Editor’s note: Nadia Bolz Weber wrote this entry as a response to the “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video that went viral on YouTube last week.
I totally get it. I hate the way in which the church is more of a behavior modification program and a purity system than a place where we hear the truth of who God is and the truth of who we are because of who God is.
I also resent the way in which the term “Christian” has become synonymous with a conservative social agenda and exclusion of the weak, the poor and the outcast (namely the people Jesus chose to hang out with).
I, too, reject religion that does little more than prop up an identity of sanctification and righteousness based upon successfully adopting a particular affect, style, personality and way of speaking.
I, too, think that Jesus is about grace and being with those on the margins and the unbounded way in which God is always coming to us.
But …
I believe that religion can be beautiful. For every war it has started, how many hospitals have been built? How many children found homes? How many people found community? How many nonprofits established to serve the poor? How much beauty created?
There is much to confess. I confess that the church has often done a bad job of being Christ’s body. We have often been more about maintaining exclusionary practices than we have been about the transgressive beauty of the gospel.
But we are still called to be members of one another, dying for the sake of the world. The church is still called to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments. If we don’t do it … who will?
The United Way?
The Elks Club?
Wal-Mart?
Answer: no one. That’s our job.
So … I believe in religion AND Jesus. I believe in the gospel. I believe in the transformative truth of what God has done in Christ.
I believe that I can only know what this following Jesus thing is about when I learn it from people I would never choose out of a catalog, when we all gather together as the broken and blessed body of Christ around the Eucharistic meal.
I believe that I am the problem at least as often as I am the solution.
I believe in participating in sacred traditions that have a whole lot more integrity than anything I could come up with myself.
I believe I need someone else to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to me because I cannot create that for myself.
I believe that Jesus is truly present in the breaking of the bread and that where two or more are gathered, he is there. That’s religion AND Jesus. May God make us worthy of it all.
Find a link to Nadia Bolz Weber’s blog Sarcastic Lutheran at Lutheran Blogs.
You might also like to read:
Spiritual but not religious
Pilgrim on a wide path
Living and breathing God’s presence
thank you for your voice of reason.
I have the image of Walmart or some generic corporate entity trying to sell Jesus now. In the sacriligious way, not the 'they're actually proclaiming the Gospel' way. My other thought is 'televangelists'.
I like this post, though.
It all comes down to how you defne "religion." Religion can have a lot of different meanings, both positive and negative. It seems to me that what the video calls religion, Lutherans have traditionally called "works righteousness," which, of course we reject in favor of Jesus/gospel/grace. There really isn't anything new in the video regarding theological substance, only the style/format/media of presentation is changed.
I agree in many ways. I believe in God, but I do not go to church. I can't drive. I used to walk over a mile ever week to church. I did volunteer work there for years. One time my doctor increased my medication for my Epilepsy. At first this had an effect on me, until my body adjusted. Someone noticed it and assumed that I was high on drugs. No one asked me. The word began to spread. One time as I was there working someone approached me and informed me that I could not work there anymore. They said they and others had met with the pastor and discussed it, although I was not informed of the meeting, not being able to explain my side. I left in tears, not wanted in a church I had been at since I was in Girl Scouts. I was around 40 years old when this occured.
I certainly can relate to the YouTube video, as a gay man growing up in the Missouri Synod, I felt like an outcast at best. Every Sunday I felt attacked whether it was at the pulpit or by condemning looks by some members of the congregation. It has been such a struggle to bring peace to my rift with religion. How could I ever find a church that believed the way I was brought up with that also accepted me for who I was without judging my lifestyle? Well thanks to the ELCA, I am back home with God and it feels AMAZING! Like a dry sponge, I am absorbing His love and purpose for my life. The issue is acceptance, while fire and brimstone is great it is not a welcome mat. We as Christians need to be more accepting and less judgmental.