Modern culture runs at a pace faster than ever before. Unfortunately, some
important practices fall victim to all that acceleration. One of the more
concerning things I have seen is the proclivity of Christians to jump onto nice,
neat slogans about their faith instead of really knowing what their faith is
about. This is what I would call bumper-sticker Christianity, where people
affirm phrases like "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." Well, cannot a
Muslim make the exact same claim?
My concern is highlighted by a new video that is catching fire around the internet seeks to draw a
distinction between religion and Jesus. ;Entitled "Why I Hate Religion but Love
Jesus," street rhymer Jeff Bethke starts off with a bang, claiming that "Jesus
came to abolish religion." He then begins a nearly four minute contrast between
the problems of religion and the true faith expressed by Jesus and others in the
Bible. Obviously, the video has struck a chord in the greater Christian
community. The
YouTube page shows over six million hits in just over two days. But I think
Bethe not only is fostering a wrong view, he may actually be doing more harm
than good in certain instances.
In the video's description, Bethke writes "In the scriptures Jesus received the
most opposition from the most religious people of his day. At it's core Jesus'
gospel and the good news of the Cross is in pure opposition to
self-righteousness/self-justification. Religion is man centered, Jesus is
God-centered." And this highlights the problem with the video--Bethke is simply wrong in his definition of religion.
When most people talk about religion, they understand that it involves an entire
system of thought, including what God is like, what it means to be moral, and
what kind of worship practices are acceptable, and when you talk about worship,
you are specifically talking about relating to God in some way. So
relationship does come into play when we are talking about religion!
Many of Bethke's examples are not of religion, but of hypocrisy. "They might
preach grace but another thing they practice" and "It's like sayin' you play for
the Lakers because you bought the jersey." He draws from Jesus' rebuke of the
Pharisees in
Matthew 23:27 in saying that "religion's like spraying perfume on a casket."
But that's not what Jesus said. Earlier in the same book Jesus says
explicitly, "“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did
not come to abolish but to fulfill".(Matt 5:17). Jesus was denouncing the
Pharisees abuse of Jewish law, not the Jewish religious system as a
whole.
Other claims, such as "If religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?
Why does it build huge churches but fails to feed the poor?" are not only
patently false, it shows how prevalent the influence of the New Atheists such as
Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have been to even those inside the church.
Clearly, Bethke knows nothing of the history of Christendom and hasn't thought
his statements through. And if other Christians concede the New Atheists' point
on religion being only about starting wars and big buildings with no care for
the poor, then doesn't it make it that much easier for people to abandon all
faith altogether?
The video culminates with Bethke claiming “One thing is vital to
mention. How Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums. See, one is the work
of God, but one's a man made invention. See, one is the cure, but the other's
the infection.” These are incredibly strong words. The problem with such
an oversimplification is that I know people who will affirm that statement and
still be in the very predicament he's trying to warn people against. As I've
previously written (you can read the whole account
here), I had an encounter at a Starbucks with
a woman who very definitely said she felt we shouldn't "over-complicate our
approach to God and make it all about religion. I think that people try to make
things too hard, when it's all about relationship." But while affirming the
"it's not religion, it's a relationship" line, she couldn't tell me why such a
relationship was necessary. She held onto the slogan, but had no idea of the
nature of the atonement. So, the relationship is one that she understood as a
feeling between her and God, not Him dealing with our sin and our proper
response to that act.
The phrase of "It's not a religion, it's a relationship" is one I've heard
countless times and from many pulpits. The nature of the atonement is a little
harder to boil down into a catchy saying. However, no one will understand
the true nature of salvation without understanding the atonement. Grace is
found in the cross, and we must be diligent to make that the main message of our
witnessing. But it means we need to do some hard work; we need to study and make
sure that what we say is accurate and we don't misrepresent another's views. I
applaud Bethke's desire to see more people be genuine in their faith. However,
such desire should never lead us to rely on slogans over proper theology.
You never know who may agree with the slogan but still go away lost.
