The YouTube video, Why
I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus , went viral on the internet one week ago.
It got 10 million views in the first day. It is a poem which highlights why the
speaker thinks religion and Jesus are very different. Elizabeth Tenetly, of the
Washington Post, interviewed Jefferson Bethke, the author and speaker in the
poem, to find out what he thought of the overnight success of the video and to discover his reasons for writing the poem.
Consider these Questions and respond to one of them:
1.
How does the music and rhythm affect the feeling
of the poem?
2.
Though
many people would find religion and Jesus to be similar, this clip portrays
these two as opposites, explain.
3.
Do you
think the commenters respond more about Bethke or the poem? Why do you think
they chose one over the other?
4.
What
binary stood out the most to you in Bethke’s poem? Why?
5.
Even
though Berkthke said he was not trying to “bash religions” do you think he did?
Why?
19 comments:
The music and rythem makes the entire poem flow better. Without this element we would only see a man who is standing in front of a church and basically bashing religion. With the music we see a man who is fed up with what has been going on and wants to spread his ideas throughout the world for everyone to hear. He makes religion seem like man's vision of how we should worship while at the same time he claims Jesus was called a "drunkert" by religious men. He says they are different because Jesus is what/who we should believe in. He makes the point that religion makes huge churches while the poor go hungry where as Jesus was known to himself go hungry to feed the poor.
I think people tend to focus more on what the peom is actually saying rather than the person who is saying them. Some of the things he says go against what many of us have been told and thought for our entire lives. People attack what he is saying due to an innability to keep an open mind. They do not like what he is saying so that is what they attack.
The biggest binary I noticed was how he made religion and Jesus polar opposties. I have never thought of it that way and in a way it makes sense what he is saying. Even though he was not trying to bash religion many people will see it as though he is because of what he said. People are allowed to think whatever they want much like he is allowed to say and think what he wants to. People do not like when others go against what they believe so many think he is bashing religion.
In a form of a poem, Jefferson Bethke shares his belief about religion and Jesus. Mainly about the differences between those two ideas, he claims in his video that religion goes against Jesus. Going back and forth between the two, one of the things he said that stood out was, “Quit putting on that fake look, because there’s a problem if people know that you’re Christian by your Facebook”. Bethke explains to the viewers that religion is a whole different meaning to people these days. They take the title of being Christian and religious to make it look like they have high status, while they commit sins outside of church. Describing religion, Bethke uses negative words like, “wars”, “perfume on casket”, “behavior modification like a long list of chores”, “museum for good people”, and “man made invention”. Instead of improving their faith in Jesus, religion masks people’s sins and impairs them from growing. On the other hand, to describe Jesus, he uses comforting words like, “work of God”, “the cure”, “free”, “grace”, and “forgive”. Bethke is trying to portray that “Religion” and “Jesus” are two different concepts and that Religion does not have the same definition as Jesus. People can be religious and love Jesus at the same time; however, there’s a difference between just going to church, and believing in Jesus.
This video might be about the difference between religion and Jesus, but it’s really about how people are practicing their religion. As Bethke mentions in his video, some religious people go to church to improve their reputation. He says, “[Church is] not a museum for good people”, meaning church is not meant for people to boast about how worthy they are to each other. Religion has been known to praise Jesus, and/or God, and to remember what they have done for people; however, it has become more about the people. In his interview with Elizabeth Tenetly, Bethke says that everything about Jesus and what he did for all humankind is what the churches should be about. Essentially, his message is that the churches should be one with Jesus.
The music and rhythm in the background is an essential part to this youtube video because it keeps the audience engaged in what the man is saying. Also, it helps this video appeal to a larger variety of people. By adding a beat, the younger crowds are more likely to pay attention, and the older people are just interested in the lyrics of this poem.
The poem itself is starting more controversy because any man who feels this passionate about something can get up and speak about it. It is not the physical man who everyone is repsonding to, its the actual lyrics to the poem. The words spoken are very bold statements about religion, and are bound to conflict with someone elses opinions.
The binary "Jesus came to abolish religion" stood out the most to me because this seems to be very open ended and could go in any direction. This statement also poses a lot of questions for the viewers. If he came to abolish relgion, why do most of the people in the world right now pray to him and use him as their religious figure? I don't think Bethke was trying to bash religion when he made this video, but I do believe he knew this would bring up a lot of opinions and start controversy over the internet.
Bethke is speaking about the modern day difference between Jesus and religion. He feels that the line between religion and Jesus has faded and that Christian’s have lost touch with what their faith should be focused on. In his poem he brings up the point “Jesus probably wouldn’t even be allowed in the church today.” Bethke focuses on the points that Jesus was on Earth to save sinners and would accept anybody, no matter what they had done. In present day the church rejects so many different types of people from following their religion says Bethke. The church has fallen so far off the path of what Jesus wanted them to follow that they are lost in unimportant topics. Topics like money and power, which being focused on has led to unnecessary wars in the past. Bethke’s reasoning for this is they are too focused on power and who is and isn’t allowed in the church, but they should truly just be focused on the mission of Jesus. In result the church and Jesus have become opposites.
I think Bethke brings up a lot of good evidence pointing to how the church truly isn’t a portrayer of Jesus’s message anymore. If one really wants to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, read the bible and discover his message, don’t listen to the church, listen to Jesus. As Bethke says when Jesus was around he was persecuted and crucified by holy men that were part of the church. Therefore, why follow be led by the church when they didn’t even accept Jesus or the people who took in. Many people today consider the church and Jesus almost synonymous, but this video should really open people’s eyes to the difference between the church’s mission and Jesus’s mission.
I completely agree with Melanie on her statement of how "the music and rhythm in the background is an essential part to this video because it keeps the audience engaged in what the man is saying." I also agree that the way the video is presented, with the different beats and rhymes, provides an appealing interest for many age groups.
The use of a church in the background is also very interesting. It is not only a church, but it also appears to be enclosed by surrounding walls and buildings- leaving the viewer with a feeling of enslavement. Bethke later reemphasizes this point by stating "Religion puts you in bondage, while Jesus sets you free."
Another essential piece is when Bethke states "Now let me clarify- I love the Church, I love the Bible, and yes, I believe in sin." This piece of the video allows the viewer to relax. It creates a feeling of content after all of the 'bashing' of controversy that is presented. It also gives room for unconscious agreement if already opposed to what Bethke has to say.
Overall I don't think that Bethke was trying to scold religion and its practice. I think his goal was to bring these underlying problems to our attention and create a different perspective for others to look at.
This poem is about Jefferson Bethke’s own view to the differences between believing Christian and Jesus. The background music of this video is sacred, comforting with the beat matching the rhythm of his poem. It makes the poem in this video that is accompanied by Jefferson’s body gestures, more like a piece of rap. But because the sacredness of the music, his poem appears in a serious and formal. Not only the music and rhythm and music, but also the setting of the video helps Jefferson to express his idea. He stands on a circle square in front of an old building，dressing in the clothes not that formal but a leather jacket, shooting in a classic tone, creating a sense of solemn. It seems the setting is trying to say, “ Hey, listen, I’m saying something important to you and me.” Whatever the setting may pattern, it is meant to serve the video’s theme.
This poem is full of binaries. “ Just because you call somebody blind doesn’t automatically give you vision”, “great” and “wars”, “build churches” and “cannot feed the poor”, “museum for the good people” and “ hospital for the broken”, “ one’s the work of god” and “ one of them is man made invention”, but the most important binaries are “Jesus” and “religion”. All the binaries make his poem like an argument on what on earth does believing in Jesus different from believe in Christian. And that is the theme, the tension here for the poem. He is saying as a result of the different ways of practicing, different nature of the two, Jesus is different from Religion, Jesus is larger than Religion. Just like what he says, the video was “to write a poem against legalism, self righteousness, self-justification and hypocrisy”.
The YouTube video "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" is how religion and belief in Jesus are completely opposing views. Jefferson Bethke says that Jesus was the cure, while religion was the infection. Jesus gave people forgiveness for their sins by being killed at the cross. Religion's purpose is to expand its beliefs to more people, receive more followers, sometimes by force (wars). Religion worries about appearance, nice churches and Sunday celemonies, more than feeding the poor (neat exterior but fake insides). It binds people by rules and routine habits without helping people see the real message. Bethke calls it a "man-made invention", corrupted by men throughout time while Jesus is the pure "work of god".
At the end, Bethke states "Jesus says done". This means he has taken care of everything. The people have already been saved and forgiven for their sins. They are free souls while religion says people must continue to confess and ask for forgiveness. With Jesus, "it is finished", people don't need to pay money or services to be forgiven or tell a man their sins. They don't have to attend church to be considered a believer, only understand that Jesus has reached out to people that they are taken care of. These binaries are strong and add the the controversy between religion and solely the belief in Jesus.
After watching this video and listening to how the music interacted with the poem, I felt that without that aspect, this video would have been completely different. After just listening to the words and music, I realized how much the music complimented the words by making them all seem much more powerful. It caught my attention right away and kept me intrigued the entire time just like it probably did for the other millions of viewers. Also, the way Bethke spoke those words was very powerful, not in just the meaning of them, but the tone of his voice just showed he cared about what he was talking about. Overall this was a very powerful and controversial video and the way Bethke presented it with every aspect of scenery, music, and tone of voice is what I think made this video so popular. It was able to grab the audiences attention and at the same time make them think about their own opinion on religion and Jesus. I agree with RWanner when looking at how Bethke said: "Now let me clarify- I love the Church, I love the Bible, and yes, I believe in sin." This one line allows the viewer to have the feeling that he is just not just bashing everything but instead showing that not all part of religion are bad but instead trying to enlighten everyone with the fact that there are underlying problems with religion and I think he did that in a very unique and meaningful way.
I think the commenters respond more to Bethke than his poem. There's a lot of controversy behind the message he's trying to present. Naturally, religious people have strong beliefs in whatever religion they have. Anything to combat that isn't taken lightly. I believe many of these people with strong beliefs don't even take what Bethke is trying to say into consideration and even go further to question his validity. One commenter suggests there is hidden motives in the video and points out how many cameras were used and how well made it is. Another even called the video part of a conspiracy. Overall, I think commenters respond more to Bethke almost in an attempt to defend their religion by questioning many things about it.
I don’t believe that Berkthke did bash religion. I feel that the whole point of the video was to make people think about what he was saying rather than try to sway them to one side or another. Berkthke did say a lot of harsh things about religion and the church but that was just his opinion and a good amount of what he said about both sides was fact. Some people could make the argument that he bashed religion, but he wanted them to open up their eyes and view things from a different perspective. Berkthke probably wanted people to argue about the video because it does bring up the topic and gets people talking about it so that people can make changes for the betterment of themselves. The video as a whole did not bash religion so much as it caused people to talk about it.
I thought that Bethke's use of binaries was extremely effective. The couplet that stood out to me the most was his binary of Jesus and religion. Outside of this video, Jesus and religion are often considered one in the same, but Bethke's video describes how these two terms are on opposite spectrums. I thought that this was interesting. He took two words that otherwise are viewed as similar and used this video to show how they are actually opposites. This really captured my attention. It draws you into the video, wondering what Bethke will say next to support his argument. Not only does the video draw the viewer in, but also leaves the viewer wondering what other similar words can be considered binaries. He points out that binaries can arise with sufficient reasoning behind it. This makes the viewers consider Bethke's words, and causes them to probe further into their own actions.
I thought that this video was a great portrayal of Bethke's idea, and his techniques effectively impact the viewer. It leaves them questioning their own religious practices, and also sparks an interest for the viewer to get to know Jesus.
The Jesus versus religion binary is powerful. It questions the strongest belief of many, and points out that although the two may be synonymous, they can be exact opposites. This can create tension within the viewer, but can also cause the viewer to develop a stronger relation with Jesus. Whether the viewer agrees or disagrees with Bethke's statements, this binary certainly sttands out in the video.
I don't think that Bethke is bashing religion. I think he is just bringing up the topics and the controversies of religion. He is just asking people to look at the facts and really contemplate the idea of religion and its effects.
The music was a perfect fit with the poem. It really adds to the effect of the poem and its meaning. His statement saying that people shouldn't be fake and just care about religion on facebook was well said. He's explaining that those who say the believe in religion may only do it for the higher status. They may say they are religious but really, they are sinful and bash the church while not in it. Overall, Bethke brings people to question religion and its ideas before just blindly following for its benefits.
Although it would appear that religion and Jesus should go hand and hand (in the aspect of Christianity of course) the man reciting the poem views them as complete opposites, with religion being an act and Jesus being a state of mind. His view point reflects the common phrase "going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car." He reflects this by stating that it's like "saying you play for the Lakers because you bought the jersey." This line is interesting to me because the symbolism of playing for the lakers makes it seem like being a real Christian is a hard, elusive but well earned task, while "buying the jersey" means that the so called "christians" are putting on a face for the public. By using the word buy instead of wear, the poet is making a reference to how people believe money can solve anything.
The poet also uses the line of modern Christianity as a "museum for good people" when it should be a hospital for the broken. By stating that this type of religion is like a museum, the author is suggesting that Christianity is something for other people to look at and admire, but not delve into as a serious religion. However, a hospital requires the doctors to actually get to know the people on a closer level, and all their scars and cuts (flaws) can be seen. By contrasting the idea of two similar things, the author creates a variety of questions of how the audience is living their life, and causes them to search inwards for the answers, creating a perplexing and beautiful poem.
Because this topic is so dear to my heart, I have to put a disclaimer before I start responding to this topic. I may be so tempted to put my personal feelings and thoughts into this but I will attempt to refrain from it.
I agree with many others who have written before me that music (rhythm as part of it) has been intelligently used in this short clip. The music used from the beginning seems similar to the one used in the "Lord of the Rings". It is the kind of thematic music that was being used before an epic battle. If we refer to the second movie, "The Two Towers", we will be able to hear a similar genre of music being used before the humans were invaded by legions and legions of orcs. The reason why I quoted this example is so that our attention can be drawn to how comparable they both are in terms of the preparation for battle part. The type of strife we are talking about in this video is one of religion versus Christianity (relation with Christ).
The volume of the music remains constant in most part of the video until it arrives at the script as stated below.
"Religion and jesus are 2 different clans. religion is man searching for God, and 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's obedience alone.because he took the crown of thorns and the blood dripped down His face. He took away all deserve, that's why you call it grace. and while being murdered, he yelled "father forgive them, they know not what they do." because while he was dangling on that cross, he was thinking of you. and he absorbed all your sin and he buried it in the tomb, which's why by kneeling at the cross, saying come on, there's room. "
When the above mentioned part is being read, the pace of the music increases. There is what is known to be crescendo. This signifies an increase in importance, a call for more attention. The mood becomes more evocative. Then when it reaches the words "He took the crown of thorns and the blood dripped down His face", there is another change in the mood - melancholic, dejected, desolate, hurting.
The use of music helped to revive the scene 2000 years ago where hundreds of people gathered to witness a spectacular event. A life for the lives of everyone else. Greater love has no one than this, that a man would lay down His life for a friend. The representation cannot fully embody the event however it helps to lead one into the fact.
The battle that I was referring to is not only the battle between religion and Christianity. It is one against false claims, self righteousness, self justification. The use of music not only brings about those emotions, it adds a personal touch to a possible personal relationship with someone who loves more than anyone can imagine.
Without the music, the whole poem would sound like lengthy, tedious, boring, persuasive and homiletic. That would not be the purpose of the author. To avoid such problem, the author smartly makes use of the background music, which makes those people listen to the narrator feel the progressive layer of the whole poem. Pay attention to the turning point of rhythm of the background music, it happens when Bethke said “This is what makes religion and Jesus two different clans”, which is the beginning of the last and conclusive part of the poem. As the appearance of high tide of the music and the sentence the author wants viewers to pay special attention to overlap, the chemical effect would be incurred and that is more efficient and shocking than just make the text bold and italic.
The music is essential to this poem. It draws the viewers in. Hanging on to his every word as the music gets more intense. It sets the mood. It makes what he is saying more real, more dramatic. Without the music we would only see a man speaking. We may even tune out and not pay as much attention to what he is saying. The music keeps our attention. It keeps us interested. It emphasis his words. What he is saying is incredibly important. He says what true followers of Christ have been wanting to scream for years. The music helps him speak the truth in and effective way. The music is a main factor, but I think the shots and the words that flash up on the screen in white and red are huge as well.
I was brought up a Christian. Non-Denominational. I often ran into people who had this strong opinion that religion and Jesus were opposite. That the church had it all wrong. I didn't get it at first. As you all know most people in the world would not react well to this belief. They believe religion and Jesus is one, it is the same thing, you can not have one with out the other. I was confused. So I studied into it. Bethke has some great points. Republican doesn't mean Christian. Religion has created wars. Religion is behavior modifications from human beings. If grace is water the church SHOULD be an ocean. Jesus hated religion. Religion is rules. Most churches would not let Jesus in. One is the work of God. The other is a man-made invention. He does seem to be bashing religion. But rightly so. It is time people see the difference between religion and Jesus.
The music and rhythm of the poem makes the compelling words easier for the viewer to listen to. The music in particular makes Bethke's words more dramatic. The tone and inflection in Bethke's voice also makes the viwer feel that he really believes in what he is saying. The combination of his powerful words with the music adds an excitability factor, which keeps your attention focused on his words. Bethke makes religion and Jesus as polar opposites by using his references to scripture and pointing out the weaknesses of a human led institution. He makes the point that Jesus is the abolisher of religion, while the church keeps you kept in the chains of archaic customs. He continues to go on about how the church has immense opulence built into churches, while the needy go unfed. In conclusion, he voices his opinion that the bureaucracy that is religion is more valued than the ideals with which religion was started on. I think the commenters respond more about Bethke in order to get more of an insight on the youth trend which they discuss (resentment towards religious institutions). However, Bethke states how much he still believes in the Church in the article and I believe he was not aiming to bash religion at all. He was just trying to point out some of the human flaws which are inevitable in human institutions trying to determine the nature of "the divine." The most obvious binary was Jesus' worship by love and by example versus the Church's institutional means of "worship."
This video clip reveals and uncovers two of history's most hotly debated topics in a strong confession from Jefferson Bethke, where he ponders why Jesus is greater than religion. The way he puts distance between the two topics is through creative inspiration he received from having that special bond with his savior in the first place. He views religion as something that was sought out by followers of God, but with all the wrong intentions and that ends up countering the purpose of being a Christian. Meanwhile he paints his beliefs about Jesus into a picture that the audience can envision and imagine. By bringing up his past troubles with pornography, alcohol and sex he gives his viewers something that most all of them can look back on, some of them such as myself being Christians and dealing with the same issues. Making it through trying times and finding Jesus can be a powerful and life changing experience, one that religion couldn't give to Jefferson and thousands of others. While there is some obvious outpouring of distaste for religion and its questionable rules, this is because the author has tried his hardest to convince us of Jesus' everlasting influence and potential difference making ability in a life.
The biggest binary that stood out to me in this whole video was Jesus versus Religion. All the other binaries were all related to those two opposites. It stood out to me because that’s somewhat how I’ve always felt about religion. I believe in Jesus, but I was never into church at all. I always mean to read the bible though so that I really know what I’m talking about. There’s always somebody out there who always gets offended by something so I think some people will definitely think he’s bashing religion. I think he wasn’t trying to bash religion, but show that there is a difference between the two instead of thinking they’re both the same.
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