Bill Maher on Christ

[mrgorth]

From Larry King Live:

KING: Do you think, Bill, that religion did more harm than good? Is that your thought? That organized religion is worse than good?

MAHER: Absolutely. I think organized religion has done horrible things. You can just see how awful the bureaucracy that is religion becomes because after all we do have in Jesus Christ the best role model you could ever have a for a God. I really couldn't say that about the Islamic religion. I mean, Muhammad is a warrior god. I know they don't like to have that brought up but it's true.

Whereas this truly is Jesus Christ the prince of peace. I can't think of a greater role model. Everything he preaches is what I would like to preach to young people today because his words get twisted. Because the role of religious leader on earth is inherently corrupt. And that's why, as I say, I don't have trouble believing that the Jewish priests in the first century would collaborate on putting him to death.

Discuss.

[IrateCitizen]

1. He could have said it more succinctly, IMHO

I'd sum it up with just four words:

ORGANIZED RELIGION CORRUPTS SPIRITUALITY

As for the examples he gave, he's right on. As Gandhi answered when questioned about Christ, "I love your Christ -- what I cannot stand are the Christians."

[mrgorth]

2. LOL!

Never heard that one.

[indepat]

4. Did Gandhi really say that? Wow, sums up my feelings about Christ and

surely those sanctimonious reichous self-professed Christians who, among other things, shill for unnecessary, illegal, unjust, inhumane and immoral pre-emptive war(s).

[IrateCitizen]

8. Well, keep in mind that the Brits were "Christians"...

I don't know if I got the Gandhi quote exactly right, but that's the gist of it. He was basically pointing out that Christ taught us wonderful lessons about how we should live our lives with regards to one another, lessons that could open up a much better world if we were to adhere to them -- but that hypocritical Christians would readily violate those teachings while at the same time piously proclaiming their righteousness because they were "Christians".

[smirkymonkey]

14. That's great! Reminds me of anohter one....

..God, save me from your followers!

[GainesT1958]

3. The "Jewish Priests" he's talking about...

Were the Pharisees, or the "Conservative Theocracy" of their day. They were to Judaism at the time what the Inquisition-Era Vatican was to Catholicism...and what the Shi'ite Theocracy effectively "ruling" Iran is today. Someone with a new outlook on The Law...and who preached the "esscence" of God's Word instead of their bureaucratic INTERPRETATION of that word (hmmm..."fundamentalism", anyone? :eyes: ) was considered a threat to them and to the survival of their power. Just as the Renaissance was to the Theocrats of the 16th Century Catholic Church. Just as REAL "Christianity" is to the Robersonians and Falwellians today.

Along these lines, I heard something pretty scary yesterday from an Admin. Assistant in the office next door to ours. She's a conservative Repub (so yes, maybe I should have considered the source). She and her fiance went to see the "Passion" movie this weekend. Well, she said he came out of it with this expressed impression, one she apparently agreed with: "He told me after he saw how much Jesus suffered, and at the hands of who, that he now has a whole different take on the Holocaust...like, 'what comes around goes around'".

:wtf:

I kid you not, folks. This is what she claimed he said--and she was saying it as if she agreed whole-heartedly.:wow:

Lest we think this year's election "really won't change much either way", I just wanted to mention this little tidbit to remind all of us here at DU just what we're REALLY fighting for this year...not just a "regime change"...but the very SURVIVAL OF AMERICA as we know it!:scared:

B-)

[DifferentStrokes]

9. Priests = Sadducees

Upper class. Sanhedrin. Collaborators with Rome, although probably not as much willing as pragmatic. They also adopted Greco-Roman lifestyles.

Pharisees were the middle class, back to our roots, party that rose in opposition to the Hasmoneans. The Hasmoneans drew opposition because they elevated themselves to the priesthood as well as the monarchy.

Modern Jews consider themselves Pharisees or descendants of Pharisees, so people here could probably be more careful about adopting the politics, and the rancor, of the period.

Sadducees no longer existed after the destruction of the temple and the end of the Jewish state.

[asthmaticeog]

5. Muhummad

isn't a "warrior god." In fact, he's not a god.

He probably just misspoke, but still, jeeeez, Bill!

[mrgorth]

6. Agreed

I think he was making the point that Christ is a better, more peaceful, role model than Muhammed(sp?) though.

[Jane Austin]

7. I love his take on Christ

But I have to say that there are many, many, many Churches whose focus is on help, succor, tolerance, forgiveness, redemtption, second chances (something Bush should appreciate more) and gratitude.

There are churches where you have to look really hard to find a self-righteous person amongst them. Not perfect people, but not terribly self-righteous, either.

These churches can be in almost any denomination, but are nearly always led by amazing ministers or priests.

People like William Sloan Coffin, John Spong, George Bunn and thousands and thousands more who I am not aware of.

Poor Bill grew up in a pre-Vatican 23 world, and must not have benefited from the hard look mainstream Christians have taken at themselves and the many changes the churches have undergone since that time.

BTW, you know that offensive line fundies throw at everybody that Jesus said "No one comes to the Father except by me"?

Well, assuming he said exactly that, most Christians I know take it to mean that it's Jesus and God's business how people come to know God and not some earthly hall monitors who divide up the "saved" and "unsaved" into racial, national and denominational lines.

If you believe in a powerful God, a powerful Jesus and a ubiquitous Holy Spirit, all in one, you've gotta believe that they/ he would know a little better than mankind would as to how to bring humankind to God.

OK, stepping off my soapbox now. :)

[The Stranger]

10. Moronic to compare "religious" "role models."

Go read about Joshua (from the Book of Joshua) (whom all three Western Monotheistic faiths revere). Good old Josh was a mass-murderer of men, women, children and farm animals. He was possibly the world's first known ethnic cleanser.

[erpowers]

11. Defending Joshua

Joshua killed those people because they were the enemies of Irseal. He did not just go out and kill people for the heck of it. If he had not killed them they would have killed the Irsealites.

[thingfish]

12. Christianity is a guilt trip that got out of hand.

End of story.

[Offshore Bush]

13. Idiotic.

Muhammad was not a "warrior god." That's the type of shit the wingnuts say. Muhammad was a prophet. It just completely discredits anything this fool has to say.

[seabeyond]

16. idiotic have you read the muhammad's words

i have. he sounds like the old testament

[Offshore Bush]

18. What in blazes are you talking about?

"the muhammad"? His name is Muhammad. And yes, I've read the Koran in its entirety. It does sound like the Old Testament. The Koran, however, alleges that Jews perverted the monotheistic belief with the idea of being "chosen." So, Islam is basically monotheism a l'arabe. And who the hell calls a religion idiotic? All religions are scientifically idiotic since it's all unproven. What makes one more idiotic than the other?

[struggle4progress]

15. The ROMANS controlled the state ,...

crucifixion was a Roman custom, and the Roman state imposed it.

Why is Maher is spouting the garbage used for millenia to justify pogroms?

:puke:

<edit>: Maher has a ridiculously simplistic view of Islam, too.

[Skittles]

17. he is absolutely correct

organized religion has done so much harm, so much.