Maybe you’ve seen the video on YouTube. It’s a video titled “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus.” It is the venting of one young man’s frustration over what he defines as the difference between “religion” and Jesus.
It is a spoken-word poem written and performed by a young man who is clearly frustrated by his perceptions of the institutional church. He blames religion for starting wars and accuses religion of behavior modification and moral deliberation that is graceless, unforgiving, condemning and intolerant. It’s a harsh critique, and with over 20 million views, it has stirred a lot of controversy across faith and denominational lines.
I know there are a million things we can nitpick apart about this young poet’s ecclesiology, theology or whatnot, but instead, I would rather simply state that, whether you like it or not, this is a perception of the church by the Millennial generation. These are the feelings they have toward church. So instead of taking it apart, let’s instead deal with this video as an introduction to the Millennial Jesus.
Defining religion
His first line starts it all — “What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?” For some, this just seems ludicrous. But before you pick it apart, you have to understand that to Millennials “religion” means something different than it does to older generations. Baby boomers and the silent generation would define religion as a synonym for faith. Religion is your faith at work.
But to the Millennial, religion is defined as the empty rituals taken on by people to affect a faithfulness they don’t truly possess. To the Millennial, “religion” is not faithfulness but rather the habits — the work — that merely appear as faith but leave out the greater reality of the relationship with Christ. As the poet states, “Now I ain’t judging, I’m just saying, quit putting on a fake look, ‘cause there’s a problem if people only know you’re a Christian by your Facebook.” Ouch. It addresses the feeling that people are acting Christian or say they are Christian as a secular identity, not as a faith statement.
It is the age-old accusation of hypocrisy in the church. Every generation has shared that old bailiwick so we cannot say it is particularly unique to this generation. But when you compare how many signals this generation receives concerning dis-ease in the church — sex abuse scandals, multimillion-dollar buildings, pastors who preach against being a gay person only to be caught with male prostitutes, talking heads selling snake oil get-rich-quick schemes over morning TV — well you can see that in their eyes this accusation is earned. When we tell a Millennial we are a Christian, these are the images they first think of.
The role of grace
Millennials are also greatly attracted to grace as core to theology. As he states, “Religion is man searching for God. Christianity is God searching for man, which is why salvation is freely mine, and forgiveness is my own, not based on my merits but Jesus’ obedience alone.” This is great theology! But their frustration is the great disconnect between the grace-filled proclamation of Jesus and the gospel that turns grace into an ultimatum. “Either accept this grace message or be condemned to hell!” This is not, nor does it sound like, grace. And it is the message they are told over and over at Tea Party gatherings and Christian music festivals.
At the same time, Millennials are aware of the nature of grace to change one’s life. It is not a call to morality or an earning of the destiny paycheck for a life well-lived but rather a free gift given by God’s continual searching for us. Millennials are also aware of the sanctification dimension of grace. Inundated by images of poverty, abuse, sex-trafficking, bullying and other injustices, the Millennial cannot reconcile inaction on the part of the church. If grace has freed us, the Millennial believes it has freed us not just for life everlasting (justification) but for life today (sanctification). Cheap grace is on the mind of the Millennial.
“Because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean.” This is the challenge to the church in America. It is a prophetic word from this young man. Granted, his view is quite myopic in only seeing the darkness within the church rather than the abundant (and oft unpublicized) light. But if this is the perception of the Millennial, then this is the reality we are called to deal with. We cannot try to prove him wrong with more blog posts, responses via YouTube, through sermons or even in articles like this. We must begin to turn toward understanding our youngest ones and hear their prophetic heart calling us back to costly grace.
You might also want to read or watch:
Jesus vs. religion: a death match
‘Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus’ — a response
Be the change. Be the gospel. Freed in Christ to serve.
Why did the author find it necessary to sterotype and insult "Tea Party gatherings and Christian Music festivals?" Such bias and prejudice should have no place here.
Why do you think the comments about "Tea Party Gatherings and Christian Music Festivals" are examples of bias and prejudice?
In my experience, when a festival claims it's "non-denominational," as most Christian Music Festivals are, they are actually closer to a Southern Baptist POV. And while I am all for groups gathering together to share their political views (like the Tea Party) it's not hard to see the judgemental aspect of any like-minded gathering. We see it in our Narthex, our dinner groups, and our political groups. It's like the old joke- isn't it great that God hates the exact same people that I do?
priesman -- Ironically, I think you just proved my point!
Chemnitz,
I think it's reasonable to call out false gospels, especially when they masquerade as Christianity. Glenn Beck, among others attached to the Tea Party movement, makes millions selling his false gospel of prosperity. I would be willing to wager that you could survey random people about Tea Party beliefs, and get reasonably consistent results, which will unfortunately be all Law. Anti-abortion, anti-marriage equality, pro-guns, anti-separation of church and state, pro-profit, pro-"being on Jesus' side"... but not pro-cross.
Wouldn't it have been neat for a Tea Party protest to have been staged near a soup kitchen? Show up, protest for an hour, and then cook and serve the homeless? Or protest outside of a nursing home, and then go in and visit with and build relationships with people who hardly ever see anyone? Or even just writing letters to prisoners during/after a protest?
I cannot believe that people are defending sterotyping the beliefs of a group. Talk about hypocrisy! If we said that all people of a race or sexual orientation believed or acted one way, there would be a righteous outcry here, and rightly so. But obviously here some groups are okay to attack and others are not. Peter, do you really want to say that saving babies, bring faith into the public square, and being against sodomy is the same as being against the cross of Christ? Don't you see the things you have been led to stand for are also Law as well? I know this comment will be deleted from the site and I may be banned from posting, but that's okay. This is just sad and someone has to speak out and speak up for the Truth.
No doubt it has been mentioned here before, but for any who may have not seen it or forgotten where he or she might have seen it: Jonathon Fisk at Worldview Everlasting has a GREAT Gospel-centered video in response to the "Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus" video called "Jesus Equals Religion" (yeah, he's a Missouri Synod Lutheran brother in Christ - go for it!). It can be seen on YouTube. And, for what it's worth, I am in complete agreement with Chemnitz on his observations in this post. Stereotyping is stereotyping, regardless of the individual or group. Are we not called to a higher level than that?: "We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully lie, betray, slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything." But, again, I too may have missed the footnote: "Unless you disagree with that person or group, in which case have a field day!"
Chemnitz,
I think this is different from stereotyping because this is examining specific beliefs of a group formed around those specific beliefs. I see it as similar to criticizing Catholicism over the papacy. Judging from your post, it doesn't sound like we disagree over the beliefs I stated the Tea Party holds, except for the charge that the Tea Party misses the cross and my charge that the christology evident from the what the Tea Party publicly says about Jesus and religion is contrary to the Gospel. I do not mean these statements pejoratively or personally, and I apologize if they have been read in that manner. Rather, I think these statements can be evaluated objectively.
I do not mean to imply that being anti-abortion, pro-guns, etc are automatically wrong or mean that one cannot possbily receive the Gospel. I apologize if my statements came across that way. My concern is not that people believe one way or another on abortion, but that it's sold as a package deal. It's not Christ alone and only, but rather, Christ AND anti-abortion, pro-guns, etc, etc. While the Tea Party is the focus here, this isn't a peculiar failing of the Tea Party; the Old Adam/Eve within all of us constantly pushes us to add or subtract to Christ alone and only.
That's not the only false gospel mixed up in with the Tea Party. Glenn Beck's prosperity gospel is another false gospel championed by the movement. It's also pretty heavily infiltrated by the national folk religion of "God Bless America", just like the rest of American politics seems to be.
If there are specific aspects of this message you think I'm missing, or if you think I'm grossly maligning the Tea Party, please let me know. I'd be happy to continue discussing it. I think such a discussion would remain relevant to this post because it would directly relate to trying to reach the Millenials, and the challenges of proclaiming the Gospel in this context.
Tom,
I am curious. Why did you dig up a year old post to make your comments today?
Your interest in being a "rebel rouser", as you put it, is curious now that a year has passed.
Bruce
I just saw the post over the weekend here. Had I seen it earlier, I would have offered my comment. We have been doing a study on prayer called "Unbinding The Heart" which has inspired me to no longer keep silent on the wrong direction that the church and the ELCA is headed.
Tom,
I like this very public forum for discussion.
Would you mind sharing how your study on prayer has inspired you to say what you did about the church and those who support what the church has done to include the gay/lesbian community? I like it when people listen to each other. And I would like to listen to you.
Bruce
PS sorry, Tom, for the delay in replying, I was out of town for a few days with our grandchild (Spring break here in Minnesota).