Posted by Paddy MacLachlan
UPDATE: In the story below, we mention 4,475,000 Youtube hits. That was posted last Friday afternoon. It’s now Monday afternoon and the hits now total just a few under 12,000,000! Could be some kind of Youtube record!
A young man’s independently made Youtube film, entitled Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus, has notched up an astonishing 4,475,000 hits on Youtube in just two days since its release on January 10.
One of the core ideas of his poetic diatribe is that Jesus did not come to found a religion, indeed the religious people of the day were his greatest opponents. One of his stanzas says:
“Now let me clarify: I love the Church, I love the Bible and yes, I believe in sin.
But if Jesus came to your church, would they actually let Him in?”
With such an extraordinary amount of attention – even more amazing when you consider that his earlier Youtube efforts garnered no more than around 30,000 views – it’s no surprise that it has also garenered thousands of comments, many of them highly critical.
The highly respected Bad Catholic blog has leapt into the fray with a well argued critique, which combines words of praise with stinging rebuttals:
On the negative side, it says “onto the first bit of silliness – that Jesus came to abolish religion. Unforgivable.” But later in the price it concedes: “in all seriousness, the last part of the video is awesome. It’s a darn good explanation of how Christ died for our sins, how we are saved not by our own merits, but by his Grace.”
But you can make your own mind up. Take a look and let’s hear what you think of this.
