{"id":2459,"date":"2012-01-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/01\/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-false-dichotomy.html"},"modified":"2012-01-13T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T12:00:00","slug":"why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-false-dichotomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/01\/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-false-dichotomy.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhy I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus\u201d \u2013 The False Dichotomy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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by Zach Hunt<\/div>\n
American Jesus<\/div>\n
My apologies for the long post, but I thought this video, which is quickly going viral, is in need of some thoughtful reflection.<\/div>\n
If you have Christian friends and you\u2019ve been on Facebook in the past 48 hours, then chances are you\u2019ve already seen it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As of \u201cpress time\u201d the video was already closing in on 1 million views on Facebook after having only been posted on Tuesday. No question about it that\u2019s impressive.<\/div>\n
Aesthetically speaking it\u2019s not hard to see why. It definitely has \u201cthe look\u201d \u00a0and \u201cfeel\u201d (however you define those words) that appeals to a 18-35 year old demographic (with a little leeway in both directions).<\/div>\n
As a Christian person in that demographic I should probably \u201clike\u201d it and share it with all of my Facebook friends.<\/div>\n
But I don\u2019t like it.<\/div>\n
At all.<\/em><\/div>\n
Now, to be fair I do think Jeff Bethke (the guy in the video) makes some good points about voting Republican, sexuality, and Christian identity being defined by your Facebook status.<\/div>\n
And, once again, the production quality is great and the speaker is very articulate. That\u2019s not my issue.<\/div>\n
My issue with this video is that it panders to a false, but widely accepted Protestant Evangelical narrative; one which has come to supplant Christianity itself as the \u201ctrue gospel.\u201d<\/div>\n