There have been a lot of responses to the viral video this past week that preached on how Jesus hated religion. But this response is the best one yet. It was produced by Spirit Juice Studios and is extremely well done.
I’ll show the original video first to give some context. The original was very well done and now has over 15 million views on Youtube. I’m sure the young man who did it had good intentions and makes some good points we can all agree on, unfortunately, it’s extremely flawed (most especially the entire premise) and deserves clarification since it got so much attention.
The original:
A (very sound and loving) Catholic response:
I pray that it’s seen by many!
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I put together a compilation of Catholic responses, if you’re interested:
http://phatcatholic.blogspot.com/2012/01/collection-of-catholic-responses-to.html
Feel free to tell your readers about it :D
Oh, man. Awesome! And BRILLIANT.
Say what one will about the original piece. Right or wrong or somewhere in between, there seems to be a cry from some corners of Christiandom for those who call themselves God’s children to act like Christ. That’s been a refrain for two thousand years.
I am speechless, great response! These two videos togther would be a great conversation starter for those young adults missing in the pews today.
love it. beautiful and loving…i really didn’t know how to reply to the first video. I am happy to be able to share the catholic rebuttal!!
Holly
That was the best video I have heard. I would like that priest to do more. I hope that gets ten million views
John, Fr. Burns has done other stuff. He recently released a hip-hop cd: http://www.phatmass.com/music/ordained-by-fr-pontifex/
John- He has done more. He put out an album late last year. You can see it here: http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&scn=163856011&redirect=true&keywords=pontifex&tag=therior-20&linkCode=ur2&qid=1327012408&h=29bf6e5368388e49ac45c087ba17bf3a2de7f4d0&camp=1789&rd=1&creative=390957&rh=n:163856011,k:pontifex
For an alternative, though not contrary, just-as-Catholic response, see Fr. Robert Barron’s eight-minute video commentary on Jeff Bethke’s video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLta2b9zQ64, and this week’s Pauline Faithways blog post, “Spiritual, But Not Religious” at http://paulinefaithways.blogspot.com/2012/01/spiritual-but-not-religious.html. By the way, have any of us PRAYED for Jeff Bethke? Or are we just interested in “rebutting” him? How would Jesus respond to his video?
My first impression is that this person seems to think he has something to say, and is caught up in his own self-importance. Some may find him entertaining, because he is counter-cultural. Unfortunately, he is dead wrong. To say that Jesus condemned religion is ridiculous. His performance is self-centered and egotistical.
St. Thomas Aquinas defined religion as, “a virtue by which men exhibit due worship and reverence to God.”
God is our Absolute Lord. In our being and in our existence we are completely bound up with Him, completely dependent on Him, completely ordered towards Him. That is why we owe reverence to God as our Lord, and that is why we owe Him a child-like and thankful love, much more than we owe to our parents, who have given us life. We are obliged to submit to Him. We are obliged to observe the Ten Commandments, which He Himself proclaims to us through our conscience; these commandments are built into our very nature: every human being, in fact every child who has reached the age of reason, knows them, even without divine revelation.
This attitude towards God is religion. By the word religion, I mean a relationship of reverent submission and subjection of man towards God. It is man’s fundamental attitude and relationship towards God.
Christianity is a religion, which seeks to enable us to achieve that relationship with God. The first business of religion is to answer the questions: Who and what is God? Why and how are we here? Where are we going? How are we to get there? Christianity answers these questions.
The Jewish religion is the foundational base for Christianity. Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of Jewish leaders, he did not condemn religion; on the contrary, he clarified how the Jews should worship God (practice religion) and live the Commandments. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we have the Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition as the map to heaven. The magisterial authority of the Church functions like the legend found on maps to clarify the symbols and distances, and guide us to our destination (heaven). Jesus left behind a visible Church with a visible authority. 2 Timothy informs us that there were bishops, priests, and deacons, and as you mentioned, Jesus set Peter as the visible head of his Church.
Without religion, man sinks to the level of the beast. In our day, we have seen the truth of this statement, with the attack on marriage, the supposed justification of homosexual activity, pornography, drug abuse, spouse abuse, etc.
Religion is the strongest tie that binds us together. If all men on earth were actually religious-minded in the sense described above and actually arranged the practical affairs of their lives according to the dictates of religion, earth would be a paradise. Religion is an absolute necessity for the existence of human society. A people without religion cannot long survive.
A religion, which has its roots in God as Lord and Master, is also the best protection for our personal liberty. Where order and justice as ordained by God are not recognized and acknowledged, there is room for nothing but the personal whim of political leaders and diplomats who want to make their subjects into slaves. An example of this is found in the Obama administration, whose highest officials and leaders have inscribed the fight against religion on their battle standards.
The great pagan philosopher, Aristotle, enunciated this principle: “Concern for religion must take first place in human society.” His master Plato writes: “Whoever undermines religion undermines the very principles and foundations of states.” The pagan Cicero is very emphatic on this point: “It has always been the conviction of all truly wise men that the moral law is not something thought up by man of something developed by human society, but rather an eternal truth, and that the whole world must act in accord with it. Its ultimate principle and foundation rests in God, who commands and forbids. This law is as old as the spirit of God Himself.” The natural moral law is God-given, and thus must be observed by all men on religious grounds. This was the judgment of the pagans, based on unaided reason, without revelation.
To destroy religion is to destroy civilization.
Amen Brother in Christ to Fr Dusty
As a non Catholic I love the response. I would consider it a response from the body of Christ (as His word shares how important His Church is) and a perfect one for all of us, who are Christians (Catholic or other denomination.) Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks Matthew for posting this. That viral video was very hard to explain and argue against to the kids in the confirmation/youth groups. It has a deceptively valid message that was very appealing to their sense of justice…hmmmm….go figure….nothing new under the sun….evil imitating good. And I’m not saying the kid doesn’t have legit intentions with his struggles to express his faith-and I am NOT calling him evil- But the results weren’t good, as Father points out.
both videos make valid points. The bottom line in my opinion is that we must not fall into the depths of religion and lose our sense of christianty. we must focus on what the bible teaches us about Christ and what he commands us to do in His name. I dont see this as evil imitating good. I see this as an eye opener for those that make religiuos beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects an obsession.
Praise God! My friend Jesus gives, teaches ,enables, supports and comforts. In His love I found the fullness of Truth through the participation and practice of religion. Thank you for helping to explained with your rappin’ response!
I did not like the original video the cecond was much more to my liking
Any issue or question that we have on a biblical term or word should be immediately taken to scripture. People of the world and unfortunately the church many times, love to jump on band wagons and scream out the new phrase or idea that’s going around in churches or conferences because some famous speaker said something. James 1:27 is clear when it says that THERE IS A RELIGION that is holy and blessed by God! According to this we can clearly see that bible does not condemn religion as a whole. Yes there many types of evil religion including false religion (Buddhism,Islam,Satanism,ect.)and self imposed religion (Colossians 2:23) but the bible never condemns religion as a whole and after examining the whole chapter of James 1 we can clearly see that James absolutely states that pure and undefiled Christianity is RELIGION.Yes it is true that there are evil religious spirits and fake people in church trying to look spiritual but we need to be sure that we rightly teach and divide God’s word when talking about biblical terms or ideas. People need to read their bibles and use scripture for building their doctrines and teachings instead of just repeating what they hear people say or quote all the time. “Its not just about religion but a relationship!”
I’m so glad to see this very well-done and loving response to the original video. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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