Let's face it: Bill Maher is smart. And funny. Problem is, he's also crass, arrogant, smug, and, with some frequency, totally insufferable. The common name for someone like this is "jerk." But unlike most jerks, that endless supply of lumbering brutes whose only goal in life is to goad others, you can't quite dismiss Maher -- because, well, he's smart. And funny.
So it's no surprise that Maher's newest project, the anti-religion documentary Religulous, is also smart and funny, just as it is also crass, smug, and occasionally insufferable. In it, Maher travels the world in search of... it's not clear what, but he gets himself into plenty of arguments with religious believers, mostly Christians, but a few Muslims too, over the nature of faith, the historicity of the Bible, and whether a perfectly good God is compatible with the horrors of the modern world. Like Michael Moore, Maher has turned the documentary into a personal polemic with himself as the host and star. But Maher is sharper than Moore, a frank, bracing, compulsive quip-artist who never resorts to Moore's fake stumblebum idiocy.
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In Religulous, though, Maher's playing an openly rigged game. On one hand, he seems, as always, to display a willingness to take all comers. Bring it, world; anywhere, anyone, anytime, I'll best you, seems to be the subtext of his globe-hopping chats with believers of all stripes. He speaks with worshiping truckers in a big-rig trailer converted into a church, with a pastor who claims to be a direct descendant of Christ, an actor who plays Jesus at a religious theme park in Orlando, a U.S. Senator, a maker of devices that allow Jews to get around scriptural restrictions, an anti-Zionist rabbi who attended a Holocaust denial conference thrown by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and a host of lesser knowns.
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... Religulous isn't a stupid movie by any means, and Maher shows himself in possession of a greater understanding of religion -- especially its historical particulars -- than most of those whom he encounters. Yet for all his bluster, he seems to lack confidence in the power of his own knowledge, for whenever smart and funny collide, funny wins out.
That's not to say he lands no blows. Indeed, Maher employs a well honed rhetorical strategy. Unlike so many of the loudest anti-religion voices, Maher does not argue that God clearly does not exist. No, instead of the fist-shaking, boisterous atheiesm peddeled by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett, Maher sells doubt. His product is not strident unbelief, but uncertainty -- a far easier and more powerful sell. All it requires is a skeptical mind.
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Also excerpts from Dan Kimball and his thoughts on seeing the movie
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The movie was basically Bill painting Christianity and Christians as what I would call the extreme broad-brushed examples within Christianity. From showing de-frocked television evangelist Robert Tilton speaking in tongues, to Ted Haggard clips talking about sex, to going to the Holyland Experience in Orlando (which I blogged about my time there here), to some church leader who feels he is a blood ancestor of Jesus and he is the Messiah. He interviewed various average and not so average Christians who for the most part came across rather silly and not able to answer his questions with intelligent answers. Often it felt like Bill knew the Bible and church history better than they did. I understand that we don't see the full interviews and edits can make anyone look silly. But Bill raised good and legitimate questions but he didn't get good answers from the people he interviewed (again, at least how they edited the film). People in the theater laughed (including me) at how the responses generally came across from Christians to his questions.
Although it was a humorous film, and although it raised great questions which need to be asked - it only showed a very one-sided perspective. Thus, to me it was a poor film journalistically as it misrepresented Christianity by only showing the extremes of it.
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After I drove Tim home, we stopped outside his house and we prayed together for a few minutes in the car. We prayed for Bill Maher and we prayed for all the people who will be viewing this film. Not that I don't think people shouldn't see this film. I think Christians should see this film (*although---I want to warn anyone thinking of seeing it and say that there was a lot of coarse language and scenes in it). But it will cause Christians to ask themselves "how would I respond to the questions Bill raises?" In our culture and world today, the questions Bill raises are very valid. I just wish he interviewed people who could have responded better than what was at least shown in the film. There are reasonable and intelligent answers to about everything Bill Maher was raising.
I also wish that Bill would have shown the positive things Christianity and Christians have done throughout history. Yes, there are some very shameful things that have happened unfortunately that would be against what the Bible itself teaches. But because of the "faith" that Bill mocks, we have seen Christian organizations like Compassion International and World Vision help out thousands and thousands of people in need across the world. We have seen Christians and churches serving the needy and those hurting all across the world and give millions of dollars to those in need. We have seen marriages healed and lives changed for the better in all types of ways. So many things, you could go on and on about the good faith in Jesus has done in our world. But unfortunately, the focus is all on the negative and reinforcing the negative in the minds of those who see the film.
But... the bottom line for me, is that this film actually motivates me. It gives me energy to want to be more personally missional as well as in terms of rallying the church to be in the world and among people. It motivates me to want to be training and teaching Christians how to respond to these very things that are being asked today. I have a lot of hope and optimism, because I believe there are answers.
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