SACRELIGULOUS

(The following was submitted to the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a review of Bill Maher's movie, Religulous.)

In Bill Maher’s new movie, Religulous, one scene is particularly evocative: at a mobile truck-stop chapel in a converted semi-trailer, there are several truckers who are called to worship therein. One, a rather corpulent fellow, gets overtly annoyed with Maher’s skeptically pointed questions about the truckers’ religious beliefs and stomps out the door, grumbling about Maher’s obvious agnosticism. Maher slyly protests that he is only “asking questions,” but that does not mollify the offended trucker as he departs. The others kindly offer a genuine prayer for Maher’s soul.

The personal religious beliefs of many seem too fragile to tolerate Maher’s skepticism or disbelief. Fundamentalism of any faith seems quite so hostile, as if disbelief and doubt were a highly contagious disease. Maher and his film crew visit a variety of hallowed sites, like religious theme parks, the Creationist Museum and the Mormon Tabernacle. Maher interviews a former observant Jew, now a professed “Jew for Jesus” merchant who sells Christian kitsch. Trinkets. Nick-nacks. Tchotchkies. (There is a certain irony in using Yiddish terms to describe converted-Jew inventories!) Maher is not always welcome.

Maher also interviews a professed “former” homosexual who is running a program to “deprogram” homosexuals back to Christian heterosexual lifestyles, also easily annoyed with Maher’s skepticism. Apparently, Jesus did not approve of homosexuals. It seems that “God” is just too busy to torment homosexuals Himself, so some True Believers presume to take care of that for Him. Homosexuality is quite an obsession. Given the recent exploits of Reverend Ted Haggard’s ALLEGED dalliances with at least one homosexual prostitute, it seems that “he who smelt it, dealt it.”

The deprogrammed “former” homosexual is married to a “former” lesbian with whom he now has children. Maher suggests that his subject is still quite “gay,” but like Justice Potter Stewart’s observation about obscenity, Maher cannot define it, but he knows it when he sees it! Viewers can judge for themselves.

Maher contrasts his own doubts with the certitude of the True Believers, whose opinions and beliefs are based upon pure conjecture (“faith”), in turn derived from the “sacred” texts dictated by their deity of choice, the Bible, the Book of Mormon or the Koran. Maher emphasizes that he is consumed by doubt, not really knowing the Ultimate Truths. A review of Maher’s movie in the Times-Dispatch of October 26 said it “paints a portrait that makes religious believers look absurd … and criticizes them because they are … closed-minded.” Ironically, “closed minds” are inherently “absurd.” The professed beliefs targeted by Maher in his movie are, for the most part, ludicrously complicated and contradictory, but “the Debbil [Maher] made ‘em do it!” as Flip Wilson’s “Geraldine” defense would hold.

Maher stands accused of “intolerance.” The imposition of a burden of “proof” or persuasion upon the True Believers is quite resented. Doubting infidels and heathens are reviled, while those who are fervently sure of the unproven truth of their beliefs and opinions are regarded as acceptably faithful. “Proof” and doubt are regarded as antithetical heresy, directly challenging the deity of choice. The less the better, it seems. Those who do NOT doubt or question are quite annoyed (like the fat truck driver) with those who DO. Enforced silence is the expectation if not the rule. Maher is dismissed as a “fundamentalist of the secular kind,” his pesky questions demanding rational explanations and making jokes of the omissions. That Maher does not distinguish between the “crazy” fundamentalists and more rational True Believers is annoying. But many “rationalists” are quite deferential to and defending of the “crazies.” It is hard to tell the difference sometimes.

The earlier reviewer said that “we live in a country that is both devout and diverse.” Maher says that about 16% of the US adult population is composed of nonbelievers. Yet another 42% reject any notion of evolution and adhere to the literal truth of one of the two (at least) creation myths in Genesis. Presumably the “rationalists” make up the difference. The devout may be a majority, but they are not alone.

The US may well be a “Christian nation,” but the American GOVERNMENT was designed and intended by the Founders to be rigidly secular, regardless of the PERSONAL religious beliefs of a majority. The sincerely devout should not care what Bill Maher thinks, nor pay any attention to his movie, Religulous. Maher’s skepticism may be a lack of acquiescence or reverence, but it is not the same thing as intolerance.