Why do Hollywood people hate Christians?

Question

Why do Hollywood people constantly ridicule Christians' belief in the supernatural?
I see Mr. Bill Mahr out thumping his tub about some Christians' delusional belief in the supernatural.
Of course, he often makes the same point about Muslims.

But he doesn't seem to say the same thing about Jews, who believe in the same Old Testament stuff as the fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.
I've heard Mr. Mahr say it has to do with Christians "ramming their religion down people's throats." In fact, there are a lot of Jews in the Israeli government who believe they are "God's chosen people" and that they have been granted by God (yes, the same supernatural god that the Christians and Muslims believe in) some land in the Middle East. To that end, they are slowly, deliberately trying to turn non-Jews who have lived on the land for centuries (the Palestinians) into refugees. Were he a logical person, Mr. Mahr would say this is an example of the religious delusion motivating a malevolent large-scale crime. Yet, not a peep out of him about it.

It is that kind of contradiction that leads me to think Mr. Mahr and his colleagues in Hollywood are upset about Christians for some other reason. They say all sorts of snarky, malicious things about Mel Gibson's fundamentalist Christianity, but Gibson says something negative about Jews and he is criminalized? If his anti-Jewish words are improper, aren't their anti-Christian words just as improper? Or are they both, as I suspect, within the bounds of free speech?

I see all sorts of Hollywood movies making Christians, especially Christians from the American Midwest, out to be every kind of villain from homophobes to white supremacists to terrorists. You don't see a whole lot of Hollywood movies making fundamentalist Jews, nor Scientologists, out to be villains.
When I have encountered Hollywood types in the work arena, they actually would ask me if I was Jewish (a rather intrusive question), ask me if I was Christian (equally intrusive), and then whisper to me that they had to look out for right-wing Christians, as if RWCs might be working undercover as saboteurs. Bear in mind, I only did contract computer programming. I had nothing whatsoever to do with the hoi polloi of Hollywood, the creative product, the politics or or the money. Yes, they are that paranoid. Delusionally paranoid, if you ask me.
I'm not saying Mr. Mahr or anyone else should go out and verbally attack Jews. I'm saying, if the anti-christian faction is so morally and intellectually outraged at Christians' belief in the supernatural, then for the sake of consistency they should also be outraged by other religions that believe in the supernatural. Or they should not be outraged by either. But if consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, then inconsistency is the red flag of hypocrites, and where you have a hypocrite you don't have a true opinion, you have a hidden motive disguised as an opinion.
Now, what is the hidden motive?
- Ibn Kahldun, an atheist

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Why do Hollywood people constantly ridicule Christians' belief in the supernatural? I see Mr. Bill Mahr out thumping his tub ... say the same thing about Jews, who believe in the same Old Testament stuff as the fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.[/nq]
Actually, it seems you're not overly familiar with Mr. Mahr's act, but still...
[nq:1]I've heard Mr. Mahr say it has to do with Christians "ramming their religion down people's throats."[/nq]
And, there you have it. Christianity and Islam are both evangelical belief systems. That means they specifically seek to convince people who don't share their beliefs, to start believing and join up. Judaism is very much not an evangelical belief system. No one's out there trying to get people to become Jews; quite the contrary. They think of themselves as ***'s Chosen People and are generally happy to keep their beliefs to themselves.
Add to that, that a lot of Judaism, as practiced in the West especially, isn't especially religious. A lot of people who identify themselves as Jews don't go to temple and don't keep kosher and don't speak Hebrew beyond a little bit they learned phonetically - enough to get them through a bar- or bat-mitzvah. Adam Sandler's The Hanukkah Song points up that, in H'wood in particular, a lot of Jewish people are so private in their religion/culture that you'd never guess they were Jewish at all, unless someone told you.
That's the difference between ramming your religion down someone's throat, and not.
[nq:1]I see all sorts of Hollywood movies making Christians, especially Christians from the American Midwest, out to be every kind of villain from homophobes to white supremacists to terrorists.[/nq]Villians are the stuff of drama, but if you look closely at the Christian bible, it's pretty clear about homosexuality - not a lot of love there. A lot of very religious Christians were able to defend slavery, too, based on the race of the people being enslaved. The KKK still describes itself as a fundamentalist Christian organization, and the Mormons have some pretty interesting things to say about blacks vs. whites. Are all Christians like that? No, of course not.

Most absolutely aren't. But if you're writing in a modern Western context, and for the sake of drama you need a villian, you're not likely to write one who's an Aztec, right? *** Is On My Side is one of the most powerful motivations for a villian, especially if your villian's *** is the kind who tells His followers to convert the non-believers and to smite the evil-doers.
[nq:1]You don't see a whole lot of Hollywood movies making fundamentalist Jews, nor Scientologists, out to be villains.[/nq]
Fundamentalist Jews are an incredibly small population in the US and tend - as an aspect of both their fundamentalism and their non- evangelical belief system - to keep to themselves. Scientologists? A relatively new religion, hokum though it is, but as it's getting a lot of press lately, expect to see it cropping up more often. It's already being satirized on TV; villiany can't be too far behind.
[nq:1]I'm not saying Mr. Mahr or anyone else should go out and verbally attack Jews.[/nq]
One of my favorites of Mahr's jokes, describing his upbringing - you know he's half Jewish and half Catholic, but currently practices neither, right? - is his description of his first confession. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned... I believe you've already met my attorney, Mr. Cohen?"
[nq:1]I'm saying, if the anti-christian faction is so morally and intellectually outraged at Christians' belief in the supernatural, then for the sake of consistency they should also be outraged by other religions that believe in the supernatural. Or they should not be outraged by either. But if consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, then inconsistency is the red flag of hypocrites, and where you have a hypocrite you don't have a true opinion, you have a hidden motive disguised as an opinion. Now, what is the hidden motive?[/nq]
On what basis do you reject the stated objection - the evangelical nature of the faiths in question? And have you met our old friend the Jaegermeister?

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

Strange that you excised the part about the Israeli government. Those are indeed fundamentalists who, in the name of their religion, are fomenting conflict in the Middle East, oppressing the Palestinians and conducting espionage against the United States. So why no Israeli Jewish fundamentalist villains?

First, on the basis that, while it is mostly Christianity that is being ridiculed, there are many religions which are evangelical. Very few, in fact, are not. Mr. Mahr seems to me to be an evangelical atheist, which would seem to me to be offensive under the same criteria that makes evangelical Christians offensive.

Second, on the basis that it is not the evangelical aspect of the religions that is being attacked and ridiculed. It is the beliefs and believers that are being ridiculed.
- Ibn Kahldun
(An Atheist)

Usenet · Answer

Why do Christians persecute Jews? After all, Christians worship a Jew as their ***. The bible says that Jews are "***'s chosen people". Why don't Christians create their own religion instead of hijacking the religion of the Jews? Jews have been a persecuted minority for their entire existence. Weak, pathetic losers like Mel Gibson use vulnerable, innocent people as scapegoats for their own inability to cope with life.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Why do Christians persecute Jews? After all, Christians worship a Jew as their ***. The bible says that Jews are ... Weak, pathetic losers like Mel Gibson use vulnerable, innocent people as scapegoats for their own inability to cope with life.[/nq]
Something tells me Mel Gibson is doing a bit better coping at life than someone posting from gonad.net.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Why do Christians persecute Jews? After all, Christians worship a Jew as their ***. The bible says that Jews are ... Weak, pathetic losers like Mel Gibson use vulnerable, innocent people as scapegoats for their own inability to cope with life.[/nq]
I asked a Jewish friend about being ***'s chosen people, and he said (stock answer) "Next time, choose someone else."

Usenet · Answer

How did Bill Mahr become "Hollywood"?
He's a stand up comedian.
- Bill

Usenet · Answer

What kind of action would a ficitious fundamentalist Jew, acting from his religious beliefs, perform that would make him a Hollywood villain? Build a settlement in the West Bank? We're talking about American-made tv shows and movies aimed at an American audience.

The kind of Hollywood liberals you mention look down on fundamentalist Christians in a general way, as being unevolved red state peasants. But. In terms of concrete activities, it really boils down to two issues: homophobia and abortion. For all I know Orthodox Jews might hold anti-gay and anti-abortion sentiments, but if so they keep it to themselves, they don't blockade abortion clinics or stump for anti-gay legislation. So how would a fundamentalist Jew be portrayed as a villain by Hollywood liberals?

Usenet · Answer

(SNIP)

What looks to you like out-and-out discrimination and prejudice, is merely the much-vaunted tolerance and compassion of the left. :-)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]How did Bill Mahr become "Hollywood"? He's a stand up comedian. - Bill[/nq]
Yes but on more than one occasion, he's been given a platform to espouse his beliefs, or lack thereof.
By the fine folks in Hollywood..
In Him,
Mike
Phil. 4:13

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]How did Bill Mahr become "Hollywood"? He's a stand up comedian. - Bill[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes but on more than one occasion, he's been given a platform to espouse his beliefs, or lack thereof. By the fine folks in Hollywood.. In Him, Mike Phil. 4:13[/nq]
I know a guy who wrote for Maher. He said he changed drastically after the Clinton thing with Lewinsky. Up until that time he was OK and not so serious. According to my friend who now writes for a much more successful comedian, Maher just got way bent out of shape about what he thought was persecution of Clinton, and then oddly enough turned into the *** fiend he's become. That's the story I heard, anyway.

Why do Hollywood people hate Christians?

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