Every once and a while I like to sit down and watch something controversial: Jesus Camp, Fahrenheit 9/11, National Treasure… A friend told me NOT to watch Bill Maher’s Religulous because he thought I’d be too offended. So I had to watch it, right?“Bill, you’re not so smart,” one of Maher’s many interviewees said to him after he grossly misinterpreted the Qur’an. I would agree. He really doesn’t ‘get’ religion. Granted, he does point out many of the negative things that religious people have caused in the name of their God(s) (sexism, racism, homophobia, violence, murder, and all kinds of hate), but his conclusion is that RELIGION caused people to do these things, that Jesus is to blame for all of the hatred in the world.
–breathe–
Anyone who has even LOOKED at a New Testament has to understand that Jesus was about nothing but love and hugs. At a recent youth conference, Deacon Dad did a Gospel reading: “and Jesus said ‘love one another.’” That was it. The simplest and most beautiful summary of what Christianity is all about.
Unfortunately for Christians who hold Jesus’ teachings at the utmost importance, Maher ignores this part of Christianity. His point should have been: Many people are misguided, and religion is an easy tool for them to use for despicable acts. I know many people who will probably not get anything out of this “documentary” except a headache, and that is mostly because Maher has set out to marginalize religious people, rather than actually accomplish something or make an intelligent film.
As I think about it more, I don’t think Maher just intended to offend religious people. What he really wanted to do was make people laugh, (let’s not forget that he is a comedian) and the people he targeted were non-religious people and those who have been marginalized by religious people. His narrow, cynical view of religion makes sense through the eyes of his audience. After all, we (Christians) tend to marginalize more people than we show love to (unless they go to our church and dress the way we do and act the way we do and have the same kinds of relationships that we do…). This is a tragedy and I’m not sorry that Maher pointed it out. BUT there has to be a better way. There has to be a way that will motivate more Christians to embrace Jesus’ message by loving unconditionally. This way just doesn’t.
By the way, Religulous deals with Judaism, Islam, LDS, Scientology, Evangelical Christianity, Roman Catholicism, as well as a few others, but I’ll only talk about what he says pertinent to Christianity because I’m just not as informed about the others.
I need to address some of the good points that Maher’s film brings up. I thought it was interesting that as he debated many Christians, he almost always got them to the point where they said “well what if I’m right?” I wonder if I’ve ever clung to Christianity “just in case.” I found a majority of the people he interviewed to have a very basic understanding of scripture, and Maher played with this. He reminds an actor playing Jesus at TBN’s Holy Land Experience (one of the most disgusting amusement park concepts in the world) about popular “evidence” that Jesus was a fraud. These include making comparisons to Mithra and Horus and concluding that Jesus’ story must be fictional because it sounds like other stories of the time. I don’t really need to get into the specifics, but if you look into it, I’m sure you’ll find the arguments for and against this hypothesis. Even Jesus said, “what if you’re wrong?”
Why do Christians feel like they need to prove something? It really isn’t for us to convert, control, or even convince people of anything. It is our job to love. HOW IS EVERYONE MISSING THIS? If nothing else, Maher is exposing how so many people lack understanding of what Jesus asked us to do. He challenges a tourist at “The Holy Land” to say that many Bible stories don’t sound like fairy tales. I believe he mentions the snake talking to Eve and Jonah living in a whale, excuse me, giant tuna. He asks something like, “what if the story of Jack and the Beanstalk had made it in to the old testament, would you believe it to be true?” It’s an…interesting question, but he is asking a woman who would pay $30 to walk around a tacky, Jesus-themed amusement park in Florida that probably is about as blasphemous as Religulous. I think her answer was, “do you think these are fairy tales?” He provoked her, and instead of thinking up an intelligent response, she wound up shutting down and getting defensive. I loved the response given by Father Reginald Foster, a Vatican priest. Maher asked him a similar question, and Foster responded, “These are all just nice stories.” It wasn’t what I expected from a priest at the Vatican. I was delighted at first, but then I realized why Maher left this clip in; he wanted to show the careless side of the Church. I thought I was about to hear an intelligent conversation where the priest might say:
“Well, the stories could be fictional—to teach lessons, but I believe that there is a reason for them to be there, and my God would be capable of such things, but that’s not the point. The point of the good book is that it contains everything necessary for salvation, and it has these complex stories that help people live in a more pleasing way to themselves, others and God. Everyone can learn something from the Bible.”
But when he’s on the brink of revealing differing opinions and penetrating real issues, he cuts to a guy who calls his pot-bar a church, or a man who believes himself to be the second coming of Christ. And instead of really asking what ‘we’ believe, he tells us what he thinks we believe and mocks it (and us). He assumes that all Christians, Muslims, and Jews agree on a set of beliefs; he doesn’t account for the endless disagreement over interpretations of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Qur’an (not to mention other types of doctrine and ritual).
“Things aren’t black and white, they are more complex than that,” Muslim rap-artist Propa-Gandhi told Maher. I would agree. In Religulous, Maher comes off as a comedian trying to get a few laughs at the expense of many, many people. While it does upset me that some people might take this "documentary" too seriously, it is probably better to bring the issues I've mentioned here to the surface, rather than pretend that people of (insert your favorite religion here) are saintly.