After thinking long and hard about it, I finally managed to place my finger on the heart of the problem. I knew I had qualms with what this guy said and I could tell immediately that some of it was completely wrong. But I also realized that the main reason I was getting so worked up over this was because I felt like I had to defend the name of religion. And this really is the two sides of this debate, isn't it? Is religion good or bad?
Then it suddenly hit me. The fight has never been Jesus against religion. That has never, ever, ever in the whole of history been Jesus' objective. At the same time, Jesus did not come to defend religion either. In fact, the word "religion" is kind of irrelevant to Jesus' work.
Audrey Assad pointed out that what this guy in this video really hates is hypocrisy, not religion. This was enlightening to me. It's not the religion that's annoying us, it's the people within the religion, the people professing to be good while they're really ignorant and callous toward peoples' needs. Ultimately it's the people that are the problem, not religion.
This is an overused analogy, but I'm going to use it any way. Guns are not the reason crime and murder rates go up. The wicked people who use the guns to break God's law are the real problem. And getting rid of guns is not going to fix the problem, because if we get rid of guns, they'll simply find some other way of committing the same crimes.
The same goes for religion. Abolishing religion is not going to fix anything. Because it's the people who are the problem, not religion. So thinking that we need to fight religion is useless and ultimately unprofitable. At one point in this video, the guy says, "Jesus came to abolish religion". This is probably the most dangerous statement out of everything this guy said, because Jesus did not come to abolish religion. He came for a completely different reason. He came to fulfill the law, He came to die on the cross and rise from the dead and conquer sin once and for and for all. He came to abolish sin, not religion.
Here's an artical by Kevin DeYoung that I found interesting and may shed some more light on the subject.
"Does Jesus Hate Religion? Kinda, Sorta, Not Really"
Here's an artical by Kevin DeYoung that I found interesting and may shed some more light on the subject.
"Does Jesus Hate Religion? Kinda, Sorta, Not Really"
I disagree! How fun. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is, I don't directly disagree with this post; I just don't think it contradicts the point of the poem nearly as starkly as you seem to think. If you take the video to mean "Jesus came to abolish everything that looks, smells, and acts like religion," then yes it's a gross overstatement and your conclusions fall (rightly) very much to the contrary. But I don't think that interpretation is fair to the writer. Yes, the title seems to convey this exaggeration, and that is a weakness of the video. But I don't think that's the writer's point; most obviously as the description clarifies it as "the difference between Jesus and false religion" - that is, the hypocritical systems that man conjures to bolster self-esteem and self-righteousness.
Taken in that light, I don't think your distinction of "sin, not religion" is a working one. At the core of every false system of religion is man grasping at a means of being "like God" apart from the ways and will of God. And such is the core of our enmity with God, the essence of every sin since Adam's first. As you justly point out, Jesus came to abolish sin. But isn't sin ultimately the fruit of false religion, and doesn't abolishing sin mean abolishing the false-religion-bound heart that otherwise rules fallen man and replacing it with a new one?
Thus I say, I think the guy has a point, even if his poem does employ the overused and not entirely true dichotomy of Jesus vs. religion. Yes, I think he's a bit silly for playing off that dichotomy, since obviously it's distracting and getting a lot of nice, intelligent people hung up over it. But hey, it's a poem, and it's hard to be a poet and not make silly mistakes for poetry's sake.
This post was really more written as a debate against myself than anyone else. The poem just sort of ignited all of the thoughts and distinctions that I had already set up in my own mind. I guess I should have clarified that a bit more. :P
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean Dani. Jesus didn't come to get rid of religion. In James, it says "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." Religion isn't the issue, it's hypocrisy. It's an issue for sure! The guy just didn't use the right words. Many people who are hypocritical and act like the Pharasies are labeled "Religious". Our culture thinks that everyone who is religious is hypocritical, hence the title of the video. Good thoughts, Dani! :)
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