Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus

"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"
Song by Jefferson Bethke
Released 10 January 2012
Format Digital download
Length 4:03
Producer(s) Matthew Robertson
Music video
"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" on YouTube
Music video
"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" on GodTube
Jefferson Bethke

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus is a viral video created by Christian evangelist Jefferson Bethke, who uploaded his work onto YouTube and GodTube, under the screenname bball1989.[1][2] The video has thus far received more than 31.1 million views.[3]

The theme of the video revolves around "the difference between Jesus and false religion."[1] Underneath his video, Bethke delineated its purpose:

A poem I wrote to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion. In the scriptures Jesus received the most opposition from the most religious people of his day. At its core Jesus' gospel and the good news of the Cross is in pure opposition to self-righteousness/self-justification. Religion is man-centered, Jesus is God-centered. This poem highlights my journey to discover this truth. Religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride because you make a list and can do it and act better than everyone, or despair because you can't do your own list of rules and feel not good enough for God. With Jesus, though, you have humble confident joy because He represents you, you don't represent yourself and His sacrifice is perfect, putting us in perfect standing with God![2]

Jefferson Bethke repudiated those who used his video to criticize the Church, stating "The Church is His vehicle to reach a lost world. A hospital for sinners. Saying you love Jesus but hate the Church, is like a fiancé saying he loves his future bride, but hates her kids."[4] Nevertheless, the author of the video stated that he wanted to expose the legalism prevalent in many houses of worship.[5] The popular rapper Lecrae, on his Facebook, encouraged his fans to think about the video by linking an article titled "Does Jesus hate religion? Kinda, sorta, not really" by Kevin DeYoung who had, since writing it, spoken with Jefferson Bethke about it and the video.[6]

Popularity

The four-minute video had received 6 million views three days after its release on 10 January 2012,[7] as well as 64,000 comments.[8] and by 23 January, the video was viewed over 16 million times.[9][10] Jefferson Bethke's videos "Sex, Marriage, & Fairytales", "Sexual Healing" and "Death Of Yolo" are another ones of his most popular works, receiving over 6 million, over 5.2 million and 1.9 million views respectively.[11][12][13]

References

  1. 1 2 Ravelle Mohammed. "'Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus' Viral Video Sparks Faith Debate". The Christian Post. Retrieved 13 January 2012. The video, titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus..."
  2. 1 2 "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus: Posted by 'bball1989' on GodTube.com". Crosswalk.com. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY
  4. ↑ Ravelle Mohammed. "'Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus' Viral Video Sparks Faith Debate". The Christian Post. Retrieved 13 January 2012. The Church is Jesus' bride...
  5. ↑ Ravelle Mohammed. "'Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus' Viral Video Sparks Faith Debate". The Christian Post. Retrieved 13 January 2012. Bethke clarifies that he loves the church...
  6. ↑ DeYoung, Kevin. "Does Jesus Hate Religion? Kinda, Sorta, Not Really". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Llorens, Ileana (12 January 2012). "'Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus' Creates Controversy On YouTube". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "'Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus:' Controversial YouTube Video Goes Viral". International Business Times. Retrieved 13 January 2012. The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on Jan. 10, is nearing 6 million views and has amassed more than 64,000 comments
  9. ↑ "Poet on "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"". CBS News. 23 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "YouTube rages against rapper/poet Jeff Bethke "Why I hate religion, but love Jesus" sermon (Video)". Washington Times. 22 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4OK9DmLpCY
  12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlJFvxad1_A
  13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg0UfweQOyc
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