it is so sad yet so predictable that people can—and do—find truth and humor, both, in Bill Maher’s rants and raves and then still go back and support, reinforce and defend their sad and pathetic addiction to their religion they probably also don’t know much, if anything, really, about.  Sheesh.  Marx is so right.  Religion really is the opiate of the people.  “Gimme my fix”, right folks?

Falwell & Robertson are one form

Rush bracketed by Neil and Sean are another

Tim LaHaye using Babylon Rising and Micheal Crichton using State of Fear to *justify* Iraq invasion and environmental degradation to the Pop-up, Neo-con mass? 

This is the world that Jerry Falwell contributed himself and *Liberty* College-qua-University to. 

Believe it! 

rest in peace while so many rest in pieces?  Never.

I can appreicate Bill Maher’s being a progressive avowed atheist. Where he loses me, though, is when he presumes that everyone has abandoned their faith to join his rage against God. And, not everyone is there yet. I’m willing to wager a ham sandwich that his entire studio audiance for any given show is not 100% down with that, no matter how glad they may be to never have to hear Falwell ranting again. I am down with apologetics, but feel no compulsion to explain or justify my faith to anyone’s satisfaction or comfort. We should be able to do what we do without the drama of having to navigate the mine field of mass acceptance to be who we are.

Granted, I was no follower of the Falwellian way. I resented Falwell’s pursuit of the wealth of this world through the wallets of the gullible sheep he shamelessly fleeced. I abhored his marriage of the state to the church. I didn’t agree with his definitions of the traditional family or his rigid family values. Falwell’s views on human sexuality, both gay and straight, were instrusive, and probably best practiced quietly and privately between himself and Sister Falwell. He found the issue of human rights to run diametrically opposite to his leanings and outrageous teaching of the Divine Rights for God’s chosen. Heads of the house! Kings! Preists! The primary beneficiaries of the Work of Salvation. The annointed of GOD! An overweight little man of immeasurable myopic mysogyny, Jerry Falwell was limited, bigoted, intolerant, and tended to turn off the very people Jesus commissioned those who name His Name to reach and love. Falwell was neither a brother nor a friend to people who desperately needed him. Surely, the LORD will judge.

Bill Maher gets on my nerves on a whole different level. That Maher sees no place for faith, morals, or religious pursuits somehow entitles him to a licence to marginalize those who do. Too often, he comes off as just as intolerant of the God-fearing as Falwell was of the servants of any non-Christian diety. Maher needs to check all that hostitility. Folks who value faith should not be immediately dismissed as the crazoid right, out to bring back witch-burnings to set off Armaggedon. Not everyone who owns a Bible is a right leaning nut who thinks Dumya is called of GOD to reign over us. Religion is a little more complex than demonization of folks who can’t prove to Bill Maher’s personal satisfaction the existence of a supreme being whose existence he is equally unable to disprove. In my estimation, Bill Maher has not demonstrated enough theological erudition to pass himself off as the contemporary religious authority he obviously fancies himself to be. I’ll give him that he is a brilliant comedian and a provacative pundit, the left-wing answer to Hannity. But, he’s no Krista Tippett from NPR. Maher’s gig is real funny, but no more imformative nor pertinent than Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart. They’re all just slightly more info, sans local weather, than I am guranteed to get from nightly network news.

Good one Richard Roe — I’ve said the same thing about “two-chins” Falwell. It points to the Achilles heel of the (so called) religious right. Notice that when good ol’ Jer-Bear left this earth, he did not raise his arms and ascend to heaven. Funny how there are all these people running around today who claim to speak for or with God. Stragely, this was such a rare occurrence in Biblical times that these messengers where called “prophet” and their names are actually listed in the Bible. I didn’t find one named “Jerry Falwell” or “Pat Robertson” in there the last time I looked. If hypocrites were named in the Bible, then things might be different. Evangelicals have no more knowledge or insight into God than other religions or religious sect. Those, like Falwell, who are so ready to point to the sins of others, forget their own humanity (and by extension) sin. Oh, wait, another man said the same thing, but much more eloquently. I believe it was, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?”

Bill Mahr pretends to know the difference between right and wrong. Somebody should tell him that there is such a thing as morality and decency. But in these debauched times he can pass off as a great humanitarian and a role model.

Hey Rae #71441, the quote appears to be more ambigious.  Here in ancient Athens ca. 500 BCE many make the same claims about their activities as you do, but I have yet to examine one who was able to explain exactly how that is supposed to work out in practice.
Also, leave QuyTran alone, his comments are sometimes charming and often insightful.  His heart in in the right place for the most part, but he needs some serious consciousness raising when it comes to gay issues. 
I don’t see much of a mystery in his current one.  Falwell was indeed the son of a bootlegger (and the grandson of an atheist, one should know the enemy) and the meaning of the second sentence is clear enough.

Isn’t gluttony a sin?

Any guess what Falwell weighed in at? 

He probably looks perfect now; roasting on a giant BBQ spit, slowly turned by the hand of Satan for all eternity, at a choice picnic spot by a lake of fire.

I can almost hear the dripping fat crackling & spitting in the flames.

Falwell’s ministry gave him a platform to resist civil rights movements; slander people for need of scapegoats, intimidate politicians, boycott friendly corporations, staunchly support cannabis prohibition and the drug war, and attack the mirror that we call Hollywood.

You keep us laughing, Bill.  Thank you.

The use of religion to put forth ones personal views and prejudices is not new. Nor is the use of religion to implement ones political power. Bush Falwell took it to a higher level.

Any religion that is used as a weapon by humans is an abomination, and those who do so, if their God does exist will be shocked when they feel the displeasure of that God upon their journey into eternity.

LOL! Good job…U learn well.