I received this from my Pastor here in Baton Rouge, Pastor Bahr. He has some great insight on the new movie "Religulous"...
Suffice it to say that "Religulous" does not hold religious faith in very high esteem. The title for the movie says it all: "Religulous"‐a combination of "religious" and "ridiculous." The premise is that nobody really knows anything about God; so to say anything with certitude is simply to express unfounded faith in the ridiculous. To the film's credit, there are entirely too many Christians that do not know why they believe what they believe, and those Christians were all too available for Bill Maher's interviews.
While Maher questions all religious belief, it is the Bible which irks him most of all. Because he was raised a nominal Catholic, he recalls hating church and viewing it as boring and irrelevant. This, if anything, should be instructive to us about how important it is to positively engage kids in their Sunday school classrooms, if we ever hope to have them value and retain their faith into adulthood. His gripes about the inability of believers to respond to his simplest of faith questions should remind us how important it is for every generation to be prepared to revisit the old questions and to have good answers for them. If Maher would focus in on biblical scholarship and seriously be open to answers regarding Christian faith that our congregations espouse, he might actually find himself believing what he now denies.
Should thinking adult Christians see the movie? If anything, it will put your faith into high gear as you seek to answer its challenges. The movie is the world's playbook, opened for our understanding and subsequent response.
Pray that God would work through even this evil to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. If you have questions about this or any movie, please don't hesitate to ask your pastors. Remember that the best way to know why you believe what you believe (and not be the kind of Christian whom Bill Maher found for his interviews) is to remain active in worship and take advantage of educational opportunities!
