Indeed, there are two sides to every story. Or, in this case, YouTube video.

Chances are you’re one of the 9,487,981 (and counting) who’s seen the spoken word video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” by Jefferson Bethke (aka bball1989).

His YouTube Channel features videos of Mark Driscoll and Acts 29 buddy Matt Chandler as well as a video response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins promo (wherein he steals most of Bell’s material but inserts his own theological perspective here and there, ultimately making his response less than coherent).

I first saw “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” on Wednesday, I think, when a number of my friends and coworkers shared it on The Facebook, praising it for it’s deconstruction of institutional Christianity, that, as bball1989 states, would rather build churches than feed the hungry. From this perspective, I can agree. And I’m convinced that John Caputo would be proud. Really.

So, yes, in Bethke’s formulation:

Jesus > Religion

Jesus is better than institutional faith. Or, as I recall it from elementary school math, the alligator mouth likes Jesus more than religion, which is a little weird now that I write it down. But you know what I mean, right?

On the other hand, however, Bethke ends up undermining his anti-religion project by arguing for a life lived wholeheartedly after Jesus. To offer an oversimplified response: That is religion. It’s how life is lived. This is why there was no word for religion until the 13th century, when life began to be fragmented between different spheres and a word had to be created to refer to one’s beliefs and pattern of life.

In this sense (which Bethke seems to misunderstand):

Jesus > Religion

“Wait,” you’re thinking, “that’s the same as above.” Yes, but this time, the greater than symbol is not only that, it’s an arrow. Jesus points to a better religion. Recall Jesus’ response to the religious scholars of his day, when asked about the greatest commandment:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22.37-40 NIV)

Yes, the religious scholars of Jesus’ day had some things wrong. But that doesn’t make Jesus’ response anti-religious. Quite the opposite.

Tony Jones hits the nail on the head (albeit in a rather snarky manner – but hey, I guess he’s earned it with a PhD from Princeton):

Religion is simply the social and psychological framework by which human beings organize their experience of the Divine…

It’s naïve to think that billions of people will experience the Divine, but they won’t try to organize and categorize that experience. We do, and we find that our experience overlaps with the experience of others. We join with those others, and we find patterns of speech, symbols, and behavior that help us articulate our experiences.

And it’s not bad that we do this. It is, Mr. Bethke, inevitable.