It’s with a due sense of dread and self-loathing that I succumb to the herd instinct and bring up Jefferson Bethke’s “Why I hate religion” video, 16 17 million YouTube hits later.
It’s spawned all kinds of video responses — most of which, alarmingly, aspire to a poor imitation of Bethke’s form of freestyle rap/slam poetry/whatever. The results are akin to watching the first week of American Idol, with this being the worst offender (sent to me by my friend Sandy):
For the love of all that is holy, STOP RAPPING. And if you absolutely must use spoken-word poetry in your response, don’t drag it out for 13 excruciating minutes. (One of the reasons Bethke’s video works on some level is that it’s only 4 minutes long.)
That’s actually my main beef with the “Jesus hates religion” / “Oh no, he doesn’t” debate presently raging on the Interwebs.
The truth is, I’m sympathetic to what Bethke has to say — even if, like many who’ve weighed in, I wonder whether “religion” is the right target.
Kevin DeYoung (who mercifully chose NOT to respond in poetic form, but rather stuck to his usual method of using 10,000 words to not so much win the argument as wear you down) took issue with Bethke’s opener. In response to the question “What if I told you ‘Republican’ doesn’t automatically mean Christian?” DeYoung writes:
I doubt that putting right-wingers in their place is the most pressing issue in Seattle.
The implication being that people in the Pacific Northwest, where Bethke lives, are liberal enough already.
But if the dominant view (not just among Seattleites but non-Christians across America) is that Christianity is synonymous with a particular political ideology, then Bethke is right to say this is a problem.
Gabe Lyons has done a lot to identify the church’s “image problem.” Here’s what came back when he asked emerging adults to share their top perceptions of Christianity:
- Anti-homosexual (91% said this)
- Judgmental (87%)
- Hypocritical (85%)
- Sheltered (78%)
- Too political (75%)
I would argue that dealing with these perceptions IS a pressing issue — especially (but not exclusively) in the Seattle area, where I lived for three years.
But I have to agree with Kevin DeYoung when he says the real issue with Bethke’s video is the very first line: “What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?”
The problem (depending on what you mean by “religion”) is that Jesus taught the opposite:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets [which for his Jewish audience was synonymous with "religion"]; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
This problem has been summed up well in yet another video response — which, I’m sorry to tell you, also uses spoken word poetry, this time from a guy who Mark Driscoll would accuse of wearing a “dress.” (Thanks to Cognitive Discopants for sharing.)
The key takeaway is this:
You can’t have Christ without his church [warts and all]. You can’t have the King without his kingdom.
Jesus had plenty of harsh words for the religious establishment — in fact, most (if not all) of his judgment diatribes were aimed at corrupt religious leaders, not outsiders. To put it another way, if Jesus were physically present today, he might say many of the same things about “religion” that Bethke has said.
But we can’t overlook the fact that Jesus operated from within the system, even when he was prophetically critiquing it (sometimes by throwing tables around).
He still worshiped at the temple, even though the priesthood was in bed with imperial Rome. He intended for the religious leaders, along with everyone else, to embrace the kingdom of God (as can be seen in Luke 7).
Five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation, evangelicals have grown accustomed to their detachment. For all the good it did, part of the Reformation’s enduring legacy is the myriad of denominations we have today — some of whom split from each other for the most ridiculous reasons. (I’m looking at you, SBC.)
Some reject denominationalism altogether, opting instead for a loosely affiliated “network” of churches (as is the case with Bethke’s home church, Mars Hill). Some don’t even want that, priding themselves on their absolute independence and autonomy.
What gets lost after 500 years of fragmenting is that Martin Luther, father of the Reformation, never set out to break from the church. He wanted to reform it from within. And he didn’t stop trying until he was finally kicked out.
Yes, the church is broken. Yes, it’s constantly in need of reform. But there’s a danger of cutting our nose off to spite our face. Like it or not, the church is still God’s best plan for inaugurating his kingdom. Religion is not a dirty word.
Yes, lots of bad things have been done in the name of religion. And when people like Bethke remind us of this fact, we shouldn’t shrug them off with a dismissive “Yeah, we’ve heard all that before.” We should listen.
But we should also take to heart these words from James, the brother of Jesus:
Religion [no, he wasn’t afraid to use the word] that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
But most of all, we should call a moratorium on all spoken-word poetry videos about religion.
__________
Update: I got to interact briefly with Bethke on Twitter after this post when up. It says something about a person when they make a video that generates 17 million hits but can still take a moment to interact with the thoughts of someone whose blog has, well, nothing like 17 million hits.
It’s clear there’s more nuance to Bethke’s perspective than what can be squeezed into a 4-minute video. Besides, whether you like everything in the video or not, he’s started a conversation about who Jesus really is. He’s got a lot of people talking. And you’ve got to admire that.
Brother James
/ 26 January 2012Ben,
I think it would be wrong of us to expect the Church to be a place of peace while the whole world groans in pain. We live in a broken world; the Church too often reflects that brokenness. The hope of the Gospels is that this will not always be so. Thanks for an insightful post.