Religulous: The Faith Off
Hey all,
I had the good fortune of seeing "Religulous" with two others critics, and we were from three different religious backgrounds (Christian, Jewish and Mormon). I expected a veritable holy trinity of criticism. Instead, interestingly, we all liked the movie. Bill Maher would've been proud. Of course, none of us are particularly religious, but still.
For me, I come from a Roman Catholic upbringing. And like Maher (at least, 50% of him), I found church to be "boring and scary". Ok, not scary, but definitely boring. I always felt like church on Sunday was something I was being forced to do. It was never a choice. And never, really, something that I understood. So like most children, I tuned out to something I was forced to do.
Funnily enough, I remember thinking, as a kid, that Heaven and Hell really existed. Not that it stopped me from the occasional sin - 'cause, hey, a little confession would take care of that (woohoo, killing spree!). The logical side of me always had an issue with Bible stories. Maybe I was watching too many movies at the time. As a budding young film critic, I kept seeing plot holes in the Bible. "Okay, so there's Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel, then goes into the desert and gets married." Um...where'd he find this girl? eHarmony? If this were a Hollywood movie, I might say "there were script problems from Day One."
But back to the Gospel According to Maher. I had a great time in the film, but my main problem with it was that Bill couldn't turn off the smarmy mugging. I'd love to see him take on religion in a - dare I say it? - fair-and-balanced way. But I'm not sure that's possible. I had a feeling that might be the problem with the movie (see my top ten list for Fall 08). I heard Maher on "The Daily Show" saying he didn't make the movie to make fun of religion, just to ask questions. Well, Mission: Unaccomplished. Seeing Bill go toe-to-toe with devout Middle Americans wasn't a fair fight, it was a shooting gallery. Bill, you debate for a living, how about going up against some professional theologians?
I'm willing to forgive him for that though (Christian of me, no?). As a species, we've been bombarded with one-sided religious propaganda for eons, so it's about time we heard something from the other side.
And speaking of which, folks, the floodgates are open. What say ye?
-j
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