Why I Hate Religion

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus is a viral video created by Christian evangelist Jefferson Bethke of Mars Hill Church, who uploaded his work onto YouTube and GodTube, under the screennamebball1989.[1][2] The video has thus far received more than 20 million views.

The theme of the video revolves around "the difference between Jesus and false religion."[1] Underneath hisvideo, Bethke delineated its purpose:

A poem I wrote to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion. In the scriptures Jesus received the most opposition from the most religiouspeople of his day. At its core Jesus' gospel and the good news of the Cross is in pure opposition to self-righteousness/self-justification. Religion is man-centered, Jesus is God-centered.This poem highlights my journey to discover this truth. Religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride because you make a list and can do it and act better than everyone, or despair because youcan't do your own list of rules and feel not good enough for God. With Jesus, though, you have humble confident joy because He represents you, you don't represent yourself and His sacrifice isperfect, putting us in perfect standing with God![2]
—Jefferson Bethke, Crosswalk.com (2012)

Jefferson Bethke repudiated those who used his video to criticize the Church, stating "TheChurch is His vehicle to reach a lost word. A hospital for sinners. Saying you love Jesus but hate the Church, is like a fiancé saying he loves his future bride, but hates her kids."[3]Nevertheless, the author of the video stated that he wanted to expose the legalism prevalent in many houses of worship.[4] The popular rapper Lecrae, on his Facebook, encouraged his fans to think aboutthe video by linking an article titled "Does Jesus hate religion? Kinda, sorta, not really" by Kevin DeYoung who had, since writing it, spoken with Jefferson Bethke about it and the video.[5]