- He likes Jesus?!
A few weeks ago I received a link to an NPR story about Bill Maher and what he thinks about Jesus. You may know Bill from his HBO show Real Time or his new film Religulous (Did you catch the insinuation of this new term? It seems to be a mix between the term “religious” and “ridiculous.”) And that’s right where Maher seems to land when it comes to religion.
The article states… “In his new film, Religulous — a satirical documentary in which Maher travels to religious sites around the world, ranging from the Vatican and Jerusalem to a Muslim gay bar in Amsterdam and a Christian theme park in Orlando, Fla. — he describes religion as “dangerous.” He goes on to say that… “the idea of a personal god who responds to prayer, who performs miracles and battles evil in an active way, is the result of “a long, 2,000-year-old game of Telephone.”
Sounds like Bill has a problem with all belief systems that have God in their ideology, including Christianity. But does he? The article continues… “The message of Jesus,” on the other hand, “is not only beautiful but revolutionary,” Maher stresses. “The idea that the meek shall inherit the earth, and that the poor and the powerless have just as much dignity as the powerful and the rich, that was a very new idea at the time — and it has not gone out of style.”
The article goes on… “The shame, Maher argues, is that that message gets lost amid what he describes as “the magic tricks and the bells and whistles and the nonsense” of organized religion.”
I want to ask you a question. Do you think most people who are hesitant about church and/or joining a small group have the same concerns as Bill Maher? If so, why do you think they are so disturbed by “organized religion?” I would really like to hear your comments.
October 13, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Why are folks disturbed by organized religion? Surely it has something to do with the embarrassingly wide disconnect between what we say we believe and what we do. The disenfranchised most often call it hypocrisy, but that term implies knowledge…i.e., that “religious people” know what they believe and act contrary to it. I’m not so sure that’s true. I think the American church is largely Biblically illiterate, and often doesn’t know what it believes.
October 13, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The Navigator has opened up a great conversation here. I had no idea that Maher felt this way. I’ve only known him for his anti-Christian rants on HBO.”Beautiful and revolutionary” is not a phrase I would have thought possible from Maher about Jesus’ message and mission. But, yeah, I’d say this speaks volumes about where many of the un-churched are and why their positions are as they are. And to Blake’s point, God says in Amos … they do not even know how to do what is right (Amos 3:10).
October 14, 2008 at 3:32 am
Definitely. A lot people look at the church and see ulterior motives – higher salary and more notoriety for the pastor, bigger building, social “power” (especially for state-churches in other cultures). A wise man has pointed out to me recently that the church was meant to be on the fringe serving instead of in the center dictating.
Great post!
November 11, 2008 at 10:23 am
When the Church seems to have thrown its lot in with any of the secular powers and principalities–whether that’s political power or economic power or mass approval–it falls away from the beautiful and revolutionary message that by its very nature decenters everything as Lord except what–Who–should actually be Lord. I’m heartened that even a skeptic like Maher gets it, and can induce us to get it as well.
November 16, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Greg it’s great to see you commenting here. That Maher might in fact induce us in any way is a great point. By the way, I read Freebird a couple of years ago and I’ve recommended it to several others.