The Religious Atheist

Bill Maher’s Religulous received mixed reviews from movie critics around the nation. Some newspapers such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post loved it, while others like Newsday and The Boston Globe ripped it. The New York Daily News gives the film four stars and states, “What he [Maher] does do finally in this funny, refreshing movie is assert how unrestrained religiosity could guarantee the ‘end days’ many of his subjects admit to looking forward to.” (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Similarly, the New York Post describes the film as a “religious experience” while granting it three stars. (The Post’s favorable critique isn’t surprising, however, considering that the writer of the review believes that “[n]o defender of any religion could withstand five minutes of cross-examination from a junior varsity debater”.) (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Kudos to Newsday and The Boston Globe for exposing Maher’s hypocrisy. Maher criticizes religious supporters as fanatical; yet he is as rabid in his atheistic views as the very people he denigrates and mocks.

Newsday’s Rafer Guzman labels the film “a nasty, condescending, small-minded film, self-amused and ultimately self-defeating.” He also adds that “[Maher’s] routines are often vulgar: Whenever homosexuality comes up, Maher resorts to sniggering anatomical jokes. After the interviews are wrapped, director Larry Charles (‘Borat’) uses the editing room to have the last laugh. At one point, the film visually compares a well-dressed black pastor to a flashy black pimp.” (http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/partii/ny-etrelig5864082oct01,0,6930563.story )

This vulgarity should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Maher’s previous works. A juvenile sense of humor is his trademark.

The Boston Globe’s Wesley Morris describes the film as follows:
“As an exchange of ideas, this is a hopeless project, since Maher's doubt is as immovable as his interviewees' certainty. As entertainment, it's entirely a matter of whether of you find Maher's superiority complex a laughing matter. He's a committed skeptic, and those who aren't must be stupid.” (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/10/03/maher_happily_makes_a_mockery_of_religion/)
Maher’s subjects are purposely not theologians or biblical scholars, a point raised by Morris later in his review: “Many of the faithful Maher interviews are underprepared or exposed as naïve, misinformed, or possibly fraudulent.” But let’s give Bill a break; it’s difficult to mock those who can defend themselves.

In the film Maher contends, “I’m only asking questions.” But anyone familiar with his modus operandi is well aware of the disingenuousness of this statement. Ridicule is his motive, as Morris summarizes in the final paragraph of his column:

“Mostly Maher is content to riff, rant, opine, judge, reduce, and preach - zealously, I might add. Early in the film, he meets with a group of American men in their tiny church, and speaks from an elevated pulpit, requiring them to look up at him. One of the men doesn't appreciate Maher's tone, excuses himself, and exits. He knows that Maher is not looking for answers. He's looking for targets.”

Maher’s dirty, little secret is that he is as zealously religious as any Christian fundamentalist. The only difference is that his religion is atheism.

Donald Tremblay

Another Prodigal Son

Another Prodigal Son

I have a prediction: Sometime in the next 10-20 years Bill Maher will announce that he has found religion. That’s right. The juvenile, not-particularly-funny comedian will emerge from his spiritual wasteland and become a believer. Many will read my prediction and laugh. They may even call me an idiot or naïve. I accept that, but let me explain why Maher isn’t as far from God as most people think.

“And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Rev 3: 14-16)

As can be inferred from the scriptural passage above, indifference is the one emotion that prevents the Holy Spirit from working His grace in an individual. How can this be? The Lord does not force Himself on anyone. A person who doesn’t care about the Lord’s existence is like one who ignores a persistent knock at the door. The visitor may continue knocking, but he is not going to force himself in.

Contrarily, a person who hates God, or is cold to Him, is like someone who hears a knock at the door and yells at the visitor to go away. In order to demand that the visitor leave, the person has to first acknowledge that someone is knocking at the door. Similarly, in order to hate God or to argue against His existence, one has to acknowledge God. Love Him or hate Him, your soul has responded to Him, which leaves an opening for the Holy Spirit to instill Grace in your soul.

Maher can be called many things, but lukewarm is not one of them.

Maher’s film Religulous opens in theaters this weekend. Apparently it is 100 minutes of Maher insulting and mocking Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The Associated Press reports that “Maher meets with priests at the Vatican, chats with rabbis and Muslim scholars in Jerusalem, encounters street preachers in London, and hangs out with the performer who plays Christ in a crucifixion enactment at the Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida.” (http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/01/film.religulous.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest)

Anyone who has read or heard Maher knows his vitriol toward religion knows no boundaries, particularly when concerning Roman Catholicism, the religion of his childhood. Below are just a few of the disgraceful insults he has leveled against the Church, courtesy of the website www.firebillmaher.com :


March 2002:
· "Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics... I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests]."
May 2003:
· Maher had a limited run on Broadway with a show titled "Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home." In it he included these pieces of scripted "humor": "The problem is they drill religion into your head when you are very young. Well, when you are four years old, you believe in Santa Claus, too. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, the Virgin Birth, sure! When you're a priest everyday spewing this bulls--- about the apple and the snake, etc., you can see him just saying, 'Ah, f--- it, just blow me, kid!'""Come on, it's so gay, the Church! With the robes and the smoke and kneeling in front of the priest with your mouth open eating God."

January 2008:
· "You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you're drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn't make you a person of faith ... that makes you a schizophrenic." "...UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman..."

Maher is the child who, in desperate need of attention, continues to push the envelope merely to shock people. Why else would his “comedic” routine be obsessively littered with references to pedophilia, gay sex, and male genitalia? His comments are similar to those overheard in a schoolyard among teenage boys.

I would not be surprised to learn that at some point in his life Maher felt abandoned by God and responded by lashing out against the Almighty as a child would rebel against his father. Ask any man who has been at odds with his father and he’ll confirm that his rage knew no limits. But just as a child matures and reconciles with his father, so will Maher mature (spiritually) and reconcile with God. It’s an old story that has been relived many times. (See “The Prodigal Son”)

In the meantime although we should pray that Maher finds his way, we as The Mystical Body of Christ have a responsibility to point out the error of his ways and prevent him from leading others astray. Tomorrow I’ll review some of the critics’ comments about Religulous.

Donald Tremblay