Why I don't hate religion... youtube's most watched video

       So I've seen this video floating around the internet posted by this young man who loves Jesus but hates religion but hadn't mustered the energy to waste my time watching it. Well, I watched it. Yes, I watched this video and was not surprised at what I heard, but also not impressed. It seems that the young man, Jefferson Bethke, is basically stating that he is spiritual and not religious and you should be too? Perhaps this is the case, but if you listen to this link, http://www.stmarysgvl.org/discipleship/audio-homilies?song=1100&homilyTitle=Third+Sunday+of+ that is shown to be nothing but nonsense. I actually think Mr. Bethke is touching on a much more cliched point than this, but whatever larger point Jefferson Bethke is attempting to make in this video he makes a host of statements that reveal themselves to be well, rather foolish and not very good although they seem to be popular.

       To quote the late great Dr. Robert Preston, "What is popular is not often good, and what is good is not often popular." I think this is an apt statement when considering this video which I think is supposed to encourage people to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't want to sound like I am simply critiquing and bashing this young man's work and his intention behind it because I understand at least in part where he is coming from and why this video has been so widely accepted quickly becoming the most watched video on youtube.
       I began this post going through the poem line by line responding to each one, but after a few lines I gave up. Mr. Bethke makes sweeping claims, using terms without defining them, as well as making contradictory claims according to how I understand the terms he is using them. My first question if I had the opportunity would be to ask how the author defines 'religion' and 'church' among other terms. He claims to hate religion yet is a member of a Church. He claims to hate religion yet in fact love the Church.
       If one hates religion then he hates being bound together and in the understanding we have of religion, that means we hate being bound to others, to authority, or to God. This seems to me to be a most prideful of views to take of religion. Now, are all the members of religion perfect? I think each of you can answer that for yourself. So since members of religions are not perfect isn't it reasonable to think that the members of religions might make mistakes? Is it really so shocking that men fight? Is it really so appalling then men are greedy, lustful, prideful, and deceitful even within religions? In fact, I expect to find all of that. Paraphrasing the author's words, "If religion is so great how come it started so many wars?" Refer to my words above... what is so hard to understand about the fact that sinful people in a sinful world do sinful things? Obviously I am not championing acceptance of the status quo... much to the contrary in fact, but we ought not be so shocked by the fact that wars have been fought over religion. In fact, I would rather a war be fought over religion than land. I would rather a war be fought over belief in God than over borders, money, power, or any other reason. Again, I am not championing war, I abhor it, but we are sinful men in a sinful world, so if a war is to happen why not have it be about something that matters... perhaps the freedom to live out one's faith in a Church of his choosing... or in other words, to practice religion.
        Bethke goes on to criticize religion because it builds great churches but fails to feed the poor. Perhaps he has missed out on the fact that the Catholic Church does more than any other organization for the poor all the while having her rights stripped from her by governments. It is true that there are many people within the Catholic Church who are greedy, gluttonous, uncaring people, but that is not the Church herself. The Church and what she was founded on as the bride of Jesus is to love one another as Christ has loved us. Churches are built for the glory of God in worship. Worship leads the faithful to live lives of love. It teaches the faithful to live rightly ordered lives so that they see their responsibility to the poor. In modernity we have abandoned the poor to the government's care which seems to have utterly failed. People abandon the Churches and as they abandon the Churches so are the poor abandoned.
       Mr. Bethke, did Jesus abandon those who wronged Him? Why ought we to abandon of Religion because people in religions have done wrong? According to your own testimony you ought to be abandoned because you have done wrong... I ought to be abandoned as well for I have done wrong and because I have done wrong no one ought to ever learn from me.
     

"Now back to the point one thing is vital to mention, how Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums; one’s the work of God and one’s a man made invention; see one is the cure but the other’s the infection.  See because religion says do, Jesus says done; religion says slave Jesus says son.

Religion puts you in bondage, but Jesus sets you free; religion makes you blind but Jesus makes you see.  And that’s why religion and Jesus are two different clans.  Religion is man searching for God, Christianity if God searching for man."

How can one hate religion but love Jesus? Jesus founded a Church! Isn't a Church part of a religion or a bastion of religion? When I say Church I mean the people, the organization, not simply the building. Don't people have some sort of belief system if they are members of a Church? Is religion really a man made invention? I disagree, I believe religion is man's response to God's call and cannot exist apart from Him. Jesus does say do, he says love one another as I have loved you! Jesus himself was a member of the Jewish religion which He clearly stated he did not come to abolish but to fulfill! So please Mr. Bethke fill me on your reasons for believing Jesus came to abolish religion. If he did so, why are you a Christian? 

I could say oh so much more, but this poem, this video by Mr. Jefferson Bethke seems to me to be utterly confused and irresponsibly illogical. I hope and pray that too many are not led astray by this emotionally charged, completely irrational critique of religion, something I do not think the author even grasps.