So Bill Maher has made a movie about religion. To be released around Easter. The documentary, tentatively titled Religulous, sounds unbelievably brave. After all, you've seen the enormous price people in Hollywood pay for even beginning to question the pieties of religious zealots. This is why we have artists--to speak truth to the powerful.
Anyway, Maher had this to say about the movie, "We talked to everybody. We went everywhere. We went to every place where there is religion. We went to Vatican City. We went to Jerusalem. We went to Salt Lake City. And I think I’ve insulted everybody!"
Christians, check. Jews, check. Mormons, check. Yup, that's everybody! There's no other important religious group worth mentioning that maybe deserves some fun-poking and that might react badly to being ridiculed. And thank goodness the film will be released around Easter and not some other holy period.
Nobody has seen the movie yet. And maybe Maher really is an equal-opportunity offender. But if he is, I'll be pretty surprised. After all, why go after a religion where offended believers really might kill you when you can get the same thrill beating up on people who never push back.
Update: More bravery from Britain's entertainment industry--" BBC drops fictional terror attack to avoid offending Muslims."
14 hours ago
4 comments:
Seriously, these guys should watch John Saffron vs. God on IFC everything Thursday. He literally takes on every religion, including all the cultish voodoo religions that are so trendy. He spares nobody, he shows equal disdain for all religions, including Islam.
I guess he was just trying to avoid having his ginormous head removed from his little body.
Ah, too bad. I was hoping he'd finally made the sequel to his 1989 acting opus, Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094834/
You never know--Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a guest on his show and IIRC he stuck up for her a couple of times. Still, yeah, the smart money says that his cranky ex-Catholic background ensures that the safe Christian-bashing route will be followed. Maybe a couple of minor jabs at Islam. But a whole lot more shots at transubstantiation and Mormon undergarments.
I hate Maher; however, he does mention the dome of the rock in the linked article. It will be interesting to see if he goes after the religion of peace with the same verve as he does other religions. If so, hats off to him.
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