Lots of folks have been ripping on Ann Coulter for her gunslinging remarks on TV of late (here’s a typical reaction), where she apparently comes out as intolerant and anti-Semitic.  I have to say, Coulter’s an easy target.  She’s weird to a lot of people.  She’s like the conservative at the party who makes the liberal fiery mad, because she’s having a laugh and he’s trying to change the world.  She’s not well-mannered like Laura Bush.  She doesn’t really try to make friends, it seems, even with people who might one day agree with her.  Nevertheless, the real controversy of her comments seemed to be her admission that a perfect America would be an America (and presumably a world) of Christians.  This is not news, given the fact that Christian churches have been sending out missionaries since there were such things as Christians and churches. 

All people believe that What They Believe is What Everyone Should Believe.  Not every nook and cranny of their worldview, but at least the basics.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that the Donny Deutsches of the world believe in basic ideas like Tolerance, Moral and Cultural Relativism, Democracy, Progress, etc., whatever those things mean to them.  And in Donny Deutsch’s perfect world, I think, he’d want everyone to share those basic presuppositions.  He might not want everyone to dress like him or eat like him or dance like him, but he would have to admit that he’d want his ideals to be the ideals.  Heck, that’s why anyone shares his opinion out in the world: he believes his ideals are right.

So, I think it’s safe to say that Coulter was only admitting this: she believes the presuppositions of Christianity are right, and in a perfect America, those would be the ideals of everyone.  But concepts like “an America of Christians” just scare people.  The end result is that Coulter comes off like a zealous young student of Protestant theology who might believe the right thing, but just can’t say it quite right.