Thursday, January 12, 2012

Slightly Confused

This video, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus," has popped up multiple times on my facebook newsfeed. I finally watched it a few a minutes ago, and I'm going to offer a response here.

Let me start out by saying that there are points made in this video that I absolutely agree with. There are also points (namely the whole premise/title) that are not Truth.

Religion is not in and of itself evil. The problem with religion is not that it is something contrary to Jesus or something on the opposite end of the spectrum of Jesus (as it is according to the video). The "problem" with religion is that every religion is made up of HUMANS whose daily lives, decisions, and actions are influenced by FALLEN NATURE.

The logical parallel that the poet in this video attempts to draw between Christ's rebuking of the Scribes/ Pharisees with religion as a whole is faulty. Christ did NOT come to abolish the law; He came to FULFILL the law. In doing so, He INSTITUTED the One, Holy, Catholic Church. The FULLNESS of Truth -of God's plan for mankind- rests within the rich sacredness of a religion build upon Scripture and Tradition.

Christ's condemnation in Scripture is a condemnation of people who did not allow God their whole beings - their whole hearts. He condemned people who used the law as a source of pride rather than a guide towards love. He condemned people who tried to hide behind the law and avoid actually LIVING mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. And today He still condemns people who hide behind religion. He still condemns hypocrisy.

What the man in this video DOES understand is that far too many people today claim salvation and holiness because they can check church off their list of things they did this week. Far too many Catholics - and Christians as a whole - never allow their religion to guide them to the fullness of the Christian life.

However, what the man in this video DOES NOT recognize is that when Christ instituted The Church, it never ceased to be comprised of fallen people. It never ceased to exist in a fallen world. Rather, He insured that even when we do fail -even when our practice of religion falls short of the glory He has in mind - there is a religion through which we always have access to the grace of His obedience on the cross.

It is through a religion- The Catholic Church- that the grace for our salvation is made available to us.

Religion is not the summation of the hypocrisy its members. Rather, One religion is the NECESSARY path for us to our salvation.

I guess in a way I could say that he is almost right. And yet completely wrong at the same time...

1 comment:

  1. I agree! This guys completely misrepresents religion. Or maybe he understands it all too well, and like you say, religion has been hijacked by self-serving individuals. Either way, our society has a problem on our hands when religion is misused and because of that becomes the problem rather than the solution.

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