http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY&feature=g-logo&context=G252faa6FOAAAAAAABAA

I hate this blog hosting service and it's apparent inability to embed videos.  So humor me, click the link above, and watch the video.

Ok.

A lot of people seem to really like this video.  I have problems with it.  Surprised?  If you've been reading any length of time, you know I'm a curmudgeonly mean-spirited person with a profound dislike for most things everyone else loves.  In other words, you won't be surprised that I have problems with this video

There are a lot of things that could be said, but here's the nutshell.

The young man in the video doesn't define his terms.  What does he mean by 'religion'?  What does he mean in his comments below the video about 'false religion'?  We aren't sure.  And I don't think he is either.  It's fine to have problems with erroneous religion or false religion, but his issues seem to be not with religion per se, but with the Church.  

Religion means a set of beliefs about the world that govern our thinking, believing and acting.  So to claim that this is what his beef with makes no sense.  But the things he describes - hypocrisy, a lack of love for neighbor, legalism, shallowness, etc. are all issues not with a set of beliefs about the world but with the people who hold them.  And since he's trying to distinguish Jesus from religion, I'm assuming that the believers he has problems with are Christians, and therefore the Church.

If he assumes that we can get rid of hypocrisy, lack of love for neighbor, legalism, shallowness, etc. by getting rid of the Church and just loving on Jesus, he's profoundly mistaken.  Because it's the Church that tells us who Jesus is.  

Don't believe this?

At least four major religions acknowledge the existence of Jesus and have something to say about him.  Judaism says at best that he was a moral teacher and healer, and at worst that he was a charlatan guilty of blasphemy.  Christianity asserts that he is the incarnate Son of God through whom redemption is open to all who place their faith and trust in his identity and in his death and resurrection.  Islam claims that Jesus is a great prophet and teacher, but that he wasn't crucified, resurrected, or divine.  Mormonism claims Jesus is the Son of God but in a way that is equally possible to any other man who lives a proper Mormon life.  

Which is he?  Which account do you believe?  Why do you believe it?  It depends on which religion you follow, which group of believers you are convinced has the right take on him.  That requires a religion that presents Jesus in a specific way.  For Christians, that's the Church.

I have folks who have been very irritated with my lack of adoration for this video.  They argue that he's just making poetry, and we shouldn't criticize his theology.  That's a load of donkey-doo.  Theology and poetry needn't be mutually exclusive - what do you think the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Athanasian Creed (the Three Ecumenical Creeds) are?  Theology set in poetry to be recited and memorized and believed.  So his format doesn't exempt him from speaking carefully and accurately.

I hate hypocrisy, lack of love for neighbor, legalism, shallowness, etc. just as much as this young man does.  I'm also just as guilty of these things as he is, and as every other member of the body of Christ is.  Which is precisely why we gather together as the Church.  To be reminded of how broken we are, to be reminded of the great love and grace and forgiveness of God the Father through God the Son by faith created by God the Holy Spirit, and to encourage and exhort and rebuke and help one another towards living each day a little more like the saints we are now in Christ, rather than the sinners we are without him.  

And when things like this video or a book or anything or anyone else generates a lot of attention by making doctrinal assertions about the Christian faith, it is the duty and privilege of Christians to analyze it.  To discern whether or not it is speaking faithfully or not.  To affirm the beauty and goodness that might be present as well as to expose the shortcomings, errors, or oversights that may be present as well.  Doing so doesn't make us mean-spirited (unless, like me, you were mean-spirited to begin with), but rather it builds one another up on the faith.  It is the act of doing theology.  And it is profoundly beautiful, holy, and necessary work.  Every day.  All the time.  In love.

So it's ok to like this video, but realize that he's mistaken about what the problem is.  The problem isn't religion or the Church, the problem is you and I (and him).  And the Church is where we go to continually learn and relearn and engage in the beliefs and actions (religion) that reflect the reality that we have been saved from our sinful brokenness by the Triune God.  

Word.  Yo.