ugh. watching bill maher is like watching a trainwreck. the part that is sad about this is how much energy i predict that churches will expend in “denouncing” him and this movie instead of just being focused on loving the world like God loves the world.
if there is one conversation that would ever be interesting to see it would be the one that will play out one day between mr. maher and jesus.
actually, the movie i’m looking forward to is this one…when i heard about it, i was sure it was cheese factory…… but the producers of facing the giants seem to have a huge movie opportunity with this one about saving a dying marriage……. http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ have you seen that trailer?
Mahar is a funny guy, but this kind of made him look dumb. He acted as if he knew nothing about religion, and didn’t want to know anything about it. I hope he asks some tough questions. I hope a bunch of the stupidity in religion is exposed. I also hope that he is willing to let the truth be heard as well.
Wow….I can not stand Bill Maher, mainly just because he bugs me. But I do respect a guy who stand up for what he believes. Although he will spend the entire movie belittling Christians and other religions, it still seems intriguing…And yeah I agree, the church will probably spend a lot of man hours, and moeny bad mouthing it, etc. And it seems pointless to me.
One thing for sure is we perhaps should begin praying now for those who watch this film and expect to find answers in the “documentary…”
Imagine if we were just to stop and pray for Bill Maher and for Larry Charles
Saul was worse than these guys could ever be… and …
God gave him a moment of transformation…
Perhaps we should focus in prayer ….
just my 2 cents.
I’d be more interested if it weren’t Maher. It’s like watching Lou Dobbs talk about immigration or Rush Limbaugh talk about Democrats – you know what’s coming out of his mouth before he even says it, so why bother? The topic could be so interesting in the hands of someone who might surprise us with their analysis or commentary once in a while instead of beating the same drum the same way with every word out of his mouth.
I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ve always found him to be entertaining, even if I don’t agree with him. I hope he sought out Christians who could articulate clearly what they believe and why.
I’m planning on watching this solely for his trip to the “Holyland Experience” in Orlando Florida. Plus this would be an interesting watch from a “know thine enemy” perspective.
Unfortunately, there are always those folks on the fringes of Christianity that are going to be the ones they talk to, thus making the rest of us look a little kooky. I agree with Chad Maag in that we need to be prepared for this ahead of time so that we can have an intelligent conversation with those that would like to disprove Christianity or twist the belief or purpose and use this movie as their basis for doing so.
“I hope he sought out Christians who could articulate clearly what they believe and why.”
Unfortunately, that’s not something I really expect to see. It’s most likely he sought out the ones who look the most ridiculous.
I agree with Brian Baute. He had his purpose in stone before he ever started filming: make himself look smart and everyone else look stupid. This won’t exactly be an open-minded search for the truth.
I’d love to see this film. While Maher is obviously not going to be fair, it’s important for us Christians to know and see how we’re coming across to outsiders.
If we were more loving and doing our job, we wouldn’t be criticized like this. If we were loving and sacrificial, there’d be no question that God exists and that He’s with us, and that He loves outsiders.
People may still reject Him, but it wouldn’t be because they disbelieved in Him or how He had made our lives amazingly awesome!
“I hope he sought out Christians who could articulate clearly what they believe and why.”
That’s my concern. From the trailer’s perspective, it doesn’t look like this movie has anything to do with finding the truth, only attacking. I like Brian’s take as well. I hope this becomes valuable, but if its that same “beating” it’s gonna be pretty boring.
@Jesse Phillips, I completely agree that the world looks at us in a bad light. It’s Biblical that they will always look at us this way. But, there are Christians all over the world are caring and loving and showing the light of Jesus. My issue with this film is that it will probably not show any of those people…only the wackos. In that case, is there any truth we can learn about ourselves, as Christians, from Mahar in this film?
I agree with you Jesse. Maher is a smart guy, so he is going to poke fun and show the most ridiculous people he meets to make his point- that there are a lot of contradictions in what “religious” people say and do, that usually ends with the religious person looking stupid, dumb, or just crazy. It is definitely a generalization but sadly it does exist.
It is not our job to attack Maher, it is our job to love him, everyone in this movie, and everyone that will agree with this movie. But I iwll definitely see it, could definitely show us how some people see Christians (much like the book Jim and Casper Go to Church). A good read.
I won’t see it. I just don’t care to. I’m sure I’ll hear enough about it from those who do. And then hopefully 2 weeks after it leaves the theaters nobody will talk about it again.
I think it will be a great movie on the absurdity of religion. That’s part of Maher’s shtick, pointing out absurdity. And a few people will likely assume that Maher is talking about them, and get upset.
I agree with a lot of the comments, esp. with Jesse no. 15.
Can I see it without giving the producers my money?? Would like to see it so I can talk to nonbelievers about it, but hate the idea of giving almost $10 bucks to the film makers…
Wonder if he will highlight any Christ followers that are using their life to make a difference by touching people around the world at their point of need as Christ led by example?
The trailer looks as though he is only focusing in on religionists.
Oh, wow!!!
I am not a fan of Maher’s, but I can tell that there will be some funny parts in this movie…after all I laugh at Christians all the time, but it will be sad how Christianity is attacked for some extreme representatives of it and I doubt Maher will show any people who are living out a relationship instead of the religion, he will probably show those who appear to be lacking sanity. I know the movie is about “Religion” but in the trailer alone the Christian faith was shown probably 90% of the clip.
tony
great marketing it is – a negative religious or political documentary is always an attention getter from the public. why do they like it so much? because it gives them an excuse to not face the facts or rather, the Truth.
you see, if the general public can come up with a good enough excuse, Christians or religion in this case, on which to blame their total rejection of the Gospel – then they’ve got an easy out, sure enough
unfortunately, there is no ‘excuse’ Gospel. we are all held accountable for our decisions concerning our belief. hopefully the Christian response will not be one of anger and tit for tat. our response just might should be “my Jesus loves you and me whether we accept Him or not”. He loves Bill M. as much as He does me –
Here’s some interesting insight into the way it was filmed, Borat-style (using deception to tell – or avoid telling – people about the purpose of filming) over at FilmChat.
It would also be interesting to compare and contrast this film with Dan Merchant’s film, “Lord, Save Us From Your Followers” It uses many of the same tactics (man-on-the-street interviews), but arguably more honest filmmaking. There’s an emphasis on real dialogue and honest questions as opposed to depictions of people that make them look stupid.
How is it a problem if he’s interviewing “lesser Christians” considering that more of our country is nominal Christians or nonbelievers who can’t or won’t articulate their faith? The reality is there are far fewer who “get” anything, or who are less kooky than there are not. Maybe the problem really isn’t Bill, but it’s the church.
How can we NOT watch this movie? Think of all the conversations you’ll get the opportunity to have rather than shutting down. And I don’t care who ya’ are, Bill Maher is funny.
@ Libby: This film has been knocked about a lot because of what’s edited out, to serve Maher’s assumptions about faith. He goes in with a premise (a false one, IMHO), just like Michael Moore does – and edits and shoots to support that premise.
As a documentary filmmaker, I understand the need for “story”. The editor has immense power to alter the truth [that’s shown], or honor it. I doubt Maher is going to show the whole story in his film. I suppose filmmaking isn’t held to the same high standards as journalism ethically, but if a film is presented as documentary “truth”, there is an expectation of journalistic integrity on the part of the viewers. Maher & Moore break this trust with demagoguery like this.
@ DaveAllen – Ha! You’re right, I think we’ll be ok. =)
@Allan Well said. My belief is that this film will be great to watch, but it will hardly hold truth that we as Christians need to measure ourselves by. It will be interesting what people say about Christians in this film, but it will hardly be critique based on what Christianity and God’s love truly is.
not to act all super spiritual but I was reading in my devotions…
1 Corinthians 1:20-22
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world?s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom
I don’t know. I think we spend to much time trying to make people like us. Jesus said they would hate us. They do.
And I think those “silly, fringe, weirdo” Christians still represent us. Like it or not. The apostle Paul still had affection for the silly, fringe, weirdo Corinthian church in spite of their shenanigans that he describes the stuff they are doing even the pagans would be ashamed of.
Just some thoughts. Not trying to stir up a big theological fight… :)
Mike Emslie
As with all these kinds of films (was the last major one the Da Vinci Code? Maybe I am behind the times?) they promise to do damage to the church and end up being real flops that dont really damage the church at all. Or if they do make ripples those ripples end up as great opportunities to 1. Deal with the real problems that do exist in the “church”. I dont mind admitting to “our” excesses… it is just plain honesty. 2. Be a great opportunity to get the gospel discussion “out there”. Bring it on!
@AllanWhite: I totally understand what the film is doing, and what the response is. My concern is two-fold. 1) By getting all bent out of shape by what a film is doing, we are only serving the goal of the film, not proving that sometimes we (the church) don’t get it. I would hope that anyone involved in church knows that we are flawed and don’t always do it right. 2) That we are fearful of “other people” making “us” look bad. Reality, in my opinion, at least, is that we do it ourselves all the time. I do it when I spend too much money at the store of food that may not all be used, pay for internet, anything you want to call unneeded expenditures.
One of my biggest frustrations is when the church is unwilling to point our fingers back at ourselves and ask harder questions about how we actually portray, or don’t, what we claim we believe and whom we follow.
I think Bill is funny – crass and certainly biased – but funny. And the reality is, he knows it and plays off on it. And he edits that way. But people know that. Instead of boycotting movies, or belittling someone for editing inappropriately, or claiming that someone is intentionally picking on the less-good-Christians, it seems to me that all we do is feed right into Bill’s hands.
But, I guess that I’m just a huge cynic when it comes to the church and what we’re about instead of whom and what we should be about. I won’t go all into that, though. My moral high horse needs to get cut down anyway! :)
Comments
41 responses to “this should be interesting”
ugh. watching bill maher is like watching a trainwreck. the part that is sad about this is how much energy i predict that churches will expend in “denouncing” him and this movie instead of just being focused on loving the world like God loves the world.
if there is one conversation that would ever be interesting to see it would be the one that will play out one day between mr. maher and jesus.
Oh my.
I saw it on my apple trailers the other day. It looks like a pretty interesting view of the extreme side of all religions.
actually, the movie i’m looking forward to is this one…when i heard about it, i was sure it was cheese factory…… but the producers of facing the giants seem to have a huge movie opportunity with this one about saving a dying marriage……. http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ have you seen that trailer?
Mahar is a funny guy, but this kind of made him look dumb. He acted as if he knew nothing about religion, and didn’t want to know anything about it. I hope he asks some tough questions. I hope a bunch of the stupidity in religion is exposed. I also hope that he is willing to let the truth be heard as well.
Of course, I am sure he will make me laugh.
Wow….I can not stand Bill Maher, mainly just because he bugs me. But I do respect a guy who stand up for what he believes. Although he will spend the entire movie belittling Christians and other religions, it still seems intriguing…And yeah I agree, the church will probably spend a lot of man hours, and moeny bad mouthing it, etc. And it seems pointless to me.
One thing for sure is we perhaps should begin praying now for those who watch this film and expect to find answers in the “documentary…”
Imagine if we were just to stop and pray for Bill Maher and for Larry Charles
Saul was worse than these guys could ever be… and …
God gave him a moment of transformation…
Perhaps we should focus in prayer ….
just my 2 cents.
PS – thanks for the blog fodder: http://www.ChurchMedic.com
I’d be more interested if it weren’t Maher. It’s like watching Lou Dobbs talk about immigration or Rush Limbaugh talk about Democrats – you know what’s coming out of his mouth before he even says it, so why bother? The topic could be so interesting in the hands of someone who might surprise us with their analysis or commentary once in a while instead of beating the same drum the same way with every word out of his mouth.
I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ve always found him to be entertaining, even if I don’t agree with him. I hope he sought out Christians who could articulate clearly what they believe and why.
I’m planning on watching this solely for his trip to the “Holyland Experience” in Orlando Florida. Plus this would be an interesting watch from a “know thine enemy” perspective.
Unfortunately, there are always those folks on the fringes of Christianity that are going to be the ones they talk to, thus making the rest of us look a little kooky. I agree with Chad Maag in that we need to be prepared for this ahead of time so that we can have an intelligent conversation with those that would like to disprove Christianity or twist the belief or purpose and use this movie as their basis for doing so.
“I hope he sought out Christians who could articulate clearly what they believe and why.”
Unfortunately, that’s not something I really expect to see. It’s most likely he sought out the ones who look the most ridiculous.
I agree with Brian Baute. He had his purpose in stone before he ever started filming: make himself look smart and everyone else look stupid. This won’t exactly be an open-minded search for the truth.
Hopefully I’m wrong.
I don’t see that his presentation of Christians will be fair and balanced. He’s pretty much already made his mind up.
I’m going to watch it and probably laugh at how ridicoulous religion can be, but God says he uses the foolishness of this world to shame the world.
Let’s just not waste a bunch of energy on this and paint Christians with another broad, judgemental stroke.
I’d love to see this film. While Maher is obviously not going to be fair, it’s important for us Christians to know and see how we’re coming across to outsiders.
If we were more loving and doing our job, we wouldn’t be criticized like this. If we were loving and sacrificial, there’d be no question that God exists and that He’s with us, and that He loves outsiders.
People may still reject Him, but it wouldn’t be because they disbelieved in Him or how He had made our lives amazingly awesome!
Portorikan said,
That’s my concern. From the trailer’s perspective, it doesn’t look like this movie has anything to do with finding the truth, only attacking. I like Brian’s take as well. I hope this becomes valuable, but if its that same “beating” it’s gonna be pretty boring.
Haha, I think Bryan Clark and I have the same thoughts…
@Jesse Phillips, I completely agree that the world looks at us in a bad light. It’s Biblical that they will always look at us this way. But, there are Christians all over the world are caring and loving and showing the light of Jesus. My issue with this film is that it will probably not show any of those people…only the wackos. In that case, is there any truth we can learn about ourselves, as Christians, from Mahar in this film?
I agree with you Jesse. Maher is a smart guy, so he is going to poke fun and show the most ridiculous people he meets to make his point- that there are a lot of contradictions in what “religious” people say and do, that usually ends with the religious person looking stupid, dumb, or just crazy. It is definitely a generalization but sadly it does exist.
It is not our job to attack Maher, it is our job to love him, everyone in this movie, and everyone that will agree with this movie. But I iwll definitely see it, could definitely show us how some people see Christians (much like the book Jim and Casper Go to Church). A good read.
Love your enemies, and pray for those that persecute you…
Just sayin’
I won’t see it. I just don’t care to. I’m sure I’ll hear enough about it from those who do. And then hopefully 2 weeks after it leaves the theaters nobody will talk about it again.
I think it will be a great movie on the absurdity of religion. That’s part of Maher’s shtick, pointing out absurdity. And a few people will likely assume that Maher is talking about them, and get upset.
I agree with a lot of the comments, esp. with Jesse no. 15.
Can I see it without giving the producers my money?? Would like to see it so I can talk to nonbelievers about it, but hate the idea of giving almost $10 bucks to the film makers…
no, thanks. you got me to see Sicko and that was okay. but this… no thanks.
Wonder if he will highlight any Christ followers that are using their life to make a difference by touching people around the world at their point of need as Christ led by example?
The trailer looks as though he is only focusing in on religionists.
gaj
Oh, wow!!!
I am not a fan of Maher’s, but I can tell that there will be some funny parts in this movie…after all I laugh at Christians all the time, but it will be sad how Christianity is attacked for some extreme representatives of it and I doubt Maher will show any people who are living out a relationship instead of the religion, he will probably show those who appear to be lacking sanity. I know the movie is about “Religion” but in the trailer alone the Christian faith was shown probably 90% of the clip.
great marketing it is – a negative religious or political documentary is always an attention getter from the public. why do they like it so much? because it gives them an excuse to not face the facts or rather, the Truth.
you see, if the general public can come up with a good enough excuse, Christians or religion in this case, on which to blame their total rejection of the Gospel – then they’ve got an easy out, sure enough
unfortunately, there is no ‘excuse’ Gospel. we are all held accountable for our decisions concerning our belief. hopefully the Christian response will not be one of anger and tit for tat. our response just might should be “my Jesus loves you and me whether we accept Him or not”. He loves Bill M. as much as He does me –
I’ll wait for the DVD, i’m sure it will be funny.
Here’s some interesting insight into the way it was filmed, Borat-style (using deception to tell – or avoid telling – people about the purpose of filming) over at FilmChat.
It would also be interesting to compare and contrast this film with Dan Merchant’s film, “Lord, Save Us From Your Followers” It uses many of the same tactics (man-on-the-street interviews), but arguably more honest filmmaking. There’s an emphasis on real dialogue and honest questions as opposed to depictions of people that make them look stupid.
How is it a problem if he’s interviewing “lesser Christians” considering that more of our country is nominal Christians or nonbelievers who can’t or won’t articulate their faith? The reality is there are far fewer who “get” anything, or who are less kooky than there are not. Maybe the problem really isn’t Bill, but it’s the church.
Da Vinci Code didn’t bring the downfall of Christiainity. Nor has Michael Moore films destroyed our faith. I think we’ll be ok when it’s over.
What I video!
I liked that one. :)
Good stuff!!
How can we NOT watch this movie? Think of all the conversations you’ll get the opportunity to have rather than shutting down. And I don’t care who ya’ are, Bill Maher is funny.
@ Libby: This film has been knocked about a lot because of what’s edited out, to serve Maher’s assumptions about faith. He goes in with a premise (a false one, IMHO), just like Michael Moore does – and edits and shoots to support that premise.
As a documentary filmmaker, I understand the need for “story”. The editor has immense power to alter the truth [that’s shown], or honor it. I doubt Maher is going to show the whole story in his film. I suppose filmmaking isn’t held to the same high standards as journalism ethically, but if a film is presented as documentary “truth”, there is an expectation of journalistic integrity on the part of the viewers. Maher & Moore break this trust with demagoguery like this.
@ DaveAllen – Ha! You’re right, I think we’ll be ok. =)
brilliant! i can’t wait to see it.
@Allan Well said. My belief is that this film will be great to watch, but it will hardly hold truth that we as Christians need to measure ourselves by. It will be interesting what people say about Christians in this film, but it will hardly be critique based on what Christianity and God’s love truly is.
Don’t forget that Bill Maher isn’t just anti-Christianity, he thinks all religion is “silly.”
not to act all super spiritual but I was reading in my devotions…
1 Corinthians 1:20-22
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world?s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom
I don’t know. I think we spend to much time trying to make people like us. Jesus said they would hate us. They do.
And I think those “silly, fringe, weirdo” Christians still represent us. Like it or not. The apostle Paul still had affection for the silly, fringe, weirdo Corinthian church in spite of their shenanigans that he describes the stuff they are doing even the pagans would be ashamed of.
Just some thoughts. Not trying to stir up a big theological fight… :)
As with all these kinds of films (was the last major one the Da Vinci Code? Maybe I am behind the times?) they promise to do damage to the church and end up being real flops that dont really damage the church at all. Or if they do make ripples those ripples end up as great opportunities to 1. Deal with the real problems that do exist in the “church”. I dont mind admitting to “our” excesses… it is just plain honesty. 2. Be a great opportunity to get the gospel discussion “out there”. Bring it on!
@AllanWhite: I totally understand what the film is doing, and what the response is. My concern is two-fold. 1) By getting all bent out of shape by what a film is doing, we are only serving the goal of the film, not proving that sometimes we (the church) don’t get it. I would hope that anyone involved in church knows that we are flawed and don’t always do it right. 2) That we are fearful of “other people” making “us” look bad. Reality, in my opinion, at least, is that we do it ourselves all the time. I do it when I spend too much money at the store of food that may not all be used, pay for internet, anything you want to call unneeded expenditures.
One of my biggest frustrations is when the church is unwilling to point our fingers back at ourselves and ask harder questions about how we actually portray, or don’t, what we claim we believe and whom we follow.
I think Bill is funny – crass and certainly biased – but funny. And the reality is, he knows it and plays off on it. And he edits that way. But people know that. Instead of boycotting movies, or belittling someone for editing inappropriately, or claiming that someone is intentionally picking on the less-good-Christians, it seems to me that all we do is feed right into Bill’s hands.
But, I guess that I’m just a huge cynic when it comes to the church and what we’re about instead of whom and what we should be about. I won’t go all into that, though. My moral high horse needs to get cut down anyway! :)