Bill Maher: Pope 'Used to be a Nazi;' Compares Church to Cult, Bear Stearns

NewsBusters.org ^ | 4/14/2008 | Matthew Balan

[Pyro7480]

Bill Maher, true to form on his "Real Time" program on HBO on Friday, went on a tirade against Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church, only days before the Pope’s visit to the U.S.. He stated that the Pope "used to be a Nazi" and compared him to a cult leader. He then went on to call the Church a "child-abusing religious cult" and "the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia." "And that’s the Church’s attitude: 'We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,' which is fine, far be it from me to criticize religion."

Following a profanity-tinged one-liner concerning the raid on the Texas compound of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Maher quipped, "In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God’s infallible wingman here on Earth, lock away the kids. Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That’s right, the Pope is coming to America this week and ladies, he’s single!" At the "funny hat" line, Maher displayed a picture of Pope Benedict wearing a wide-brimmed hat called a saturno.

[Pyro7480]

Video and audio at the link above.

As another contributer to NewsBusters put it after another anti-Catholic remark by Maher, "I can only suggest a new motto: 'Annoy Bill Maher. Pray for him.'"

[Pyro7480]

Catholic ping!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Bill Maher used to be a human.

Allegedly.

[RexBeach]

You know, sometimes I think I’d enjoy getting Mr. Maher alone in an alley. What a jerk. I’ think he might do well on the 4-point program.

[avg_freeper]

Who would of guessed Bill Maher was a freeper?

[Yomin Postelnik]

Bill Maher is sick and shameless. That he’s given airtime and that people don’t denounce him is sick and shameless. Unfortunately, what he says is what many liberals “think,” which is just plain sad, as well as sick and shameless.

[dforest]

Maher is such a nasty person.

[beethovenfan]

Maher is a serious waste of skin.

[AnAmericanMother]

Sounds like a good idea.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

[trisham]

Maher is disturbed. He does deserve our prayers.

[KC_Conspirator]

Maher contributes nothing, not a single decent thing to society.

[Biggirl]

Here we go with the Pope/Catholic bashing the day before B16 arrives.

[DManA]

The enemies of Catholics are godless humanists, not Protestants.

[Jeff Head]

Here's a bit from his background/biography for that time period:

Following his fourteenth birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth — membership being legally required after December 1939 (though 10-20% did disobey the rule) — but was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend meetings. His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was killed by the Nazi regime in its campaign of eugenics. In 1943 while still in seminary, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the War in summer 1945. He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year.

I see nothing in there about Nazi Party joining, but I do see a very young man, impressed into service, who himself and his famiily were none too exicted about it or exuberant over it.

[dragonblustar]

Maher is a moron.

[RDTF]

I really can’t stand this creep

[Vaquero]

the only fascists these days seem to come from the left.

Go figger, Mr Bill ‘Doooche-a-bag’ Maher?

[kellynla]

Anti-Catholicism, the last “safe” bigotry.

[exit82]

Bill Maher is looked down upon by pond scum.

He’s so brave that, for balance, he has three lefties and a backslidden, weak conservative for his show each week.

He’s a coward with a microphone.