Rhetoric Race and Religion
We recently had the opportunity to chat with Jefferson Bethke about his new book Jesus>Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough. Jefferson is best known for his spoken word YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus,” which, at this time, has been viewed nearly 26 million times.
Back in August, Jefferson and I were on Al Jazeera America together talking about the state of religion in America—and it went well, largely because he was there!
Here is the interview:
When you created the YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” back in early 2012, did you expect it to have such an impact and following?
Not in a million years. In fact, my roommates and I took guesses on how many views we thought it’d get in 24 hours and highest guess was like 9,000. Turned out to be 1.6 million, I think. The thousands of responses that I got—and still get—impacted me greatly and, in fact, give me a constant reminder of all the different walks of life, testimonies, and stories that are out there.
Read the rest here
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