Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights
Bill Maher and Candy - strange bedfellows no?
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
OK except for this...
While I disagree with the late Coffeybean blog's assertion that MOST Protestants share Candy's (wwww.keepingthehome.com) view of Catholicism, there is a group that mostly does - secular liberals! Bill Maher being one of the most up front and in-your-face types when it comes to spewing crap about the Catholic Church. See the Catholic League's response to Maher's statements below:
Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights
Bill Maher and Candy - strange bedfellows no?
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Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights
Bill Maher and Candy - strange bedfellows no?
Please browse my eBay items!
Visit my new Amazon Store!
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14 comments:
Bill Maher is an atheist. He has made fun of religion noumerous times on his own show, and used it as a springboard for his political agenda when he was on Leno last.
http://newsbusters.org/node/6878
He is obviously not a Protestant, so I don't understand the connection to the statement that most Protestants feel the same way about Catholicism.
OK, wait- maybe you meant the reason they were such strange bedfellows was because he is an athiest. I just couldn't figure out the connect between the statement about Protestants and Bill Maher. He doesn't like any religion- except of course secular humanism, which he will deny is a religion, but it fits the description of a religion based on all their assertions. If you look in the directory of almost any major university, you will find an atheist organization under the listing of religious group.
I understood Elena to be saying that while most protestants don't hate Catholics, most secular liberals do.
BINGO!
And I'm guessing Bill and Candy have nothing much else in common - except this shared dislike or Catholicism.
I've watched Bill Maher pretty regularly over the past few years (until we dumped our HBO). Bill can make a lot of great points but he has his broken record issues, too:
1. Anyone who believes in God is a deluded idiot; if you subscribe to a religion you're especially deluded.
2. Everyone should eat organic and vegetarian.
3. George Bush lied about the reasons for going to Iraq.
Even, though, I have always agreed with #3 and sort of with #2, when he gets into ranting about those three things I just want to smack him.
At the same time, I have also heard him give certain credit to the pro-life position. He can understand it even if he doesn't completely agree with it. And he doesn't just take pokes at the Catholic Church. As one of my former professors would say, he is an equal opportunity offender, just like most comedians. And like most comedians he is willing be inaccurate and exaggerate just to get the laugh.
The difference between Bill Maher and someone like Candy is that Bill Maher is willing to listen to an opposing viewpoint and try to understand. He has even tried to engage guests whose point of view differs from his and his audience and demanded that those guests be given special respect for coming in and being a minority voice.
I met several Protestants in college who had the same misconceptions about Catholics as Candy, but they were willing to engage in civil discussion and have their misconceptions corrected. The didn't convert, and I didn't try to convert them. They may not have agreed with the Church's teachings, but I don't believe that any of them would have continued to spread misinformation either.
You know what I can't understand is why people like Bill Maher have television shows. Why? I mean for crying out loud, is there something, anything he says or does that is worthy of its own show? I think we'd do well to reconsider altogether what we consider entertainment. And, it's not just Bill Maher. There is very, very, very little that is televised or published these days that is worth the trouble to watch or read it. Of course, that is just my opinion. I'd like to go back to the days where there were clear cut standards regarding what could be published or televised, and when those standards were based on actual moral principles as opposed to the blurry lines we draw based on the "politically correct" relativism that is so pervasive in our society at large. It's really nauseating.
Sorry! I'll get down off my soap box now. Please excuse the interruption and thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
LOL! I knew you'd jump in eventually, Barbara!
Everyone, meet my (former) college roommate, Barbara. We'll have to try and avoid in jokes. (So, how much do you think Candy's loyal readers resemble Traftonites?) ;)
Plus, you can't tell any stories about my wild and crazy college days. Okay, really she can only affirm that I've always been a nerd. Now my husband, on the other hand, has always been a fun loving guy!
First, of all, I still take credit for Kelly and her husband getting together because I dyed his hair green. If I hadn't dyed it green, then he wouldn't have shaved it all off a few weeks later, and he wouldn't have been able to use his newly-shorn head as an excuse to go visit her. ;-)
Secondly, Bill Maher serves a purpose in the same vein as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The media really does take itself too seriously, and they have a tendency to turn molehills into mountains and ignore real mountains all together. This is kind of where these guys step in.
Through watching Bill Maher's Real Time I was introduced to many authors and political figures including: Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Andrew Sullivan, Arianna Huffington, and Ann Coulter (who I can not stand but I have read one of her books). All of them have been guests or panelists on his show at one time or another.
And, other than the cussing, Bill Maher (which normally airs late at night on HBO) really does not fly in the face of moral principles. It's not really made for kids due to the weighty issues discussed; of course, neither is the news.
As a secular liberal with mainly secular liberal friends, I can assure you that none of us hate Catholics. It *is* actually possible to be a secular liberal without being an idiot like Bill Maher.
Thanks, though, for the broad overgeneralization. You know how you don't like it when people stereotype Catholics? That works both ways.
I'm generally told that I am a secular humanist liberal, and every time it is said with the disdain of a swear word or an insult. It has a much more negative connotation to those using it towards me than it does to those who apparently fit the bill, me included.
I don't hate Catholics. I don't hate anyone, anymore. Many of you know some of my religious history or have at least had glimpses of it. It is not any religion I "hate" - in fact, I tend to not use the word hate to describe my feelings towards anyone or anything - but my negative feelings are towards those that choose to believe that because I don't live their way, I am doomed to hell or not a decent human being or that I am just sitting here waiting for them to tell me the "truth" - or their version of it. I am a grown adult with a college education and I can read - and I do. I also have a desire to understand other people and I love learning about different beliefs and cultures. Given that, trust me, I've heard your message before and I don't need to hear it again. I refuse to believe that God has chosen only followers of a certain religion or who do certain things or who live certain ways. Nothing anyone can say to me, or attempt to insult me with, will change that. I've come to that conclusion after many years of nothing - quite literally - because I somehow managed to believe my relatives who told me I was going to hell because I refused Christ. When, in reality, it wasn't Christ I was refusing, it was them and their religion and ways.
Anyway, I think Bill Maher does a lot to bring certain topics up for discussion between people who wouldn't normally "go there". I'm not a huge fan of his, but he can make some good points and dig into them sometimes. I, like Maher, am no fan what so ever of the current administration and I like how he examines certain things. I don't like his sweeping generalizations, but I still think he opens things for discussion that not everyone would be willing to do. I agree completely with Barbara in that he serves a purpose.
I, not being protestant or any other defined denomination, most definitely do not hate Catholics. Candy, being whatever religion she is, somewhere within protestantism, does. No matter how much she claims otherwise. Maher seems to dislike all religions equally.
You're absolutely right Lisa and I stand corrected.
Perplexity,
To whom is your comment aimed?
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