Catholic Summary: Does Jesus Hate Religion?

Have you seen this video?

This video has received over 6 million hits since January 3rd and over 5 million in the last 24 hours.

Catholics have reacted quickly and intelligently to this video.

Here are a few blogs and commentaries:

Audrey Assad - Catholic musician and convert

Marcel LeJeune on AggieCatholic

Mary from the Young and Catholic Blog

Taylor Marshall - Canterbury Tales

The Bad Catholic Blog

Lifeteen said it should release something shortly. Meanwhile, Mark Hart said on Twitter: How blessedly shocked & dismayed many of the 3 mil YouTube viewers would be to hear that "religion" comes from the word for "relationship".

Touche.

3 quick takes:

1. The video has truth, but not the whole truth.
We need to understand that just going through the motions of the faith and relying on pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps isn't true Christianity. We do need to rely on God's grace and redemption more than ourselves. Even though this isn't what Catholicism teaches, this is something that we (and other Christians) have practiced in the past. Although it isn't what we teach, it should cause us to reflect.

2. Religion is Biblical
The video argues that Jesus and Scripture are against religion. At the same time, James talks about practicing religion (James 1:27) and Jesus gives over authority to men to act on His behalf (Matthew 16:16-18).

3. Can't we have both?
The Catholic argument on this (and so many other topics) is both/and. Rather than either Jesus or religion, why can't we have Jesus and religion?

Final thought: In the end, rather than getting mad at this video, I believe this video is a call to action for Catholics.

We need to:
1. Know how to articulate to evangelicals how Catholics have an authentic personal relationship with Jesus.
2. Live out our Catholic faith in a dynamic way.
3. Continually help renew the Catholic Church through evangelization.

The video below was cited by numerous bloggers. I think it is a great example, but we also need to keep renewing our efforts to live it out.

What are your thoughts?

Have you seen any other Catholic commentary out there?

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