viral video: Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus

[Ryan M.]

I love Kevin DeYoung's stuff! I go to a SGM church so I am familiar with him.

 

[SeaStorm]

I will have to spend more time on it later, but upon a quick skim, I think the Kevin DeYoung article is fantastic!

Also, I've been hard on Mr. Bethke's video, but I will give him some credit: I went back to watch his first viral video from last year and I thought that one was amazing.

 

[SeaStorm]

David Brooks - my favorite political commentator - had a great article on this yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/brooks-how-to-fight-the-man.html

It sounds like Mr. Bethke essentially has had a change of heart and agrees with Mr. DeYoung:

"I wanted to say I really appreciate your article man," Bethke wrote to DeYoung in an online exchange. "It hit me hard. I’ll even be honest and say I agree 100 percent."

Bethke watched a panel discussion in which some theologians lamented young people's disdain of organized religion. "Right when I heard that," he told The Christian Post, "it just convicted me, and God used it as one of those Spirit moments where it's just, 'Man, he's right.' I realized a lot of my views and treatments of the church were not Scripture-based; they were very experience based."

I'm so glad to hear him admit the bolded part, as that was the crux of the complaints about the video.

Brooks goes a step deeper to discuss why people have the urge to rebel against current institutions (religious, economic, and political) and the dangers of doing so without specific replacements in mind. This is a worthwhile read (and not long at all).

 

[LightoftheAlmight]

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150577306604047

 

[Hanyou]

Oh yeah, and I also hate hearing about how "religion" has caused so many wars. I f we are talking about the crusades, there really wasn't much religion involved. It was all politics under the guise of religion.

It's worth noting that the Crusades weren't a one-sided conflict, either. Both sides committed evils. That's not what you usually hear.

 

[LightoftheAlmight]

It's worth noting that the Crusades weren't a one-sided conflict, either. Both sides committed evils. That's not what you usually hear.

Also, the First Crusdae was requested by the Eastern Orthodox; The Latin Church tried to ride to the rescue when the Moslems were invading. It just *ahem* went a little downhill from there...

 

[JayArby]

From Kevin DeYOung's article:

Have there been religious wars in the last two thousand years? Yes. Have there also been wars over money, land, ego, women, slavery, democracy, freedom, communism, fascism, Nazism, terrorism and just about everything else you can imagine? Yes.

...

More to the point, Christians need to stop perpetuating the myth that we’ve basically been huge failures in the world. That may win us an audience with non-Christians, but it’s not true. We are sinners like everyone else, so our record is mixed. We’ve been stupid and selfish over the years. But we’ve also been the salt of the earth.

 

[Daggor]

I love Kevin DeYoung's stuff! I go to a SGM church so I am familiar with him.

I can't confess to have ever heard Kevin DeYoung preach, despite literally being able to look out my window and see the church he preaches at, but that spawns a lot for my absolute disgust with the TULIP theology that was present when I used to attend the campus ministry that was sponsored by the University Reformed Church. However, I do have to respect his response to this vid, as for myself, I exist somewhere between the original video, and the pro-religious response. I still believe that our salvation is more founded in our personal relationship with God, and that the church is basically broken, apathetic, and just as often a stumbling point than an encouraging force for salvation, but I'm not willing to give up on it or disassociate with it either.