December 5th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

Having lived in New York City, London and Johannesburg, I have seen how hollow the world’s values are. To quote Tom What’s-His-Name-Jane Fonda’s ex-husband, and the Bible, when talking about American culture: “Mammon, mammon, mammon…”  It teases with morsels and dainties and privilege, but it doesn’t deliver anything except more desire, unfulfilled, and it’s indeed an unvirtuus circle. You step off the ferris wheel, I’ve noticed, and find what you were after all along–home, family, faith and contentment.  So I am not exactly someone living in the world’s armpit yearning for glamour. The series”Sex and the City” was so ridiculous to me, having lived in NYC during the heyday of that series. There are plenty of Mr. Bigs, but you knock and there’s no one home. Bill Maher is single, and I would have certainly gone out with him in those days, but he’s missing the circuits that make a man a man. A terrible cliche, I’m afraid, but the bottom line is that real men love Jesus.

December 5th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

Hmm. This is a toughie. It’s so much I don’t know where to begin, and the worst part is that I don’t have the facility with language to describe it without falling into cliche. I could probably do this with time, but it’s hard to do anything other than write the truth as I understand it when my children are asleep, and examine my heart and motives, while avoiding the landmines of Christian cliche.

Rick Warren, whom I very much like, says this:

God wants you to tell other people about what’s happened to you.  He wants you to share your testimony, your lifestyle, and your witness. In other words, He wants you to share the Good News.  The Bible says it like this in Acts 20: “The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to tell people the good news about God’s grace.”

Let me try to begin from here: I am secular and intellectual in my interests, and approach those secular pursuits–lectures, serious reading, opera, symphony, and business activities– from the lens of faith and the truth of my conscience which is imbedded with a clear sense of right and wrong, and a nagging area of gray–say, the problem of evil and cruelty to children. I probably don’t have a “testimony” as we think of it in the church world, unless it is an absolute commitment to truth, which is not only external and verifiable, but is also within, and God-directed, as led by the Holy Spirit and the revealed word of God which is the Bible. I nearly always know what NOT to do as a result.

I love my minister Greg Cook at Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church in Barboursville because he tries to impress no one, and so far as I can see, he is not especially “popular” among the congregation, meaning this is a special church where who is invited where and why, based on the “in” group at the time, or what they happen to have doesn’t appear to matter. My pastor says hard words, and they burn my conscience occasionally, as well as edify my mind and spirit. If I discuss a problem with him, he advises me not on what to do, but on what to read, so that the Holy Spirit can work its way through the matter. This is infinitely correct, and so different from what one expects from a minister–isn’t it?

What God has done for me is so endless, for that I owe him my life. And if I know what is right and don’t do it, my conscience burns as it should.  This is not the forum, I suspect, to go into all that. However, I know several prominent atheists in my community, one of which asked me to pray for him. It wasn’t a joke. I dared not ask him the results of my prayers, but I know there were results, because I know that power personally. So why shouldn’t I commit time and money and resources to pray for Bill Maher, another atheist? There is no reason I shouldn’t pray for this conversion–a Saul of Tarsus moment in the life of an unbeliever whose conversion might lead to who-knows-what good on this earth and in the country.

AP Newsflash; Bill Maher became a Christian. Why not? And if he is lying in his deathbed, cannot speak, in torment and pain, what if someone says, “Bill, would you like to be baptised?” And what if it happens? Who knows if the flutter of those butterfly wings might begin with our prayers here?

December 4th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

On the November 14 show, which strengthened my resolve in this project, he talked about abortion in terms of “cells on a petrie dish” OR “a little hand reaching up.” On making that distinction, he got a very dirty look and stony disapproval from the red-headed comedian that was on that night, and backed off (why?). The latter category, most of us call “late term” or “partial birth” abortion. Those of us who do not support abortion–I wouldn’t have one at any stage, under any circumstances at the risk of my life–should see the conscience in even seeing it that way. Is Bill Maher pro-life? If he is, he won’t admit it. And may I also add that the discussion about “pro-life” and “pro-choice” is framed incorrectly, and I have yet to see a politician who supports its legality say this: “What a terrible thing, with many unfortunate consequences, but it is not my role to live the lives of other people, and make their decisions for them. Of course it’s wrong. Of course it’s bad. But living out the moral lives of other people, making decisions that rest on their conscience will not be my job as Name-Political-Office. Next question.”

December 1st, 2008 by Tracy Herz

If I can’t remember to ask God to help me when I am overwhelmed–which is almost constantly–then why do I remember to pray for Bill Maher? You see, he is not only a “famous” person, he is just a person. And if he was my neighbor–and in this world of internet and collapsed geographic, geopolitical boundaries–he IS my neighbor. He is in fact a member of my community–we have him in the house when his show is on. He is authentic in a way that reaches out from his very considerable platform. At first, I wanted to collect these pledges and have fun with him having fun with his sacreligious mockery, and make a rather big point, but instead it occurs to me to just live my little life in my little town, and not worry whether this blog is ever seen by either many or few.  So I have adjusted my mission statement and plan to move on from here with praying for Bill Maher, who is my neighbor (sort of).

November 26th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

I think it is a mistake to get “off message” and invite people to argue about nuts and bolts. The mission here is to pray for Bill Maher, period, end of story. In case you, a latecomer, found our logo inappropriate, let me tell you, we did not. That’s some irony, and a little bit of hornery fun. We would like to collect money to give to the Christian organization Bill Maher hates the least, and we have pledged $500 to that end. However, the angels holding up the ENORMOUS Visa and MAstercard logos is making fun of Bill Maher for making fun of us in order to avoid the impression of being literal-minded simpletons. In short, a joke. If you don’t get it, there’s a problem, and it isn’t ours.

Meantime, I have a question: Baptist, Adventist or whatever denomination churches founded in 1712–or 17 something something or 1814- or 18 something-something, etc, who preach that everyone is going to Hell but them… I have a problem as follows:

If a church teaches they are the only way to be saved by God through Christ, and that the Christianity they espouse is the gold standard, then that must mean that everyone on earth who existed before their church was founded is in Hell. And excuse me, but I don’t think so.

November 25th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

So says Mr. Maher in a New York Times interview. What I would like to do is interview the trucker who put his hand on Bill Maher’s hand and prayed for him. I’m going to find that trucker from that North Carolina chapel, and do that, you watch and see. In the meantime, I am also going to explore the idea of how God hardened Pharoah’s heart, and why he did that, to what end, and what that means. Clearly, Mr. Maher has a hard heart, but not so hard that he wouldn’t go to so much trouble.

Upon reflection, I am also going to contact Christian apologists at places like Oxford. I have absolute certainty that they will accept my calls and/or correspondence. I used to book guests for a television show and I can get anyone on the phone–don’t care who they are. There’s a knack to it that I can’t describe here, but this fun story I will share: When I was 19, before I had ever been out of the county–not country, county–I was reared in in WV, I wrote a letter to the British producer of Chariots of Fire and asked him to call me and he did.

How I am going to incorporate those apologists into my prayer chain, I don’t know. I am sort of feeling my way here.

November 25th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

Brian, a Lutheran theologian from Morgantown went to see Religulous, and reviewed it in his blog. Before he gets to this part below, he describes the uneven playing field of Bill Maher against everyone he interviews as Mr. Maher mocks away. Brian relates the scene where one trucker, clearly more astute than other characters in the movie, apparently sense this unevenness, and, correctly, walks out.

And then…

Here’s an excerpt, so well done….

Only once {in the film Religulous] did we see any particular Christian practice happen… back in the Trucker’s Chapel, at the end of that segment, Maher is prayed for by the Truckers. They gather around him and one trucker lays his gargantuan hand on Maher and immediately breaks into prayer for Maher. Maher looked uncomfortable, perhaps surprised by the sudden and genuine outpouring over him. There, in prayer, is the entry to the Christian life. Maybe the playing field wasn’t so uneven after all.

http://intheparish.blogspot.com/2008/11/religulous.html#comments

November 25th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

First of all, let me say that I am not going to reach serious Christians if we get a bunch of responses from people who just want to mock this effort. The previous remark by a reader was in poor taste, and is not the sort of thing people who are serious about prayer want to read. What is prayer? It’s a relationship with God through Christ. What is intercessory prayer? Prayer for others. I have immature understandings of prayer theologically, but I do know that committed prayer produces outcomes without exception. As this blog goes along, I plan to remark on what Bill Maher discusses on his programs and public appearances–my responses to which may horrify Christians who know me not well. For example, when everyone was calling the terrorists who attacked this country “cowards,”  he said on his program that the terrorists who hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon–the seat of American military power–were a lot of things but they were not cowards; there was an outcry and an outrage about that remark that led to “Politically Incorrect” being canceled. As far as I can tell then and today, none of the terrorist extremists who attacked this country are cowards. Attacking the United States is not an act of cowardice, and I don’t understand why people went berserk about that. On the matter of why I am not inviting people to pray for, say, Christopher Hitchens, or Camille Paglia who are more “serious” atheists, here’s why: Really funny people get that way from having been in terrible pain and it’s a way to cope with that pain. I don’t know where he’s coming from, and that pain is is none of my business–and I don’t even want to know. But I was moved to do this by the Holy Spirit, so I did it and here it is.

November 24th, 2008 by Tracy Herz

A person by the name of Lilith posted this message on the Religulous blog that is at the primary Bill Maher/HBO site. Pleae read it and see my remarks below:

Tracy - seriously the only way you will get Bill Maher to go to your pray for Bill Maher website is to show some naked black chicks praying for him. He really likes black chicks…so naked ones with big boobs praying for his redemption would be the best com’mon for your site.

Also, spice up your postings, nothing there was really interesting to read, maybe if you punched it up with Voodom that you guys practice in the Caribbean which is a cross between Voodoo and Catholicism you might get his attention, with a few swings of the chicken over your head.

Good that you went to the touble to set up the site, but it is BORING.

My response: I don’t know who my audience is or will be, besides God himself, and maybe it needs to be “boring”. Is prayer boring? Uh, no it is not.  I have a good enough sense of humor in seeing the truth in her remarks, but this is actually not a joke idea overall. I’ve sent this to people who don’t believe anything and asked them to send it to five people. Upon reflection, maybe I don’t care if anyone reads it at all except people who will pray for him. I care about this.

November 23rd, 2008 by Tracy Herz

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/religulous

Great article on Religulous, which is NOT EVEN PLAYING IN WEST VIRGINIA. But I persevere in trying to figure out how to get to see it somehow. Maybe I can watch it on the computer, but that feels like work…Anyway, the writer of this article quietly admits that he is a Christian way down at the end. It’s unfortunate that more Christians have no idea how to respond to people ridiculing their faith without sounding uneducated. We are supposed to just say, “whatever works for you…” and have another glass of champagne, particularly those of us in sophisticated circles. I guess I do it too.