This past week a political pundit who calls herself a polemicist and is proud of her ability to "stir up the pot" said on television that "we just want Jews to be perfected" and that Christians have "a fast track" to redemption.

The reaction in the Jewish community to Ann Coulter's statement on Donnie Deutsch's cable talk show has vacillated. On one side were those who condemned her remarks as rank Christian supersessionism (the position that the covenant with the Jews is broken, superseded by Christianity), an expression of a desire to return to the Middle Ages. The other reaction is a nonchalant dismissal by both Jews and Christians, a recognition that Coulter is just stating what Christians believe, namely that Jews, like all people, need Jesus to be saved.

Neither side seems to have the intellectual resources to observe that what she is saying is neither rank medieval anti-Judaism nor the position of many Christian churches today.

The medieval position included a charge of deicide combined with the belief that the Jews are rejected by God. Jews are not saved; they are, rather, condemned to hell. This position was historically combined with a "teaching of contempt," a claim that Jews were blinded to the truth, murderous, and demonic. More subtle forms simply stated that the Law is evil and Jews need Jesus to be saved.

Most Christian churches today, however, acknowledge that Jewish covenantal life with God was never revoked and that Jews remain in a special relationship with God.

Coulter, therefore, did not return us to the demonic Middle Ages or say that Jews are not saved, only that Christians are on the "fast-track program."

The transcript, however, does show that she is probably ill informed in regard to the teachings of her own church.

In an earlier interview, she claimed that her father was Catholic and that when she is in New York, she frequents a mainline Presbyterian church.

In its 1987 paper on Judaism, the Presbyterian Church has the following position: "We are willing to ponder with Jews the mystery of God's election of both Jews and Christians to be a light to the nations…. As Christians we acknowledge that Jews are in a covenant relationship with God." Far from thinking that Jews need to be perfected, the Presbyterians state, "We believe and testify that this theory of supersessionism or replacement is harmful."

Considering Coulter's other alleged influence, Catholicism: Catholics rejected the "teaching of contempt" in "Nostra Aetate," the 1965 pronouncement on Judaism that states, "The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God…. Let our friendship, strengthened by our respect for divine Providence, bring us ever closer, for the good of the whole world."

Pope John Paul II called Jews "our elder brothers," and Pope Benedict has written that Jews accept God's kingship in their acknowledgement of the tenet of God's unity expressed in the Sh'ma.

Similar sentiments can be found in the statements of many other American denominations. For example, the United Methodist Church — which has both mainline and evangelical versions and whose perhaps best-known adherent, George W. Bush, once proclaimed "Jesus Day" in Texas — categorically rejects supersessionism. Rather, the United Methodist Church states: "God is steadfastly faithful to the biblical covenant with the Jewish people. The covenant God established with the Jewish people…continues because it is an eternal covenant."

Thoughtful Christians will usually take these statements a step further and state that even Christians themselves need to be perfected in faith, hope, and charity.

Some Christians do indeed hold the position that embracing Christianity puts them on a "fast track," but defining a race between hares and tortoises is far from the "teaching of contempt." For example, even the conservative theologians among the Southern Baptists —who generally do think of Christians as perfected Jews — still have a commitment to respect and fellowship. And Baptist Zionism in practice is a clear renunciation of the older teachings of contempt.

Jews should understand that the current dividing line is between the majority of Americans —Christians, especially Catholics, mainline Protestant churches, and many Evangelicals — who give full respect to Judaism, and those who view conversion as the exclusive path to salvation. Jews need to acknowledge the great changes in Christian thought and realize that Coulter's statements are rejected by many Christians.

The real problem with Coulter's statements is this: America does not have an established religion, and we cherish America because it protects the freedom of religion and the religious liberty of adherents of all faiths, including "heathens," "idolaters," and freethinkers. We should be offended by TV pundits who promote changing America into a country with an established religion and removing America's commitment to freedom of religion.

Aside from the content of her remarks, Coulter's tone was disrespectful. Religious people should protest the hateful way comment on religion is reduced to offensive sound bites on political talk shows and blogs. Polemical sound bites create a culture of disrespect, insult, and a tolerance for prejudice.

Robert Wuthnow, the leading sociologist of religion, notes that Americans give respect to all religions but at the same time harbor exclusivist views denying this very respect. The result, he says, is "a kind of tension that cannot be easily resolved…a tattered view of the world held together only by the loosest of logic."

Wuthnow concludes that we need to articulate middle positions between the extremes of public pluralism and private exclusivism. One of his solutions calls for people to learn as much as possible about other religions.

The Coulter incident should spur Jews to find out about the enormous changes in Christian doctrine of the last decades, to recognize the great strides in Christian theology in the last 40 years. By doing so, they would realize that Coulter was not stating majority Christian positions.

The incident should especially teach Christians to better educate their laity, even TV propagandists, regarding what their faith teaches. And, finally, it should teach political pundits to represent their own faith correctly.