Bill Maher on hypocritical Christians who condone torture and killings

There’s little that’s more amusing to atheists than watching religious folks virulently defend their faith whilst simultaneously engaging in the very sorts of behaviors their sacred texts and messiahs explicitly condemned. Here’s Bill Maher, taking a few shots at American right-wingers who claim to be good, upstanding Christians, and then turn around and cheer on wars and targeted assassinations and the torturing of terrorist suspects (from the 02:36 mark):

My transcript of some key parts:

And, finally, new rule: If you’re a Christian who supports killing your enemies and torture, you have to come up with a new name for yourself.

[…]

Now, for almost 2,000 years, Christians have been lawyering to try and figure out how “love thy neighbor” can mean “hate thy neighbor”, and how “turn the other cheek” can mean, “Screw you, I’m buying space-lasers.”

Martin Luther King gets to call himself a Christian, because he actually practiced loving his enemies. And Gandhi was so fucking Christian, he was Hindu. But, if you rejoice in revenge, torture and war – hey, that’s why they call it the weekend – you cannot say you’re a follower of the guy who explicitly said “love your enemies” and “do good to those who hate you”. The next line isn’t, “And if that doesn’t work, send a titanium-fanged dog to rip his nuts off.”

[…]

I mean, y’know, there’s interpreting, and then there’s just ignoring. It’s just ignoring if you’re for torture, as are more Evangelical Christians than any other religion. You’re supposed to look at that figure of Christ on the cross and think, “How could a man suffer like that and forgive?”. Not, “Romans are pussies; he still has his eyes.”

[…]

Christians, I know, I’m sorry, I know you hate this and you wanna square this circle, but you can’t. I’m not even judging you. I’m just saying: Logically, if you ignore every single thing Jesus commanded you to do, you’re not a Christian; you’re just auditing. You are not Christ’s followers; you’re just fans. And if you believe the Earth was given to you to kick ass on while gloating, you’re not really a Christian; you’re a Texan.

You know, I really don’t think that I, or any other atheists, would have any real problem with Christians if only they actually abode by the teachings of their Savior. In the end, it all boils down to that famously accurate Gandhi quote: “Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” The real Christians, those who actually practice universal love and nonviolence and peace, are the sort of people these pseudo-Christians so actively denounce as traitors and un-American and so on. What an amusingly revealing spectacle.

(via Friendly Atheist)