Youtube has lit up with Jeff Bethke's version of why he hates religion but loves Jesus. His spoken word has stirred emotions, thoughts and not a few controversial convos and blog posts. I hesitated to comment or even think about his performance but now that it is at over 15 million views within 10 days (uploaded on January 10th, 2012) and has been viewed by people all over the globe, I thought it was time. I was also asked by a friend from South Africa what I thought - South Africa! This video is a true example of how viral video works - amazing! (Btw - I love the way the internet works)
I had hoped it would blow over and he would be an internet sensation which would lead us to the next one. But this guy has staying power (10 days, I know, too early). The reason I say that is that within a week and a half, two other prominent religious traditions have come out with their own responses done in a very similar fashion and with competent levels of quality. I have enjoyed them all to one degree or another.
I had hoped it would blow over and he would be an internet sensation which would lead us to the next one. But this guy has staying power (10 days, I know, too early). The reason I say that is that within a week and a half, two other prominent religious traditions have come out with their own responses done in a very similar fashion and with competent levels of quality. I have enjoyed them all to one degree or another.
The First One - Jesus>Religion
I've generally been frustrated by the first film (Jeff Bethke's) that came out and didn't want to pay it too much attention - plus a lot of people liked it and if I said anything to critique it, I think it wouldn't do any good. What he says has so many merits, but it doesn't take into account God's choice of humanity and God's desire to work through human dynamics (i.e. religion) to accomplish his purposes. God doesn't hate religion, he enters more fully into it than we ever do and challenges its decrepitness and affirms its life giving elements thereby changing it into something even better.
Almost the entire O.T. Law and sacrificial system was borrowed from other "religious" structures present in the Ancient Near East cultures that surrounded Israel. If God hates religion, then he wouldn't embody it in order to redeem us. Does he hate religion void of intentionality, sincerity, and a heart for God - absolutely - but he doesn't hate religion de facto.
Isaiah 66 talks about how he detests their religious observances - the same religious observances that he gave for them to do and commanded them to do. Why did he reject them - because of the status of their hearts (which was evident in the deplorable actions that they displayed outside of the temple).
What this brother is hopefully trying to say is that religious observance as hypocrisy sucks, but it would be a mistake to say that religious observance itself sucks. I love religious observances and even when they take the place of my heart because I'm in a bad place or just rejecting my open invitations to encounter God, they keep me and for that I'm thankful.
Because as I continue to do them, that rhythm is usually the one thing that leads me back to a place of accepting the invitation of a real encounter with God. Religion will never be the problem - it is just a solution created by man that God accommodates and actually affirms but that doesn't always work. In the end, it is not meant to "work" - it is meant to keep us connected to life of God which is found in embodied and communal practices (=religion) as well as personal and sincere pursuances of the Divine Encounter (=Jesus).
The Second One - Jesus<3Religion
The second vid by Fr. Pontifex (Fr. Claude [Dusty] Burns) was surprising because Catholics are usually not that cool in their media distribution and yet PhatMass and Spirit Juice Studios are. I agree a lot with what Pontifex presents in his explanation, but as a soft postmodern Christian with a profound trust in the goodness and sovereignty of God, I actually think we need all three vids in order to understand what God is saying and then a few more (which I'm sure are already forthcoming).
The Third One - Jesus>Religion: The Muslim Version
When it comes to the Muslim brother, the point about worshipping Jesus that he mentions more than once is actually true.
Richard Rohr, a catholic priest, says the same thing. There is so much about how he (the video dude) presents his ideas through this that is so well done and through provoking. At the same time, he's missing some obvious philosophical categories that could help his argument a lot. It was actually North African Muslim Intellectuals who helped us re-discover the great thinkers of Greece and the Ancient world. Christianity owes a lot to these Muslim thinkers. There was a time when they incorporated ancient philosophical thinkers into their understanding of the world and religion, but it seems they have stopped that. The Christian tradition picked it up from there and re-incorporated philosophy's categories back into our faith tradition which has allowed us to understand better the concepts like Trinity, sacrifice, etc...
But yeah, in the end, I need all three of these vids and a few more.
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