While I agree that ‘religion’ in reference to Jesus’ life and times may indeed be an anachronism (although, since as as you state, there is no consensus definition about what even constitutes religion, it makes it hard to see how one might actually go about determining the amount of anachronization in the first place) in comparison to how many moderns may perceive religion, I guess my biggest difficulty with this whole video is that if our poet really only means legalism, then why even bandy about the term ‘religion?’ Jesus at least was more explicit by using the term ‘hypocrite.’ If our poet holds any conceptual distinction between the two, then all it seems to amount to is an equivocation.

Ultimately, what I find so disappointing is it seems that all this video really does it sets up an easy caricature to be knocked down. I mean, if you go to a big church, it means you don’t care about the poor. If you vote Republican you automatically think Jesus is all about that. If you go to church on Sunday, you look at porn on Saturday. If you follow rules, rather than potentially attempting to love Jesus by following his commands you are trying to make your way to God. And you think God doesn’t love single moms.

These kinds of over-generalizations don’t really seem to serve any purpose other than to ultimately create unnecessary polarizations that create more damage. It certainly doesn’t seem to create any room for critically engaging the topic, which I guess it what makes this video so disappointing for me, since it has gotten so many hits yet is mostly vacuous in its message.

But that’s just my opinion.

Thanks again!

This is an incredibly long post, Jason, and you make many good points. I happen to think our poet, in this instance, is using religion when he means legalism, which is common to both Jesus’s day and our own. The Bible does make one positive reference to “religion” (James 1:27), but other than that does not mention it at all. Rituals and sacrifices and “forms” yes, but religion, as we define it today, is a rather late concept–one religious studies scholars do not have a consensus definition for, as of today.

Keep up the good work. I so enjoy reading your stuff.

Excellent thoughts, and this is the first time I’ve been able to bring myself to watch the video. I have a lot of thoughts as well, so I’m going to be crafting a response on my blog sometime tonight.