I was going to title this entry “Bill Crap” ( a take off on “bull crap”) but I couldn’t quite imagine how that would work with this beautiful photo of the window in St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kenosha. So I chose the slightly gentler “Bill, the Unbeliever” instead. I’m writing in response to tonight’s edition of NPR’s Fresh Air, in which Terry Gross spoke with Bill Maher about his new film “Religulous.” (That title is meant to be a combination of Religious and Ridiculous.) The film, which I have not seen . . . and I mostly likely will never see, unless someone was holding Bobbi and Ellie hostage and threatening to paint them purple unless I went and saw the film . . . apparently is Bill Maher’s statement on the absurdity of religious belief as well as the enormous harm which has been done in the name of religion. Bill Maher essentially believes that religion is based on pure fantasy and/or fiction and that humankind has evolved way beyond the point where it serves any kind of useful function whatsoever – and in fact absorbs a ridiculous amount of time and energy and focus which should be directed at something authentic . . . to say nothing of all of the ways in which religion has divided people of the world, incited warfare between them, and otherwise held us back from achieving all we could as a species while causing far more harm than good.
Whew.
The best question that Terry asked him in this fascinating interview was whether or not Maher, in reacting to religious extremism (in treating all religion as though it were all extremist) might be adopting a sort of Anti- Religious Extremism of his own. He doesn’t see himself in that way and said so – but from the pew where I sit, he is to Extremism what Mount Everest is to Mountains. That’s his perogative, but I wish he would at least be honest about it.
Here’s how I see it – – – speaking as a person of Faith. . .
Bill Maher is a incredibly talented and creative guy- maybe even brilliant. But that doesn’t mean he’s right. And I most emphatically believe him to be wrong – not about every single thing he says in this film, but wrong in his ultimate conclusion that we would be better off without religion because of all of the harm it has caused through history. First of all, if it were that simple, then we would want to do away with a lot of things. . . like technology . . . politics . . . money . . . even love . . . Everything yields both good and bad, and unfortunately religion is the same, especially given our capacity for spoiling things with our own carelessness. And beyond that, he is taking the easy way out in speaking with such sweeping generalizations about Religion, when in fact that term denotes so many different things. It isn’t quite so simple and tidy to try to differentiate between different shades of religious fervor but he would be a whole lot more compelling in my view if he had taken the time and trouble to do that.
All that aside, if one wants to make a list of every ridiculous thing done or said in the name of religion, one can do that and there’s probably not enough paper and pencil lead in the world to complete the list. But then turn the piece of paper over and acknowledge the good which religion has done in the world and in the lives of people. That’s not nearly as interesting to someone like Bill Maher, who enjoys the sound of people laughing or the sight of people squirming. Women making quilts to send overseas, high school youth digging latrines in rural Mexico, Lutherans in Racine, WI giving money and goods to a Burmese family who have moved to town, volunteers visiting shut-ins, white clergy marching with Martin Luther King . . . this is also a part of religious life in this country, and Bill Maher loses all credibility for me by refusing to acknowledge this in any but the most grudging and perfunctory way. I know what he would say – you don’t need religion for such deeds to be done, but that still doesn’t explain away the powerful force for good that religious faith has been in many times and places. Yes, far too many people use religion or twist it in order to make themselves more comfortable or to solidify their own place of privilege, but for many of us, our religious faith teaches us to Love Those Who Hate You or The Last Shall Be First or Humble Yourself and God Will Lift You Up or Forgive Others not Seven Times but Seventy times Seven. These are teachings which jerk us out of our comfort zone or chart for us a path which we would never concoct on our own. I remember something Pastor Sandy Roberts once preached on Pentecost Sunday, when she said that she could always recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit because it was the voice inside her head that was prodding her to do the things that she otherwise would not want to do – like reach out with compassion to the obnoxious woman who lives next door. My faith propels me towards good deeds that I truly would not otherwise do – out of gratitude for the mercy and love which God has first shown me.
And Bill Maher can speak all he wants about the utter foolishness of someone in the 21st century believing in God. I know he thinks that people have essentially dreamed up the notion of a loving God who made us and watches over us because we so desperately want it to be true. But as C.S. Lewis so eloquently stated (and I wish I had the book in front of me, so I could properly quote him) that longing for God is just as likely an indication that God in fact exists – in the same way that physical hunger suggests there is such a thing as Food. That makes belief in God not seem quite so foolish and naive. But even without Lewis compelling words, Maher’s dismissive language does not dissuade me, in part because there are places in scripture where the Apostle Paul calls his faith “foolishness” or where the people of God are referred to as a “peculiar people.” I believe what I believe not because I have weighed all the facts and determined this to be the most logical thing to believe. I am not a Christian because it makes the most sense of all the options. I believe what I believe because I believe it – words which I realize leaves Bill Maher laughing his head off. But for me it is a matter of Faith, not Reason. It is not something easily explained. Nor is it something to be Explained Away. Not by Bill Maher, anyway.
I am unhappy that something like “Religulous” is out there – and I really resent how dismissive it is of something so important to me. But I guess I have to thank Bill Maher as well because I suspect that a lot of people will find themselves taking stock of their own religious faith and saying in the end, like me, Here I Stand.
pictured: one of the stained glass windows in Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kenosha. I took this on the occasion of a special service there at which my WGTD colleague Dave McGrath renewed marriage vows with his wife Guida. (Kathy and I did music for it.) It’s a beautiful place.