Hello friends,
This video has gone viral on YouTube and facebook! With over 11 million hits in just 6 days, people are obviously fascinated by the concept of Jesus and Religion being entirely separate entities. If you have not yet seen the video, click on the link below. The video is entitled, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus."
What is your take? Leave a comment if you feel strongly one way or the other. I personally believe this student has some good points and really makes us think about the way we live out our faith. Do you think religion is "behavior modification"? or that your faith is defined only on your facebook page? Church should "not [be] a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken." I think if we all looked at our faith in the wholly ensconsing perspective this student has, we would all get closer to God. The line where he says, 'if Jesus came to your church would you let him in?' is thought-provoking. Think about this. Would you? I mean, would you believe it was him, drop what you're doing and follow him, like the disciples? In a generation in which we are programmed to think logically, would you truly believe in what he said?
This is surely something to think about even if you disagree with parts of the video. Are you living out your faith to "give you vision"? Or are you blind to the real reason we follow Jesus..? Let me know what you're thinking.
Food for thought!
Rachel
I think this was a GREAT video! He is totally right. We act like religion is just another one of our chores to be able to use it as a characteristic to describe ourselves. But do we really live like Jesus wants us to? My favorite part is when he says "religion says slave, Jesus says Son" We don't have to do things to please our Creator. He loves us no matter what!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a good video, and there are lots of good things in it. But I don't think he's 100% right with everything he says. A friend of mine posted a link to an article her pastor wrote about the video, and I think it's great. Sums up my feelings WAY more eloquently than I can. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/14/following-up-on-the-jesusreligion-video/
That being said, I do think it's a good video, as I said. He's extremely passionate and obviously loves Jesus, which is awesome. And his kind of fire for Jesus is something I'd love to see more of.
Thanks for the responses, guys!
ReplyDeleteJoanna, I read the article and it brought up another thought; what we post on the internet is there forever... Something our generation could learn from? I think yes. I agree that his passion alone is awe-inspiring! And he has a lot of great quotations in there, anonymous. What do the rest of you think?
1st - Chapel is an organized relgious institution. Does Jesus hate Chapel?
ReplyDelete2nd - Saying Jesus hates religious people because they have strayed from a message of grace is not new. But to say Jesus is greater than religion because religion is just rules and Jesus came to abolish rules is ignoring the fact that Jesus came with his own set of rules - like baptizing people, or abandoning everything (including career and education) to care for the least of society, or, most importantly to this video, creating the church in the first place.
3rd - Jesus was a religious leader - a respected member of the religious establishment arguing with other religious leaders. He taught in synogogues, celebrated mandated holy days with his followers, and showed up at the temple at the appointed (i.e. when the rules said) times. And when he started his ministry, he did it with an announcement at his local synogogue.
I am sympathetic with much of what he says. Jesus' main message was a radical grace that stood over and against blind following of institutional rules, religious or otherwise (That in itself is a "behavior modification" the video is against). But standing with the down-trodden as Jesus did never advocated an abandonment of religious authority and a Libertarian style of faith.
Instead of your 1st statement, c.m., i would instead argue that maybe this video is alerting all christians that service and worship is ultimately about Him. Why do you guys go to worship? I do it to get closer to God and ground myself. Read the article Joanna posted in her comment to get a fuller grasp of what the speaker meant and didn't mean in his video. Chapel is about being the body, so our goals are good.
ReplyDeleteDoes Jesus advocate a non-libertarian lifestyle?