Posted on 04/09/2009 5:24:56 AM PDT by SJackson
Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher has made religious jokes for years but with the success of such “New Atheist” books as Christopher Hitchens’ god Is Not Great and Sam Harris’s The End of Faith, now was the time for a documentary critical of religion.
In “Religulous” – a portmanteau of “religion” and “ridiculous” – Maher travels the globe to interview people of faith, challenge their often dogmatic ideas, and pitch a joke here and there.
Maher starts out at home, talking with his mother and sister about the family’s ambivalent attitude toward religion. From there he begins a series of often confrontational, usually hilarious interviews with true believers.
One of the most amusing interviews in the film is when Maher goes after “Dr.” Jeremiah Cummings’ defense of his expensive clothes and jewelry: “Jesus dressed very well,” the preacher asserts.
Maher laughs out loud: “So my image of Jesus as a man who championed the poor and walked around in simple garb, that’s wrong?” The film then mocks Cummings with joke subtitles and excerpts from old biblical films of Christ talking about the camel passing through the eye of the needle.
Other Christians Maher challenges include an ex-gay minister, an actor who plays Jesus at a Christian amusement park, an “Ex-Jew for Jesus” who runs a Christian store, and Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR.) Pryor, who campaigns on an Evangelical Christian platform, contributed one of the film’s most memorable lines when defending his creationist beliefs: “you don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though." I bet whoever he runs against in the next election is going to want to license that one for a campaign commercial.
Wanting to be an equal-opportunity critic of religion, Maher moves on from Christians and challenges Mormons, Jews, and, in the film’s final third, Muslims.
In a discussion with Muslim rapper Propa-Gandhi Maher challenges the controversial artist when he hides behind “the right to dissent” to justify his violent, pro-terrorism lyrics. Maher asks if that right exists within Islam and brings up the fatwa against author Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. Propa-Gandhi refuses to condemn the act, and Maher finally says, “All you have to do is say it’s wrong for someone to have to suffer a death threat for writing a book. But apparently it’s more complicated than that… You don’t see that there’s a fundamental hypocrisy for you asking for the right to dissent and someone else getting a death threat.”
In the DVD commentary Maher doesn’t mince words in his judgment of Propa-Gandhi: “He’s really one of the most full-of-shit people.”
One interview subject who doesn’t get any joking disrespect from Maher in the film or its commentary is Dutch parliamentarian and critic of Islam Geert Wilders. “Religulous” features a brief interview with Wilders who, answering Maher’s question of whether Islam wants to take over the world, says, “They don’t even make a secret of it. We are infidels. And we should either become Islamic or be killed. This is what they say, this is what they are a part of.”
The Christianity sequences of the film stand in compelling juxtaposition to the Islam scenes. Whereas Maher principally confronts Christians on what they believe, he’s more concerned about challenging Muslims for what they do. This presents a challenge for secularists and those more liberally-minded on spiritual matters: the things that irritate us about fundamentalist Christians pale in comparison to the things that should disturb us about orthodox Muslims.
Christian fundamentalists oppose gay marriage and argue that homosexuality can be “cured” through spiritual treatment. In Saudi Arabia gays are routinely executed. Some “Bible-believing” Christians don’t like the idea of women as pastors and support traditional gender roles – keep the women in the kitchen. In Africa and the Middle East millions of women every year are forced to have their genitals mutilated and honor killings abound. Those that oppose the relatively rare occurrences of fundamentalist Christian terrorism – abortion clinic bombings – have to react with far greater condemnation toward the more widespread problem of Islamofascist suicide bombings.
Included amongst the DVD’s bonus features are a collection of deleted interviews and extended Maher monologues from around the world. Some of these cut interviews are great. Be sure and check out Maher’s talk with The Lucifer Principle author and Islam critic Howard Bloom. There’s also a fun exchange with my favorite conspiracy theorist, the notorious David Icke who believes a race of inter-dimensional lizard humanoids (George Bush being one of them) secretly run the world. In one of these cut scenes Maher addresses an oft-heard criticism of secularism from believers:
One of the common arguments in defense of religion is that Hitler wasn’t religious and neither was Stalin or Mao and they were bad so religion is good. But like religion itself it’s really an argument that depends a lot on not thinking too deeply… Twentieth century fascism and communism, although not strictly religions as we come to think of religion, really were religions. They were state religions… We shouldn’t get too hung up on the word ‘religion.’ The bottom line is whether people think and act rationally or not. And whenever people organize their lives around what could be described as groundlessness, bad things happen.
The comment points in the direction of a sequel, one I doubt Maher would star in since it would critique the religious faith that he himself possess: Leftism. “Religulous” demonstrates that an effective way to get people to consider ideas is through jokes and a charismatic star. The format and approach of “Religulous” could be adopted to make a film that challenges not those with out-there religious convictions, but those with outlandish political faiths. Combine “politics” and “ridiculous” and you have “Politulous.” Take a right-leaning comedian as funny as Maher – perhaps P.J. O’Rourke or Ann Coulter – and set them loose interviewing high-profile leftists in a humorous manner. It could accomplish the same feat as “Religulous”: challenge people to critically examine their dogmas and provide a few laughs doing it.
That's a great idea. Like Ben Stein's film on Darwinists.
Gads, would I like to drop Maher in the middle of Iran and watch them “take care” of him.
I realize the left is intellectually bankrupt, but surely there must be one leftist somewhere, more worthy of our attention than BM?
The converse is also true; when people organize their lives around grounded truth, good things happen. Like Christianity/Western Culture.
Has anyone ever noticed how many anti-Christian stories or stories about the decline of Christianity come out during Holy Week every year?
Right you are.
Done well it would make lots of $$$.
What will happen to perverted comedians with Tourette’s when jihadists take over? No more stand-up in Paris and Brussels?
The title alone speaks volumes.
The media campaign against Christianity is orchestrated. The ridicule coming, whether from MSNBC, The NY Times, or Newsweek, reflects a social engineering strategy. It has picked up since embryonic stem cells research and same-sex marriage became hot-button issues. They want this secular socialist society, cradle to grave, without Christian moral or spiritual influence of any kind in the public realm.
Is Maher Jewish?
I don’t see the relevance, but I believe he’s nominally a Catholic, nominally since he’s not a fan of religion.
It was a curio. Nothing more. Thanks.
I seem to recall there used to be a guy on the Catholic cable network (EWTN)who would walk around in shopping malls with a microphone asking people basic questions about Christianity. It was amusing.
White Horse Inn has their producer go to Christian venues (pastor's conventions, the Den of Thieves Retail Show, stuff like that) and do the same thing. The results are usually appalling.
Notice that Christianity is the only religion under attack?
That’s because it’s the only threat to the father of lies, because it’s the only truth.
Yes! Let them loose among the Hollywood set as well as typical Upper West Siders and they will hear some absolutely shocking stuff!
Ann would never be granted an interview but O'Rourke might slip under the radar.
Amen. Except in Christianity’s case I would capitalize Truth.
I would love to see him and the whole entertainment/media industry (except for a lonely few) plunged into full-blown islam! It would make the best reality show ever.
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