Nothing Wrong With Religion

I was thinking it and a guy whose thoughts I respect beat me to it:

I’ve been asked plenty about the video above. Here are my observations:

There is nothing wrong with religion, per se, but there IS something wrong with the use of the word, as used in this video. Religion as defined by our contemporary “Christian” culture is, “man working his way up to God”. The problem with this definition, is that it is no where used in any dictionary. It might sound cool to tell your non-Christian friends that you “hate religion”. But the reality of the matter, is that there is a “religion that is pure and undefiled before God, The Father” (James 1:27-ESV). Some argue that it is a matter of semantics, but, I believe that semantics is important. What words mean, have meant, are important in our use of them today. Others say that he qualifies his statement, but no where do we see a qualification in this video. “Jesus hates religion”, the gentleman keeps repeating in his spoken-word, but no where in scripture do we see such a statement. What I think he means, and this is where I can appreciate the video, is that Jesus hates hypocrisy (surely, that is true). But, we cannot simply take words and turn them upside down. Art form (when it is Christian), no matter what it is (e.g., music), ought to carefully use words and not strip them from their historical meaning. Don’t we rage in anger when people use the word “Christian” for something that is false and in contradiction to what Christianity has historically meant? Then is it not hypocritical for us to take the word religion and do the same?


The Christian church has historically used the word religion in a positive light (The classic work of John Calvin comes to mind, or Jonathan Edwards’s treatise on true religion). I, and others, will continue to do the same. 

4 Notes/ Hide

  1. repeater75 posted this

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