{"id":3832,"date":"2008-10-10T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/religulous-and-the-real-jesus\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:08:45","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:08:45","slug":"religulous-and-the-real-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/religulous-and-the-real-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Religulous and the real Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There is an awful lot of awful truth to Bill Maher\u2019s<\/a> movie \u201cReligulous.\u201d<\/a> Some social conservatives take vicious Old Testament teachings and try to pass them off as part of a religion named after Jesus Christ. Some Jews hypocritically find phony ways around their own rules. There is violence and intolerance in too much of Islam.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Maher even picks on the far-outness of the backstories of Mormonism and Scientology, but mostly to make viewers question the literalist, anti-scientific stories adopted by fundamentalist believers of all religions.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Maher doesn\u2019t just mock, though. He has read his New Testament, and uses it effectively to ask Christians basic questions about the gulf between Jesus\u2019 teachings and the teachings of some fundamentalist, literalist sects.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t find many people of good will of any religion (or lack thereof) who don\u2019t admire Jesus\u2019 teachings of love, tolerance, forgiveness, humility and non-judgment, and Maher never makes fun of Jesus\u2019 message itself.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One of Maher\u2019s most generous moments toward religion comes after he grills a rural truck-stop trailer church\u2019s adherents about faith, magic, rationality and social issues. They kindly and sincerely pray for God to answer Maher\u2019s questions, admitting they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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Maher in turn sincerely thanks them for being Christ-like, and not just Christian. That\u2019s one major thesis of the movie: that the teachings of Christ and the teachings of organized religion are frequently not the same.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Scoreboard<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two of Maher\u2019s examples of abuses of Jesus stand out. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

First, in tens of thousands of words uttered, Jesus doesn\u2019t bash gays. Doesn\u2019t even mention them. There are four gospels; Jesus lived 33 years, and not one mention? By contrast, concepts like care for the poor, the weak and the least among us are mentioned literally thousands of times.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lots of people who follow politics are also sports fans, and I\u2019m no exception. In sports, it\u2019s a blowout when one team outscores another by five scores (say, four touchdowns and a field goal) to none, like Virginia did last weekend to Maryland. In the eyes of some fundamentalists, though, being out-mentioned 3,000 to none somehow doesn\u2019t matter. Huh?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t like gays for some reason (and it\u2019s just too much fun to speculate as to why that might be), what do you get by rooting against their having basic human rights like being able to visit each other in the hospital? Most of all, how does that comport with Jesus\u2019 teachings of tolerance and non-judgment, and His utter lack of concern about gays?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even more bizarrely, some voters use gays as a reason to vote against their economic or security interests. While there\u2019s no doubt that liberals and progressive Christians would do more to help gays achieve basic human rights, there are still going to be just as many gays out there whether McCain<\/a> or Obama<\/a> is our leader. Gay numbers haven\u2019t gone down under conservative \u201cChristian\u201d George Bush<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The only political question is whether gays will be treated with basic human dignity and treated as we all wish to be treated — a cornerstone of Jesus\u2019 teachings if there ever was one. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A second consistent misuse of Jesus\u2019 name is the widespread preaching that wealth is a sign of being favored by Jesus. Maher interviews several evangelical preachers with $2,000 suits. They claim that since gold was brought to Jesus\u2019 crib, the correct interpretation of the New Testament is that Jesus was rich (seriously) and expects his church leaders to be as well. Really?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Maher simply shows footage of a Biblical film recitation of the eye-of-the-needle passage<\/a>. \u2018Nuff said. Jesus isn\u2019t about making people obscenely rich, and pretty obviously He doesn\u2019t favor fleecing the poor to gain that wealth.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Left behind<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Maher left behind all the good religion is capable of. Jesus\u2019 teachings have been and continue to be used to fight slavery and sex trafficking; support civil rights; push back against the death penalty and corporal punishment; advocate for poverty-alleviation programs; help save God\u2019s green Earth, blue skies and seas; care for other creatures; and argue against needless war and torture.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I want to give two recent, real-world American examples of why Maher, for all he gets right, misses the mark in completely dismissing religion.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Blood:Water Mission<\/st1:place><\/st1:city><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A friend of mine from Danville<\/st1:city>, Va.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, sent me some sermons from his church. The pastor, Jim Reed, is terrific, and emphasizes Jesus\u2019 teachings to care for the least among us, even outside of our national boundaries.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Danville<\/st1:city> church works with groups like Blood:Water Mission<\/a> to provide clean water for African villages. Each dollar provides a year of clean water for one person. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pastor Reed is incredibly persuasive when making the case to his flock that supporting groups like Blood:Water Mission is at the heart of Jesus\u2019 calling. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While plenty of agnostics and atheists work in non-profit areas and help the poor, the Danville<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> pastor brings hundreds of regular people and tens of thousands of dollars to those efforts. It would be difficult to do without the leverage of religion.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Amish connection<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In October 2006, the small Amish community of Nickel Mines, Penn.<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> suffered the worst of tragedies: Five of their children were killed by a troubled gunman who then took his own life.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Incredibly, that very day the parents of the children who were killed and other community members made statements of forgiveness and sorrow for the murderer\u2019s own pain and horrible life. Can anyone imagine that kind of reaction absent a close adherence to the real teachings of Jesus?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Most touching were Barbie and Marian Fisher, the little girls who told the gunman to kill them to spare the others. Marian died. Does anyone think the sisters would have done the same thing absent a strong dose of true selfless teaching?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bill Maher will be, forgive the pun, crucified for his movie. Actually, that\u2019s not very funny — the Muslim anti-cartoon psychos may really come after him. At its heart, Religulous is a thoughtful analysis of the abuses of organized religion around the world by literalist charlatans and insecure fundamentalists.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame Maher didn\u2019t also follow his more generous instincts to show the good that can be done by being faithful to Jesus\u2019 words by the likes of BloodWaterMission and the Fisher girls. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Still, Religulous is a movie that ought to be seen, if only to help separate the wheat from the chaff. And it has the bonus feature of being damn funny in parts and plenty entertaining throughout.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy There is an awful lot of awful truth to Bill Maher\u2019s movie \u201cReligulous.\u201d Some social conservatives take vicious Old Testament teachings and try to pass them off as part of a religion named after Jesus Christ. Some Jews hypocritically find phony ways around their own rules. There is violence and intolerance in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}