In defense of religion,Amen

There is satire and there is ridicule.

Sarah Dreier,of Faith and Progressive Policy an initiative of the Center for American Progress,reviews Bill Maher’s  film ‘Religulous’. She demonstrates,quite convincingly,that the film is just faith bashing of the most pedestrian kind.

She writes  how Maher cherry picks,using religious fanatics to illustrate how believers are supposedly feeble minded.

In one scene of Bill Maher’s much-discussed new movie, Religulous, Maher talks with a zealot tourist at Florida’s Holy Land Experience Jesus theme park who assured Maher that she will triumphantly return to Earth after the Rapture—adorned in seraphic attire, no less—to help save the souls of non-believers. This is just one of many interviews with a cherry-picked religious fanatic that make up the movie. Maher, the crass and (at times) very funny comedian and HBO talk show host, travels around the world to talk to Christian, Muslim, and Jewish votaries about their faiths. Although Maher makes some good points about the bad effects that proselytizing can have on public policy,

The voices and views of a few fanatics does not a critique of religion make. For example…

A recent poll showed that 92 percent of Americans believe in God, and 70 percent of those who believe in God reject dogmatic approaches to belief. But you wouldn’t know that from watching Religulous. The whacky characters Maher interviews, like the founder of the Kentucky Creation Museum and the former gay man who is now a Christian gay conversion “therapist,” display ignorance of their own faith, extreme and contentious literal interpretations of sacred texts, and an inability to consider theological complexity.

Amen…

Maher’s interviewees disregard basic theological tenets—caring for the poor, refraining from judgement, or working to strengthen the common good. Maher should have talked to Christians volunteering in hurricane disaster sites, students committing nights and weekends to inter-faith dialogue, or congregations supporting the poor during the economic crisis. Faith-based communities and activists have been at the forefront of progressivism, from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dedication to civil rights to the National Association of Evangelical’s commitment to addressing climate change. They have led the nation to frame its domestic and international policy in terms of our moral commitments to equality, alleviating poverty, and sustainable development. Unfortunately, Maher misses the opportunity to make this important point, because he is too married to his own fanatical pursuit—the case against all religion.

Amen…

For whatever reason there seems to be a trend of late,Dawkins,Hitchens,and now Bill Maher of all people,aimed at ridiculing people of faith.

The question being why ?

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