Religulous – Only slightly less than Mahervelous

If you enjoyed George Carlin’s take on religion more than Bill Cosby’s you’ll probably appreciate Bill Maher’s new movie Religulous. His point seems to be that buffoons are funny, and particularly so when they’re religious. Well, if you’re an honest, self-effacing Evangelical you shout AMEN! at this point. That’s BINGO! for all you Catholics out there.

The movie, directed by Larry Charles, who also directed “Borat”, is 101 minutes of Maher meandering through the world interviewing religious idiots. He focuses on Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but also takes shots at Mormonism, TV evangelism, Scientology and some clown in Amsterdam who apparently has a cannabis church. – Actually I think at this point Bill just went for a toke and forgot the camera was on. - The great religions of the East get a pass, but I’m sure if Baliwood wants to do a remake Bill will have something to contribute. It’s funny, entertaining, clever, crude, vulgar, insightful, and a great way to spend a Thursday afternoon with the youth pastor. Our eyes will be rolling for months.

I was looking forward to using the line, “His wit is exceeded only by his ignorance.”, but I was pleasantly surprised by Maher’s comprehension of the subject matter; at least the stuff I comprehend. Of course, he does make the usual error of calling the last book of the Bible “Revelations” (there’s no “s”) and they even write it on the screen several times. And he gets the burning bush slightly out of place. And he claims that none of the New Testament authors actually knew Jesus. – To be fair, some biblical scholars are confused about that. - But he doesn’t confuse the Immaculate Conception, which is about the birth of Mary, with the Virgin Birth, which is about the birth of Jesus. And it’s very rare for a critic to get that one right. Then again, he was raised a Catholic. Guess some of that catechism stuck.

The only serious criticism I have of Religulous is the premise behind it, which Maher spells out at the end of the movie. (I paraphrase) Because religion is so ridiculous, and has caused so much suffering in the world, and is so uncritically embraced by so many people who have the power to destroy the world, and is so stupidly destructive, it must be THE PROBLEM.

Of course, he’s right about religion. It is ridiculous, dangerous, abusive, and a great menace to life on earth. The Bible’s clear about this from beginning to end. The first murder is over a sacrifice (Genesis 4:2) and the last war is about who will and won’t worship the image of the beast (Revelation 15:15). But religion is not THE PROBLEM.

Nuclear weapons, climate change, environmental toxins, clear cutting, strip mining, food additives, land mines, napalm, thalidomide, trans fats, baby formula, etc., are not the products of religion, but of science. – How odd that someone who so obviously believes in science should fail to see this. – And the really great holocausts of the 20^th century; in Europe, Russia, China, Cambodia and Africa, were political, not religious. And some of them were specifically anti-religious.

There’s something wrong with us, and that’s for sure. Not just the religious, or scientific, or political ones, nor the idiots and buffoons. All of us. You see, the problem of the human heart is the human heart. And neither religion, nor science, nor politics has found the solution. And, Bill, I’m afraid comedy isn’t the answer either, though it’s hard to imagine how we could face this silly world without it.

O, don’t be so religious.

I read an interesting book recently called The End of Religion. It’s written by Bruxy Cavey, a pastor in Toronto, and it develops the proposition that Jesus was not religious, was actually very anti-religious, and people who seek to follow him should not be religious either. This isn’t a new idea. I first ran across it in my late teens, and it was centuries old then. But, like most “new” ideas, I didn’t get it immediately. I usually need to hear something many times before it dawns on me, at which point I imagine I knew it all along. And the more obvious it is, the more often I need to hear it. Anyway, I think Cavey says these things that I’ve always believed very well, though it may just be that I’m beginning to get it now.

If you think about it, the crucifixion of Jesus was the result of a political and religious conspiracy. The High Priest, Caiaphas, and the puppet king, Herod, worked it out together, with the complicity of Pilate, the Roman Governor, and a handful of citizens. This alone should cause all who take the story seriously to have a dim view of both politics and religion, and to be very concerned about what might happen when the two come together.

Cavey points out that Jesus was always in trouble with the religious authorities precisely because he was irreligious. He broke the Sabbath rules and encouraged his disciples to do so. He fought continually with the Pharisees, who were the super religious people of his day, and he created a huge public disturbance in the Temple courts over the way religion was manipulating the worship of God.

One of the hallmarks of religion is separation anxiety, i.e., the concern about keeping up the barrier between those who are inside the circle of God’s love, and those who are out. Jesus, however, saw everyone on a continuum of God’s love. The point of it all is not to police the boundary, but to be drawn, and draw others to the centre.

The subtitle of the book is: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus and, if you’re ready to have your religious presuppositions challenged, I recommend it. The Bible begins with mankind in a garden with God and no religion, and ends with mankind in the heavenly city, in which there is no temple and no religion. I recommend it also.

That’s The End of Religion, by Bruxy Cavey (Navpress), and The Bible, by several authors, in several languages and places. (NIV, KJV, RSV, etc.)

Normal just ain’t what it used to be.

It seems, now that the election’s over and the economy’s collapsed, we’ll all just have to get used to a new normal. I hear Stephan Dion is getting on with his life. He kept telling us that he could speak the truth in both official languages better than Harper could in either, and now he’s finally heard the truth in the only language a politician really understands. I know it must be hard for him to realize he will never be Prime Minister. Do you remember when you first realized it? Came as a shock, eh? For me it happened in a spelling bee in grade four. They gave me the word “parlament”, at least I thought that’s what it was. What a stupid word! As I heard the buzzer telling me I could return to my seat, and looked around the room at the knowing expressions on the faces of my teacher and classmates, I experienced an epiphany. There will always be an “i” in parliament, but probably no “me”. What a stupid world!

And Warren Buffet says he’s going to start investing in the stock market again. Hey, wait a minute, isn’t he Mr. Stock Market? Has he been out for a while and we didn’t know it? O well, I’m sure there’s a good explanation.

You know, as strange as it may seem, the new world order looks pretty good from my perch down here. It appears, for example that, come next January, our friends to the south will have one less reason for calling it “The White House”. But, for me, it’s not about having a “family of colour” move in; it’s about all the people being able to identify with their institutions of power. And I think this is a much better White House renovation than Bush’s plan of vinyl siding.

So I hope the new world order is working out for you too. It’s really not so bad. The other day I heard Stephen Harper say that we’re going to continue being the “true north, strong and free” for the foreseeable future, and I see that American money still insists “In God we trust”, not “trusted”. And for every job that’s lost a new one opens up. Why, just look at what’s happening in England. As Winston Churchill declared in the darkest days of a former national trial, “We will never surrender!!!”

Don’t tell Kipling, but I think the twain have met.

In spite of the fact that I place a very high value on my democratic right to stay home on election day, or to go to the polls and spoil my ballot, I actually went out and voted first thing this morning. Unfortunately, by the time the candidates got finished spinning the issues and dissing one another for six weeks, I hardly knew what to do. But when I got to our polling station, I was encouraged to discover that they didn’t seem to know what they were doing either. Suzanne and I are new in the riding and weren’t on the list, and, even with picture ID, it took them about 20 minutes to sort us out. The polling station woman had obviously been watching all this nonsense. She handed me the ballot with the usual instructions, then looked around and whispered, “The blood and urine samples go on that table over there”. Ah, anarchists; the little cherry-bombs of life that make it all worthwhile.

Yesterday, for lack of something serious to talk about, radio phone-in-guy, Charles Adler, decided to revisit this question of whether Moslem women should be allowed to vote with their faces covered. As I expected, most callers said, no. But it was the vitriolic tone of much of the discussion and, what seems to me, the muddled thinking of most of the rest of it, that bothered me. So I’d like to put a few of my own thoughts on paper. – Virtual paper, I should say; and, perhaps, virtual thoughts.

This is a problem of negotiation; the kind that needs to take place when cultures bump up against one another.

In Western-European-type Canadian culture it’s generally assumed that you cover your face to conceal your identity. But there are many exceptions to this: surgical masks, gas masks, goalie masks, burn mask, scarves and balaclavas on cold days, etc. So, when face covering is not about concealing identity, it’s not a concern. And, sometimes, even when a person is trying to conceal their identity, in a game for example, or at a Halloween party, no one will object. All of which indicates that the issue at a polling station isn’t about covered faces per se, but about fraud, and sinister intent.

Now, in recent years, there has been a small but interesting cultural shift in Canada. We now have a relatively tiny number of women among us who cover their faces for the sake of modesty. This, of course, seems strange to us, just as it seems strange to people of some cultures when they discover that our women, for the sake of modesty, cover their breasts. These are not reasonable or logical practices, so there’s not much point in arguing about them. We simply need to decide if we are willing to accommodate them. And it seems to me that, if we want people to come to this country and become Canadians, to participate in our society and raise children who will make a contribution, we need, where possible, to accommodate them.

If we want a voting system that serves all Canadians, even as the population changes, we’re going to have to make some interesting adjustments. Picture ID with your current address is a great thing, but what about the young man in the burn mask, or the homeless woman of no fixed address? Right now we let them bring someone who will vouch for their identity. We do this, of course, because we want them to be able to vote. Is it not reasonable, then, to allow these Moslem women to do the same? That is, of course, if we really want them to be able to vote.

Feeling what I learned to say so long ago

It has been said that the fundamental spiritual impulse in human beings is to look upon a sunset or a landscape, a raging thunderstorm or a night sky, and be overcome with awe and wonder, and say nothing. But I’m not so sure. I think, perhaps, a yet more basic spiritual impulse is to look upon a rainbow or a flower, a new morning or a new baby, and say thank you.

Maybe it’s just because I’m almost 60, becoming, as the Bible says, “full of years”, but Thanksgiving is getting to be one of my favourite days. When I was a child everything was grace and wonder. Things were done for me, but I hardly noticed because it had always been that way. I learned to say thank you long before I learned to feel it. And Thanksgiving was just another day you had to cover off on the way to Christmas. And, of course, we all knew what Christmas was about.

Then came the years of work and worry, so much responsibility, running every minute just to stay in the same place. There were many times, of course, when I was thankful, but mostly I was overcome with all the things I had to do.

But lately things are different. I’m no longer overwhelmed with little mouths to feed, little bodies to clothe, little hearts and minds to guard. And I often find myself reflecting on how many of the things that blessed my life were always done by others; how few were ever done by me.

About 16 months ago I met a little girl named Magdalene Eloise; we call her Maggie. And I think she has something to do with this change that’s overtaking my life. As her grampa I’m helping to teach her to say thank you, and I think she’s helping to teach me to feel it.

I wrote her a little poem just after she was born, and I’d like to share it with you.

God’s Goodness to Me

by Dan Colborne

My life is composed of so many good things,

An assortment of which I will list.

Generally true, though I’m sure you will notice,

Dozens of things that I’ve missed:

Apples and cantaloups, lemons and pears,

Linguine, and all kinds of pasta,

Elephants, tortoises, lions and bears,

Nintendo and pool and canasta.

Each day they come fasta and fasta.

Even as I’m getting older and older

Lists of good things keep on growing.

Often, in glancing back over my shoulder,

I gasp at the train that I’m towing,

Simply amazed how the goodness of God,

Every new generation, keeps flowing.

Many don't vote because they do care.

So, here I am again, with just a few days to go in the election campaign, wondering if I’m actually going to be able to compel my body to enter a polling booth, and force my hand to make an X. Well, if I can’t do this seemingly simple thing, don’t dismiss me, or the millions of other nonvoters in Canada, as apathetic. We’re not. In fact, someone told me just the other day that I was one of the most pathetic people they’ve ever known. And it remains my conviction that we have, right here in Canada, some of the most pathetic people in the world. No, I’m a representative of a growing, non-visible minority that’s angry, discouraged, confused and tired, but still cares enough to refuse to use their vote to legitimize the nonsense we call an election in this country.

A number of years ago Kim Campbell was scorned and ridiculed because she said she couldn’t talk about policy in the middle of an election campaign. – At least, this is how what she said was spun. I doubt that even she can recall what she actually said. – But, what she seemed to be trying to say was painfully obvious to everyone. Every time anyone tries to raise a serious issue in an election campaign, the spin doctors and media reduce it to a series of meaningless sound-bites for their own purposes.

If concerns about our justice system are raised, people are variously accused of wanting to lock up 14 year olds for life, or of wanting to coddle and reward child molesters and wife abusers. If government funding for the arts comes up, it becomes a contest over who “cares” more about culture and starving artists. And, in the midst of what may be the worst economic challenge since the great depression, rather than having a serious, respectful discussion of economics and the place of government intervention in the marketplace, the whole thing gets reduced to whether one leader is keeping his plan under his sweater, or another has no plan and is making it up as he goes along. And the whole thing becomes more like a junior high school, student union election, than the election of a national parliament.

Who looked most prime-ministerial? Was Dion able to impress English speakers? Did Elizabeth May exceed expectations? Who got the “zinger” in the debate? When it comes to these questions serious voters are apathetic. What we want to know is that somebody out there has some serious answers to some serious questions. We don’t expect anyone to always have the right answer, but we want to have a serious discussion.

I believe we need to give some focused attention to the state of our democracy, and we might well begin by investigating the whole matter of falling voter turn-out rather than just dismissing it as apathy. I think we need to establish a series of forums, with people who can bring serious, nonpartisan reflection to the question of why there is so little substantive discussion going on in this country. And the media need to ask some searching questions about their own complicity in the dumbing down of politics in Canada.

Of course, some may say you can’t stop this nonsense. That may well be so. But it’s not really the nonsense that’s the problem. It’s the lack of sensible debate that should also be happening. In other words, if we can’t make it stop snowing, we can at least keep plowing.

And some may say that elections have always been this way. Again, this may be so. But many things were the way they’d always been till someone fixed them. Perhaps it’s time to fix this mess.

A lesson in democracy

That there are fools in the world is surely not news, but I suppose a particular fool can still say something that deserves attention. For example, the other day someone sent me a link to a news article about an independent candidate in this federal election who told a high school audience that homosexuals should be executed. And, wouldn’t you know, this clown claims to be a Christian, and quotes the Bible to support his case. Of course, we need to remember that the Ku Klux Klan are pretty much all “Christians”. As Stokely Carmichael said, “They wear their Klan robes of Saturday night, and their choir robes on Sunday morning”. And, as Jesus said, “You judge a tree by its fruit”.

The really interesting thing in the article, however, was not that this person was so hurtful and foolish, but that the police are treating this as a possible hate crime. I don’t think this is the right approach. If it’s a hate crime to say that men who have sex with other men should be executed, might it also be a hate crime to say that men who say such unkind and stupid things should be jailed? Speech control is tricky, and way too Orwellian for me.

And I actually think it’s good to have politicians come to high schools and share their “thoughts”, even if some of these “thoughts” may be hurtful, or even hateful. We’re trying to educate these kids, and they need to learn that there are some people out there who should never have any power at all. This is why democracy is important; it’s as much about keeping the bad guys out as getting the good guys in.

I wonder what it is for me

I have been having a wonderful experience over the past few days, watching Ken Burns’ marvelous documentary, Jazz. And one of the most moving and articulate voices, thus far, has been the great jazz trumpeter, Wynton Marsalis. Of course, nothing that matters can ever just be about itself, so the documentary is not just about music. It’s about New Orleans and Chicago, America, Europe, Africa and the world. It’s about religion and poverty and wealth and immorality and beauty and forgiveness. It’s about human life, and the way life is. It’s about race and racism, both black and white; about those who overcame, and those who succumbed, both black and white.

Part one ends with reference to a White jazz musician from the early 20^th century who insisted, until his death in 1961, that jazz was a White creation the Blacks were fraudulently claiming as their own. "My contention is that the Negroes learned to play this rhythm and music from the Whites. The Negro did not play any kind of music equal to White men at any time." – Nick La Rocca

Wynton Marsalis responds so movingly, so thoughtfully, that I’ve tried to transpose his words with reflective pauses and hesitations intact. There is, however, no substitute for watching him. I really found it quite stunning.

“Well, race is, uh… race is like… for this country is like, uh, the thing in the story, in the mythology, that you have to do for the kingdom to be well. And it’s always something you don’t want to do. And it’s always that thing that’s so much about you confronting yourself that is tailor-made for you to fail dealing with it. And the question of your heroism, and of your courage, and of your…of your success at dealing with this trial is, can you confront it with honesty? and do you confront it? and do you have the energy to sustain an attack on it? And, since jazz music is at the centre of the American mythology, it necessarily deals with race. The more we run from it, the more we run into it. It’s an age-old story, you know. If it’s not race it’s something else. But in this particular instance, in this nation, it is race.”

I wonder what it is for Canada, for my family, my church. I wonder what it is for me.