A legendary songwriter’s A saw the defense of faith (Bernie Taupin)
I’m more than a little perplexed. Why so many expend such sweat and precious breath to fluidize and demonize Christianity is simply quite beyond me. Surely there are infinitely more negative and disruptive forces at work in the universe than something that gives hope and comfort, let alone refuge, aid and medical assistance to countless millions. I imagine it’s pretty much the same old bag of rattling bonds, the detractors and stone throwers bitch and whine while negativity and selfishness runs rampant in their insular worlds. When was the last time you heard of “The American Atheist Association” building schools and housing for the homeless and disposed on the frozen slopes of China or bringing in medical supplies and vaccinating poverty stricken tribes in the African wilderness while warring factions try to kill them? Just as an afterthought, “The American Atheist Association?” I don’t get it, if you don’t believe, no sweat, but why do you need a club? . . . .
Comedians it seems have always found an easy target in bashing God and religion. Sadly great comedians flail continually in the obvious, bogging themselves down in banality and paper-thin depiction. George Carlin’s “How can you honestly believe in a benevolent old man in robes and a big white beard sitting on a cloud?” remains uncommonly pedestrian. Pretty pathetic huh! I mean did he really believe that’s how most intelligent Christians perceive their higher power, give me a break.
Even my dear brilliant Eddie Izzard whose early stage shows contained gut busting monologues based around the Old Testament has succumbed to flat out ridiculing in order, one can only imagine to appear edgier and hip. His earlier work on the subject had such a charming childlike quality to it, a theater of the absurd that was neither offensive nor condescending. So much funnier than looking the audience in the eye and saying “Anyone with any intelligence can’t honestly believe in this stuff” Yea, well tell that to C. S Lewis, Graham Greene, George MacDonald, W. H. Auden and William Blake, illiterate, misguided fools every one of them!
But my complete disdain I’ll reserve for Bill Maher, someone who at one point in time I found in every way thought provoking, witty and a man whose perception of the absurd was right on the money. Sadly he’s set his sights on the Achilles’ heels of religion with such zealotry that it’s almost disturbing. Such caustic cynicism should be duly noted and examined for its mixture of puffed-up self-righteousness and tee-hee mentality, traits that inevitably led to a movie of such worthless content and low blow ridicule it defies all the laws of serious documentation.
I’m referring to “Religulous” a guffawing gallop through the whacked out fringe elements of organized religion. Chuckle at the screwball eccentrics and possessed antics of the left of center. It’s littered with all manner of urban legend and watery chestnuts like “The Virgin Birth isn’t in the Bible” (yes it is, check out Matthew 18-24) Heaven forbid he take on a real theologian, what would that have achieved, no laughs apparently just someone who could rip up his sound bites and shorten his box office draw. (It should be noted that the movie stiffed even to the point of him whining about it on the Oscar telecast.) All this I might add from a man that spends his evenings at the Playboy mansion!
Well, may I say excuse me but last time I checked there were weirdos and crackpots lurking in every division of of the human spectrum, crackpot athletes, crackpot rock stars, crackpots in the medical profession, crackpot scientists blah blah blah. Hey it would be like me making a documentary on political life and only featuring Ann Coulter, Kinky Friedman and Screaming Lord Sutch.
I mean what’s the beef, how’s it hurting old Bill. Why does all this get under peoples skin with such venomous results? There are simply millions of Christians out there who quietly and with the greatest dignity execute their faith and belief without resorting to madness, irrationality and human sacrifice. Lord Almighty there are extremists everywhere and it appears to me that the more I witness of these cynical atheists the more the likes of Maher and Christopher Hitchins are the ones who are starting to look crazy.
contruple 