There are some things in culture that no longer get my attention...Britney Spears in the media, High School Musical 17 (or whichever number they are on), or athletes that make 25 million to carry a ball down a field.
The things that do get my attention are movies like this one - Religulous. I believe that the title is combining the words "religion" and "ridiculous" together and to be perfectly honest, I could not agree more. So much unnecessary death and violence has been done in the name of religion. For hundreds of years the church kept the Scriptures out of the hands and common tongue of the people so they could control them.
I went and saw this movie this week and found it interesting. There were parts that made me laugh, parts that made me angry (not so much at Bill Maher but at the so called "christians" he was interviewing), and some parts made me sad (more for Bill because he hides his pain through laughter).
In this movie, comedian Bill Maher sets out to show the world what Christianity, Judaism and Islam have done and are doing today. It was filmed all over the world in places like Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia, New York, Rome, Amsterdam, Orlando and other small towns in America. It is shot documentary style and he interviews everybody from truckers at a truck stop church to Rabbi's in Jerusalem and Islamic holy men in markets and Mosques. At one point he is interviewing a Christian pastor who has more gold on that Mr. T from The "A" Team. He asks this pastor if Jesus was so poor then why is he so rich. This pastor went on for 5 minutes about how Jesus was rich and he wore fine linens and was given gold as a gift. In this part of the movie Bill Maher is right on when he says that Jesus sides with the poor of the world and speaks judgment on the rich. This pastor has no idea what the Gospels are like if his view of Jesus is that of a rich man who wore fine linen. He interviewed a pastor in Florida who believes that he is the Second Coming of Christ and all of the Old Testament was talking about him. This man has 100,000 followers worldwide that buy his books and watch his DVD's. THIS is religulous!
There are times though that Bill Maher gets it completely wrong when he talks about how the 4 gospels we have we not even written by eye witnesses. Of the 4 Gospels, 2 of them were eye witnesses (Matthew and John) and Mark and Luke would have gotten their information from Peter and other disciples who were with Jesus the whole time. This was the standard when the council sat down to canonize books of the Bible. It had to be written by an apostle or someone that had direct contact with an apostle.
I thought that this would be a movie that bashed Jesus but it really was not that at all. In fact at one point Bill Maher says to the people that have just shared the Gospel with him and prayed for him, "You were very nice to me and acted very Christ-like and not religious, thank you." He talks at length with people in Jerusalem and Amsterdam that are Jewish and Islam and he actually knows more about the Bible than who he interviews. At one point he is shown talking to 3 different people who follow Islam and they keep saying there is no violence in Islam and then the movie cut to a scene where violence was being done in the name of Allah. The same is true for Jews and Christians as well though. How is it that a message of forgiveness and mercy through Jesus has completely been turned around in such a short period of time. How is it that we have turned Jesus into a Republican? Many Christians assume that if a candidate is a democrat they must be a non-Christian. Bill Maher interviews a Democratic U.S. Senator from Alabama and he claims to be a Christian and the senator talks about how this is a "christian nation." The problem with that is that in the movie they show pictures of Ben Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson with quotes from them that absolutely confirm that we were never a "christian nation." The one that really blew me away was a quote from Washington that reads, "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion." Oops.
There were points in the film that I really sensed that Bill Maher is honestly searching for truth and for something deeper and he masks it with his comedy. It is almost if he doesn't have to see his pain and brokenness and sin as long as he is funny. At one point he even says, "My gospel is "I don't know."" Rather than just dismissing Bill Maher as someone who is beyond hope, I would encourage you to pray for him and millions like him that have seen religion do some terrible stuff in the world and they cannot see a loving Jesus who wants him to find wholeness and salvation. I walked away from this movie encouraged that even though there will always be people that make religion all about power and control, there are people that are truly following Jesus and wanting to share the love and grace and mercy to everyone they can.
Followers of Jesus need to be able to engage in their culture and not just run from it. If Jesus were on Earth in 2008 I believe he would be having conversations with the Bill Maher's of the world and helping people see that while religion might be religulous...the beautiful relationship that we have with Jesus and Jesus has with us is abundant!
Matt
p.s. realize that this film is rated R and should not be seen by anyone under 17.
