Religulous

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/01/film.religulous.ap/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

I sure am a fan of articles, particularly those presented by cnn.com (not sure how this news source became my news of choice, but it is what it is).

Has anyone heard of this movie? The wonderfully anti-religious Bill Maher has decided to create a movie, or documentary rather, "challenging the validity and value of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths". The interesting spin on this is that he has teamed up with director Larry Charles (yes, friends, Borat...) to make this film. Quite the duo I must say.

After reading this article, the incredibly feisty side of me (wait...Carly?? Feisty?? Heavens no!) wanted to go off on how frustrated this makes me, how Bill Maher has no intentions of making a documentary that has any intrinsic value but rather wished to elevate himself and raise some laughs through bias and blasphemy....and my frustrations could go on. Like I said: feisty.

But as I thought through the movie and would I be willing to go see it to understand what it was about, I couldn't help but be slightly sorrowful for not only the fact that there is so much disdain for the Lord and the truth of who He is and who we are because of that, but also that in fact there are millions of men and women that subscribe to the same ideas, not because they don't like what they find out about an all-knowing, merciful, compassionate, jealously-loving, sacrificial God, but because they don't like what they see in those that claim His name, both in His followers and the institutions they are a part of.

I think the final lines of the article are what grabbed me most: "Comedians have always made jokes about religion. It's a rich topic. I did when I was a young comedian, but they weren't jokes that got right to the essense of it, which is, this is dangerous and this is silly."

Interesting how many world views there are. As Christians, sure, we screw things up a lot. We claim the name of Christ and then turn around and gossip about our friends, or crusade after moral issues like abortion and homosexuality, completely forgetting that those are merely symptoms of a greater issue. But at the end of the day, we can all agree that there is something terribly wrong with this world. The dangerous part is not Christianity or Christians...though at times we absolutely mess up and make things worse. The dangerous and silly thing is not even in the truth we believe about the end result of life for those who do not believe (though we may believe this to be true, a good argument for the grace of Christ should not be "follow, or else reside in a firey pit for eternity"). The danger is living a life, earthly and eternally, apart from the One who created you, gave you life, sustains you, passionately wants you.

I know...probably going too far on just a movie. But Bill Maher is simply the spokesman for many others. This is our culture. These are the brothers and sisters that we are told to GO and baptize. What faith we need.... And I promise. I'll try to come up with a funny post next time. But let's be honest, I'm not that funny.