David Javerbaum is proving himself to be the newest anti-God “theologian” from the left. In the past few years, he has come out with numerous works dedicated to ridiculing Christianity in as general terms as possible.
In an interview [1] with Huffington Post Live, Javerbaum discussed the inspiration behind his book [2], The Last Testament, and its corresponding play [3], An Act of God, which premiered on Broadway earlier in May. He mockingly claimed to have merely transcribed these works, holding the true author to be God Himself.
When Javerbaum began pointing out God’s loathsome attributes, it became clear that the god he satirizes bears few resemblances to the God of billions around the world.
The Huffington interviewer put up flimsy comments to fuel Javerbaum’s rant: “A lot of people say that they’re inspired by God, like you know, a lot of rappers say that they’re inspired by God.” Of all the people that believe in God, at least Huffington refers to the most thoughtful believers: the rappers.
Javerbaum jumped in: “I’m depressed by God … he’s just a downer, I mean I don’t know if you’ve been looking around, you know, lately, with earthquakes and people dying early, but he depresses me. I’m not inspired by God.”
He adds to his derogatory characterization of God by appealing to select segments of the Old Testament, contriving from these that “It’s quite clear that He’s a jealous, vindictive, often self-defeating kind-of entity. The best way to sustain your belief in God is to not read any of His novels.”
But this hints at what Javerbaum is really doing in both his play and his book. He has created his own straw man God at which he pokes fun. In fact, he explicitly states his aversion to attacking any specific religion in the interview. How convenient that he doesn’t subject himself to a full, systematic account of God, taking instead little bits that fit into his comedic routine.
Javerbaum’s writing is apparently worthy of a Broadway play, and called ‘smart’ by both the Huffington interviewer and Broadway critics. But by pretending that his god is the same as the one believed in by half of the world, Javerbaum is the one that ends up looking foolish.