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DVD REVIEW tism for the dead, sacred undergarments, the planet Kolob (close to where God lives), polygamy, polyandry, angels deliv- ering golden plates, and the Garden of OD S OOLS Eden being in Missouri—while they con- G ’ F sider ridiculous such beliefs as transubstan- tiation, handling poisonous snakes as a sign RELIGULOUS of spiritual maturity, six-limbed goddesses, reincarnation, and religious jihad—as well Directed by as ideas formerly believed by members of Written by their own faith, such as Adam being God, 2008 blood atonement, dark skin as a curse from God, and all Native Americans being de- 101 Minutes, $13.99 scended from Semitic peoples. As says in his review of Maher’s film, “Perhaps you could enjoy the material Reviewed by Robert A. Rees about other , and tune out when yours is being discussed. That’s only human nature.”1 Bill Maher is not significantly different aher’s main commentary on Mormonism begins with his from many of the religious people he vilifies. M standing in front of the Salt Lake Temple: “That’s the Mormon temple behind Like most believers, he is not troubled by me. Beautiful isn’t it? Almost makes you nuance, ambiguity, or complexity. feel like you are halfway to heaven already.” He continues, “To be a Mormon means to believe some really crazy stuff. Crazy even by the standards of the big religions. You’re the new kid on the block, and all the good Nothing has more retarded the ad- which he had abandoned in his late teens. crazy has already been picked over, so you vancement of learning than the dis- He didn’t allow even a scintilla of praise or have to kick up the ante. But that’s the position of vulgar minds to ridicule acknowledgment of any goodness in reli- plight of the newer religions like and vilify what they cannot compre- gion. Mormonism and . ‘I’ll see you a hend. Watching Bill Maher’s Religulous, I felt I burning bush and a talking snake, and I’ll —Samuel Johnson was watching my brother’s movie. In fact, raise you magic underwear and extraterres- had Bill still been alive, doubtless he would trial infestation.’” In the special features Ridicule is the first and last argu- have been first to tell me about the film and section of the DVD of Maher’s film, Maher ment of a fool. to use it as more grist for his anti-religious claims that the Book of Mormon is plagia- —Charles Simmons mill. rized from Ethan Smith’s View of the The funny thing is I agreed with many of Hebrews “the way The Da Vinci Code ripped couple of years ago, my brother my brother’s observations, as I can with off its ideas from Holy Blood, Holy Grail.” Bill died, ending our fifty-year Maher’s. Taken as a whole, much of Maher’s ridicule of specific Mormon A conversation about religion. is ridiculous if by that term one means ab- teachings includes God living “on a planet Actually, “conversation” is the wrong word, surd, preposterous, or unbelievable. Taken next to the star Kolob”; “Jesus came to as is “dialogue,” because Bill’s only re- as individual faith traditions or all together, America to preach to the Indians”; sponse to religion was ridicule, which he one can find loads of preposterous stuff— “Mormons baptize dead people” (including expressed with—well, a religious zeal! at least to nonbelievers. “Joan of Arc, Buddha, Anne Frank, Adolf I can’t remember a conversation in Most believers easily identify the absur- Hitler, Josef Stalin [and] Genghis Khan”); which he did not put down my beliefs, cat- dities in other faiths while being blind to that “caffeine is evil but magic underwear egorize all believers as fools, and blame all those in their own. (As the atheist Richard can protect you” (from “fire, knives, bullets history’s ills on believers and their beliefs. It Dawkins asserts, all believers are atheists [and] Satan”); “everyone must stand at the was impossible to get him to consider an al- about every god but their own.) For ex- last judgment before Joseph Smith, Jesus ternate point of view or to modify his senti- ample, I belong to a religion in which be- and Elohim”; “you need a secret password ments. He was particularly hard on lievers accept without question such to get into heaven”; and of course Mormonism, the religion of his youth, concepts as humans becoming gods, bap- polygamy. When one of the polygamous ROBERT A. REES lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains where he writes poetry, contem- wives he interviews says that she wouldn’t plates the glories of the giant redwoods, and studies Mormon culture. He is a marry a man who didn’t want other wives, founding member of the Liahona Children’s Nutrition and Education Foundation, Maher replies, “I think I’m going to become and recently co-edited the Reader’s Book of Mormon (Signature 2008). a Mormon.” This isn’t to say that Maher isn’t at times

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uncertainty. What becomes clear in watching Religilous is that Maher is as certain of his position as are fun- damentalist Muslims or Christians, as intolerant of other points of view Subscribe as he accuses believers of being. His film is as much a reductio ad ab- to surdum as any of the religious beliefs and practices he takes such glee in Sunstone ridiculing. As Neely Tucker of the Washington Post writes in a review of Maher’s film, “One of the rules of satire is that you can’t mock things you don’t understand, and Religulous 6 Issues — $45 starts developing fault lines when it 12 Issues — $76 becomes clear that Maher’s view of religious faith is based on a sopho- 18 Issues — $106 moric reading of the Scriptures and that he doesn’t understand that some thoughtful people actually do believe in some sort of spiritual life.”2 In his commentary on the film in Rates are for U.S. Newsday, Rafer Guzman writes, “You delivery only. don’t need to believe in God to take Call for international issue with Bill Maher’s Religulous, a rates: 801.355.5926 quasi-documentary that mocks reli- gion as ridiculous, crazy, even dan- gerous. It’s a nasty, condescending, small-minded film, self-amused and ultimately self-defeating . . . Maher www.sunstonemagazine.com claims that his mission is to use reason and logic to combat the fal- lacies of faith. In reality, his tools are funny. At one point, he observes, “A dark comfortable at both services. sarcasm and humiliation. Either way, it’s a skin is a curse from God, but a sufficiently I was also aware in each service how fool’s errand, as Maher, who is no fool, righteous dark-skinned person can become easy it would have been for someone intent should know.”3 white-skinned” which is followed by four on making fun of these believers to ridicule In judging the religious beliefs and prac- photos of Michael Jackson becoming in- their respective forms of worship. tices of humans foolish, Maher might re- creasingly white. Ultimately, anything that relies on in member, as Paul said, that “the wisdom of the supernatural, that accepts the meta- this world is foolishness with God” (1 Cor ot long after seeing Maher’s film, I physical as real, is going to be inexplic- 3:19) He might also take some consolation attended, on consecutive Sundays, able—and perhaps at times even in the fact that, undoubtedly, God shares N my home ward in the Santa Cruz laughable—to someone who sees the world Maher’s opinion about the foolishness of Mountains, a service at the St. Peter and St. through another prism. And that’s the many of the things Maher satirizes. The dif- Paul’s Russian Orthodox Church not far problem with ridicule: it persuades people ference is that God loves us in spite of our from my house, and a jazz communion ser- not by reason but by using distortion, exag- foolishness. vice at the First Congregational Church in geration, and deflection to assert that the Santa Cruz. At each of these services, I kept thing being ridiculed could not possibly be NOTES wondering how each group of worshippers accepted by normal, rational people. would regard the others’ forms of worship. My brother and Bill Maher are not sig- 1. Roger Ebert, “Religulous,” The Chicago Sun- Undoubtedly, those attending the conserva- nificantly different from many of the reli- Times, 2 October 2008, http://rogerebert.suntimes. tive high church liturgy of the Russian gious people they vilify; like most believers, com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/RE- VIEWS/810020306 (accessed 6 April 2009). church, with its icons, incense, bells, and they are not troubled by nuance, ambiguity, 2. Neely Tucker, “This Spiritual Satire Falls chants, would have found a jazz service or complexity. When it comes to belief, Short,” The Washington Post, 3 October 2008, strange and disconcerting (and likely irrev- everything is black or white, good or evil, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ erent); those clapping their hands and true or false, rational or ridiculous. Both are article/2008/10/02/AR2008100200898.html (ac- moving their bodies to the riff of a saxo- easy positions to hold because they don’t cessed 6 April 2009). phone might have found the Orthodox ser- require examination, they don’t require one 3. Rafer Guzman, “Religulous,” Newsday, 1 October 2008, http://www.newsday.com/entertain- vice staid and static (if colorful). My guess to revise one’s ideas or challenge one’s ax- ment/movies/ny-etrelig5864082oct01a,0,5655818 is that most Mormons would have been un- ioms, and they don’t tolerate irresolution or .story (accessed 6 April 2009).

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