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Maher, Pope Benedict XVI and the sex scandal
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More from OpinionI don't tune in to the Bill Maher show on HBO because I figure those who do so regularly bear at least some slight resemblance to the racists who used to show up for lynchings, aiming, thereby, to vent hateful bigotry and satisfy lust for the pain of others.
Maybe that's unfair. Maybe the audiences are just liberals looking for a smug laugh at the expense of people who don't think like they do. But how then do you explain why they return to "Real Time with Bill Maher" after rants such as the one I caught recently?
Making reference first to the arrest of polygamists suspected of having sex with children in Texas, Maher said that "whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God's infallible wingman here on Earth, lock away the kids. Which is why 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."
"Now, I know what you're thinking," the comedian said. " Bill, you can't be saying the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult. For one thing, altar boys can't even get pregnant.' But really, what tripped up the little cult on the prairie was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided; religions get parades. If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you pope."
There's more, and it gets worse, although all of it is in line with other of Maher's anti-Catholic outbursts. The ones I've read are juvenile, pornographic portrayals of the church as gay men leading deluded fools who have never let go of childhood fantasies.
It's true, of course, that it's not just Catholic-bashers such as this influential TV host who have found something awful in the sex scandal that has cost the church $2 billion paid to victims.
I once heard a deeply religious Catholic man express agony at what the guilty priests did and what he considered the inadequate response of the church. He felt there had been a betrayal not just of the trust of millions, but of sacred purpose, of God. Yet, he did not assume the scandal summed up the whole of the faith, or that love could not produce a more holy future.
And I am at least one non-Catholic who thinks Pope Benedict XVI is helping that cause with his expressions of shame for what happened, his criticisms of the complicit bishops and an encyclical mentioned by Helen Alvare, a professor of law, on PBS's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
Alvare headed up a commission that worked to address the abuse issue. While believing church leaders had not understood "how deep the horror was for a family," she also felt there has not been an understanding of what a "vast program" has been put in place to reduce risks.
She thinks the pope has helped recovery in an encyclical telling church members "to give every human being in your path the look of love they crave, and to share not just with your family, but the broader society, to love in a self-sacrificial way."
No doubt Maher could make a joke out of those sentiments. Others might get it that while people like him create something malevolent out of past evils, making future evils more likely, those responding to the pope create a great good.
— Jay Ambrose writes for Scripps Howard News Service.
Posted by cassandra on April 21, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't like Pope Benedict. He holds the wall against vital reform in the world and in his faith. There, that's said.
I'm also tired of big headlines over non-news. The Pope celebrated the mass to thousands. Okay, that's his job. This requires headlines?
But Benedict almost said a lot of things that badly need saying and he said them to power, to Bush and company, albeit without naming names. Big nations are screwing over small nations. The UN's authority should not be imperiled. We should care for the planet. Trade practices should be fairer. And of course, he continues to plug for peace (when not antagonizing the Moslems with unnecessary gestures.)
Maybe the attention to the sex scandal is getting a little old?
The capacity of this ancient religion to produce moral giants who walk the walk evidences a reservoir of something good that remains. The dude who leads other people of conscience against the US torture school, School of the Americas for instance, the Berrigans, Oscar Romero, the nameless native clergy of Latin American murdered by governments we supported, the rebellious nuns, et al..
Admittedly the hierarchy tends to kick these people out or otherwise abuse them, but that's what hierarchies do. All emperors have no clothes.
Posted by sokol_kiev on April 21, 2008 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am not a religious person, however the recent hate-filled rants by Bill Maher on his HBO show the other week was the final straw for me. I even gave it a week to see if Maher would make a heartfelt apology this past Friday evening on his show to those across the world he offended. That never came. So first this this past Saturday morning I was on the phone with Time-Warner cable and instructed them to immediately cancel my HBO service, and made the reason for my request quite clear.
I appreciate people with opposing political and religious views than me as I find discussions with them enlightening. However, Bill Maher, and people like him, is a different breed. He is incapable of appreciating the opposing views of others. Maher turns a deaf ear and instead only chooses to put down and deem those who believe differently from him as ignorant and stupid. Maher is a sad, pitiful man. I only regret that Time-Warner/HBO rewards Maher with his own television show where he can spew his hatred. So now I will no longer reward Time-Warner with my paid subscription to HBO.
Posted by carolyn.crandall on April 21, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow, you haven't learned how to change the channel on your TV, or haven't learned to read the channel guide and not tune into to Real Time. And you're calling Bill Maher pitiful?
Posted by allblacks on April 21, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So I guess Carolyn supports what Maher said.
Posted by sokol_kiev on April 21, 2008 at 6:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Carolyn.crandall... you just perfectly demonstrated my point. Instead of having a mature, respectful conversation where you share your viewpoint and back it up with facts, you instead choose to make rude immature attacks towards someone who holds an opposing view to yours. Just like Bill Maher constantly does. What a shame.
Posted by H8War on April 21, 2008 at 6:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't know about Carolyn, but as a erstwhile Catholic who has endured the shameful sex-abuse scandals that the John Paul II wouldn't even ADMIT to, and that were aided and abeited by the still-seated Cardinal Mahoney, I definitely support what Bill Maher said. Didn''t Ratzinger himself say he was a Hitler Youth? And I support even more what Maher says about Bush. I just renewed my HBO subscription to counteract that guy from Kiev (were you a Soviet, dude?).
Posted by retired_chief on April 21, 2008 at 7:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
H8war-c'mon. Benedict had no choice in joining the Hitler Youth. And for a "erstwile Catholic" to support a so-called comedian in his (very offensive)characterization of the Pope as a cult leader doesn't make the least amount of sense. I will give the Mahoney comment, he should've been replaced as fast as Law was in Boston (if not faster). This article isn't about Bush or the war (though I've never heard Mager offer even one suggestion about what he would do if he was in charge). And then you follow up by accusing a poster who you don't agree with of being a Soviet communist. Why? Cause he or she might be from Kiev. Hope you aren't in my parish, though I doubt you are in any parish, really.
One more thing-the priest scandal would have never been handled that way if JP II was fully healthy. Unbelievable that you would go after one of our greatest Popes ever (and the man that the USSR feared even more than Reagan).
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