside, A 0.3 second Google search brought up this article: "The English Term Perfect:Biblical and Philosophical Tensions" which begins to address the problems involved with using the word "perfect" precisely according to its etymological root vs. using it according to the modern usage of common parlance.

Briefly: "Perfected" in the context of the moral life means "to be made complete," or more precisely: "to possess everything required to complete one's nature." When anyone is baptized into Christ they are "perfected" because the wounds of original sin, common to all humanity, have been healed and they are made newly-able to participate in the divine life through grace. The rest of our post-baptism life is spent becoming more perfect.

Don't expect folks looking for a fight to make it past the word "perfected" in this debate.

Do expect 90% of the blogs, comments and arguments you read to completely miss this point.

Update: In response to some questioning comments (which are fully understandable):

I'm only trying to make the point that the word "perfected" is being taken the wrong way. I am not a) defending everything Ann Coulter has done or b) condoning her general demeanor during the segment. But the fact remains that she was correct, precisely speaking, in her formulation. And if she's being offensive, Jews (and the world) have to take up with this issue with Christianity - not Ann Coulter, per se.