Love > Hate.

January 23, 2012 in Forefront,Questions,Video,YouTube with 3 Comments

 

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably seen the “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video circling YouTube (At least 16+ million have and continues to climb). Well, it stirred all kinds of controversy about whether or not it’s okay to hate religion and still love Jesus. Jay Bakker hates religion, Mark Driscoll hates it, Andy Stanley encourages you to lose it, so does R.E.M. 

It’s interesting. There are plenty of things done in the name of “religion” that are hurtful. I’ve even said “…it’s not about rules and regulations, but a relationship.” People hear religion, and they go running for the hills. It’s scary because of the stigma and social injustices that have happened in the name of God, faith, the church, etc.

But, I’m also a bit torn. I read passages like James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” So, there is a religion that is pure. In the NIV, it’s put this way, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless…”

So there is religion out there, untainted by you or I, that God looks down at and goes, “Man, they finally got it.” I pray I get there one day. I don’t think I’ve arrived- there’s plenty to learn in this journey of faith. This dialogue doesn’t look to be going away any time soon. Many different people are putting out responses (I’ve included one below), but what should our response possibly be in all of this?

As we search after God, let’s not strive to talk poorly of the church (which Jesus died for and will come back for one day), or religion (because anything can be tainted and abused by messed up people), and instead search out to honor God, share our faith, and build one another up in love.

Because after all, Love > Hate.

 

  • http://twitter.com/grubb_matt Matt Grubb

    Good word. I have been torn with this topic as well. As we read the bible we see that Jesus talks about religion in a positive light, that it is a beneficial thing. 

    Like everything, I think the rub comes with the classification of something by the stereotype; the Catholic Church (child molesters), Christians (hypocrites), tattooed people (rebellious), etc etc. I know people in all of these categories who want nothing to do with the labels that are associated with them. In it’s purest state Religion is an excellent state. We don’t live in that reality though, we are a fallen people, sin knocking at the doors of our often weak walls, allowing labels to lie to the essence of what we or the subject truly represents.

     I love Religion but I hate the accepted status quo. I love Religion but I hate the accepted and sometimes endorsed hypocrisy by ministers of our faith, I love Religion but it kills me that waiters/waitresses consider Sunday the worst day to work because the “Church” people are the rudest and tip the poorest. 

    So I understand the people that take issue. I understand that there is a desire to distance oneself from the “label” of religion. I think, just like you mentioned in James, the believers were seeking to put distance between the understood idea of “religion” and what God desires for us, a  “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God.” 

    In the end I think that we have a responsibility to change the label. Don’t throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Let’s live our lives in a  way that people want to know what we are talking about, the kind of religion that is pure and faultless. Let us strive for this practicing the fruits of the spirit in abundance, because against such things….there is no law(Gal 5:22,23)!

  • MaryAlyce

    Doug  at Real Life opened his message yesterday with the video which I had already shared earlier in the week on my page.  It is definitely in tune with his sermon series of “Overhaulin’”.  I enjoy your posts on here, Jason.  Your words not only reach me but many others that I have shared them with.  And as the song says (paraphrased), “I see a new generation, rising up to take their place, a near revival.”  My generation didn’t have the wherewithall to challenge how they believed.  It is refreshing to this “I found Jesus again” christian to see men like you and Doug Forehand reaching out, stepping out on that ledge, so to speak.  March on with your words and wisdom, it does this heart good! 

  • http://twitter.com/Holmark4 Holly Mercier

    Thanks for this message.