Bill Maher Mocks the Pope and the Catholic Church

Bill Maher evidently has a large fan following. Some would say it is because he is funny. Others would say it because he is entertaining. I believe it is neither of those reasons. I believe Bill Maher's fan base consists of a large following of people who share in his political bias, his anti-government stance, and his complete disrespect for people of faith.

Bill would see himself as an 'intellectual". Those who fail to share his hatred all things 'not him' see him as a bigoted opportunist who sees a chance to gain a large following from the anti-church, anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-Catholic, anti-Republican crowd, and It works for him. He has the full support of the Hollywood elite who take great pride in far left liberal stances which are often critical of practices of religion, and conservative government. Perhaps one of the best examples of this alliance was his joining with Michael Moore on his knees to beg Ralph Nader to drop out of the 2004 presidential race in order to increase John Kerry's chances of election.

Raised by a Catholic father and a Jewish mother Maher seems to have never gotten beyond his confusion over religion, which soon grew into a resentment of organized religion, something he refers to as a "neurological disorder" that "justifies crazies"....it is he said, "insanity by consensus".

While critical of organized region in general Maher reserves his most severe criticism for the Catholic Church. Reacting to the highly publicized charges of molestation by Catholic priests Maher used his Politically Incorrect show to generalize that all priests are molesters and child abusers.

During the April 11th broadcast of his show Maher castigated the Catholic Church with charges that brought gasps even from his highly supportive audience when in reference to the Pope he said the following:

"I'd like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That's right, the Pope is coming to America this week and, ladies, he's single."[source]

....and then comparing the Pope and the Catholic Church to the Texas Polygamist Church:

"If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If have a billion, they call you "Pope." It's like, if you can't pay your mortgage, you're a deadbeat. But if you can't pay a million mortgages, you're Bear Stearns and we bail you out. And that is who the Catholic Church is: the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia."[source]

This may be classified as comedy by some. It is not. It is one man's sick attempt to use his resentment of religion and those who practice it to justify his bigotry. It would be interesting to know what occurred in Maher's early life to create this hatred of the Church and religion in general. Perhaps Maher himself was a victim of child abuse.

The Catholic Church has many problems, not the least of which is addressing the environment and conditions which allowed the abuse of many innocent children over decades, and the Church's inaction in addressing these situations. The church has received and deserves much criticism for these events and how they were handled by the Church.

However the Catholic Church and churches throughout the world of organized religion consists of many faithful men and women who dedicate their very lives to their faith and overcoming world hunger, disease, and poverty. The world knows of the work of Sister Teressa, but gives little attention to the hundreds of thousands just like her all over the world.

Maher's blanket condemnation of organized religion and those who practice their faith whatever their religion is unjustified.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Bill Maher's and the Hollywood elite of the world could be 'for' something rather than 'anti' everything?

Wouldn't it be nice if those who claim to be comedians made an effort at comedy rather than launch long tirades espousing their political and anti-religious views under the guise of 'comedy'?.

Only one year ago Don Imus was suspended and later fired for making insensitive, joking remarks about the Rutger's Women's Basketball team. He should have been.

Are Maher's remarks any less sensitive and unacceptable?

No.