Bishop Robert Barron Praises Atheist Bill Maher. Why?

Catholic Bishop Robert Barron has, over the past decade or so, become one of the best-known high-profile figures in American Catholic circles. His book and, later, television series Catholicism have elucidated and clarified the history and teachings of the Catholic...

The post Bishop Robert Barron Praises Atheist Bill Maher. Why? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Catholic Bishop Robert Barron has, over the past decade or so, become one of the best-known high-profile figures in American Catholic circles. His book and, later, television series Catholicism have elucidated and clarified the history and teachings of the Catholic Church for thousands. His Word on Fire ministry has played a part in keeping alive the Catholic tradition of public intellectualism. His podcast has facilitated earnest and even thought-provoking debate amongst Catholics and between Catholics and those of other faiths. But his latest published work is, at best, naïve — and, at worst, downright stupid.

In an op-ed piece for CNN — of all places — published last week, Barron hailed the pot-smoking, atheistic liberal talk show host and sometime-comedian Bill Maher as an “ally.” Barron begins by lamenting Maher’s staunchly-held atheism, glossing the godless pundit’s decades of ranting against God. The bishop then notes that Maher has seemingly pivoted of late to “articulating his opposition to the ‘woke’ ways of thinking that have managed to capture the allegiance of most of the major institutions of our country.”

“As he has done so, I have found myself, time and again, nodding my head in agreement,” Barron writes of Maher’s grimly humorous tirades against the woke ideology. “To my surprise, the nemesis had become an ally.” The bishop proceeds to gush over Maher’s commitment to “classical liberalism” and fostering “fraternity across ideologies,” concluding, “Three cheers for Bill Maher!”

Like Maher, Barron was born in the latter half of the 1950s. Both men grew up in an American society that no longer exists. In his op-ed, Barron joins Maher in lamenting that those on opposing ends of the political spectrum today tend to view one another as an “existential threat,” instead pining for the days “when Republican President Ronald Reagan and former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat, could sit down for a friendly drink at the end of a workday.”

The fact of the matter is that the opposite ends of the political spectrum are an existential threat to one another. One side clamors that the wanton slaughter of unborn children in a moral imperative, that transing children and horrifically mutilating their genitals is laudably compassionate, that order and authority are meaningless, that morality is determined by emotion, and that God has no place in the public consciousness. The other side argues that human dignity is a gift worth treasuring, that children — born and unborn — should be protected, that order is necessary for society to thrive, that morality transcends mere legal letters, and that all rights and goods are derived from God.

The America that both Barron and Maher grew up in is dead — and Maher is among those who contributed to its death. While Barron says that the narcissistic brand of atheism Maher and so many others rabidly promoted and preached over the past several decades “annoyed” him, it did far more than just “annoy” the social fabric of America and the West: it normalized the notion that the human mind reigns supreme over all, including God. It was, in fact, a type of naturalism — the sin of Satan, the declaration that nature can replace Supernature, that the creature can replace the Creator, that man can replace God.

This way of thinking, championed by Maher and his ilk, destroys objectivity in reasoning and morality. If there is no God, no eternal Entity who is Truth Himself, then who is man to say what is true? If there is no God, no eternal Entity who is Authority, then by what authority does any man say that this is morally right or that is morally wrong? By man’s own authority, of course, but which man’s authority? Since, without God, man has no authority to appeal to higher than himself, he must appeal to the masses. Enter mob rule and morality by consensus: whatever the largest (or loudest) group of people say is right must be accepted as right.

But again, without God, there is no objective imperative, there is nothing compelling man to reason over appetite. Thus, the largest group will more often than not determine morality based on appetite, on emotion, on what “feels” good, since there is no standard to measure what is good. Consensus-based morality, then, becomes not just mob rule but animal mob rule. Worse still, appetites and emotions are easier to manipulate and easier to appeal to than reason. Want to score easy political points? Promise people something that feels good. Sex carries a resulting responsibility — a new human life — so just get rid of that responsibility via abortion. Money is nice to have, so promise that the mob can keep more because you’ve “forgiven” debts that they owe. Getting high is a quick way to forget about pain and misery, so let everyone buy pot, put a cannabis dispensary on every street corner.

Just as the bloodthirsty French revolutionaries enthroned a whore in Notre Dame de Paris, so Maher and the ideology he has championed deposed human reasoning and morality and enthroned nothing more than appetite. Despite his clever jabs at transing children, Maher’s own statements bear this out. Discussing abortion, the talk show host did push back against the left-wing narrative that pro-lifers want to oppress women or do away with women’s rights and rightly insisted that pro-lifers genuinely believe abortion is the killing of an unborn child. “They think it’s murder — and it kind of is,” he said. Then the other shoe dropped: “I’m just okay with that. I am. I mean, there’s eight billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you.”

Maher and his narcissistic, egocentric philosophy are not deserving of “three cheers.” Barron’s impulse is that of a society that died decades ago. There is no making peace with evil, there is no reconciling the tenets of leftism with those of conservatism, there is not now any common ground to be found. Maher’s ideology saw to that. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy:

The Holy Eucharist and the Hint of an Explanation

The Pernicious Persecution of Traditional Catholics

The Bogeyman: The Leftists’ Hatred of the Catholic Church

The post Bishop Robert Barron Praises Atheist Bill Maher. Why? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.