Bill Maher:
“If you say, as Kim Davis and her ilk, and Ted Cruz and all those people say that actually ‘I can ignore the rule of man because the rule book of God said’ — then you are Iran. Then you are Saudi Arabia. Then you are Sharia law.”
Mr. Maher seems to think that refusing to issue marriage licenses to everyone is akin to stoning a woman for being raped, tossing homosexuals to their death from rooftops, killing anyone who doesn’t believe in the Muslim Allah, etc.
Sorry, Mr. Maher, but no matter how much you hate Christianity, not being issued a piece of paper is not even close to the same as this:
That was my first reaction.
More likely, Mr. Maher meant: “The term sharia comes from the Arabic language term sharīʿah, which means a body of moral and religious law derived from religious prophecy, as opposed to human legislation.”
Is Mr. Maher aware that many humanly-legislated laws are derived from a moral and religious law? Let’s ponder some human legislation which supports this.
Murder: Illegal. Thou shalt not kill.
Perjury: Illegal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Theft: Illegal. Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (In Old Testament Hebrew, “covet” was originally “chamad,” which meant “to take.”)
Kidnapping: Illegal. Thou shalt not steal. (“Steal” meant “kidnap” before it meant “to take something that doesn’t belong to you.”)
Four laws common in all civilized societies. Four laws which match five of the Ten Commandments and also match mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah–both are moral codes or laws. Atheists also follow a code of good and bad/right and wrong.
I would argue most if not all of our laws, including tax laws, are derived from a human’s interpretation of what is morally good and bad. Or as Bill Maher suggests…Sharia. We may disagree on these laws, and if we do not follow these “human legislations,” there are judicial consequences that we must face. But to equate not issuing a marriage license to Islam’s code of Sharia is dishonest and pretty darn disgusting.
