By now, most of our generation has seen the video posted above. The young man walks out into the courtyard of some magnificent building, and begins to discuss his love of Jesus and hatred of religion. The re-actions to this video were mostly positive, as if getting sixteen million people to watch a video about Jesus is a good thing. However some of the re-actions were surprisingly negative. People began to question whether his portrayal of Christianity and religion was accurate. However, both sides are missing the bigger picture.
Let’s rock some Bible. James 1:27 says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” [1]. Wait, did that just say true religion is looking after widows and orphans? Isn’t that what Jefferson Bethke, the creator of the video, is advocating for? So the Bible’s definition of how a religious person should act match’s up with the Bethke’s definition of how a person should act. So we can’t say that what Bethke is advocating for is wrong, but we can’t say his wording is right either[2]. Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
See, this conversation doesn’t start with a 20’s something rapper with some talent and awesome setting. It’s been going on for years. Since the world began, religion has been associated with genocide, racism, legalism, sexism, greed, sexual immorality, ignorance, terrorism, apathy, and the Crusades[3]. The church has tried for years to claim religion is not responsible for horrible things throughout history, and has come to realize there is a lot of guilt in our past. So a new plan was hatched to rebrand the word religion, so that it no longer means a spiritual worldview, but rather a word that encompasses all of the wrongs in the world. We began proclaiming Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. This allows for us to not be associated with the wrongs of religion, but simply with Christ. Some even go further, such as Author Donald Miller when he claims he is not a Christian, but rather he is a follower of Christian Spirituality[4]. We have a desire to only be held responsible for our own individual relationships with God, and do not want to be held responsible for the actions of others we disagree with. It makes it easy to blast the fallacies of the church and our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have reduced or eliminated our association with them.
But wait…what if we started to redeem the church, redeem Christianity, and redeem the name of religion? Don’t stand around and say the church doesn’t feed the poor, be part of a church that does. Don’t parade down the street and point out the hypocrites, be a man or woman of character and grace that lives out what the Bible says and is not ashamed of it. We are all the body of Christ, not individuals who only coincidentally share the same common goals. We need to start changing the image of the church, not by distancing ourselves from it, but rather by embracing the “pure and faultless religion” discussed in James.
1. NIV
2. We’re moving away from the video, but before I do I just have to say I think this kid is legit. While the post is discussing his definition of religion, the main points about who we are in Christ are pretty sweet. He seems to have responded very well and humbly to the criticisms, plus I really enjoyed some of his other videos.
3. And if we count atheism as a religion, we can add the Holocaust and the cruelty of Stalin and Soviet Russia to that list.
4. Blue Like Jazz
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