That website’s called “Friendly Atheist,” and they make some logical claims as to the flaws behind Jefferson Bethke’s poem (“Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus”). Too logical, in my opinion. But honestly, my discontent doesn’t come from the fact that the article exists, but of the video they place at the end of it. This is how they introduce the video:

And if your friends — who rave about this video on Facebook while boasting about attending church, all without seeing the irony — share this with you, I suggest you send them back this video. It’s by another Christian who’s not a fan of Bethke’s poem.

That video just sounded completely ignorant, in my honest opinion (and if you don’t care about my honest opinion, why are you reading this in the first place o__o).

I think the biggest thing people are misunderstanding about Bethke’s poem is that we’re not saying we hate religion but love Jesus because Jesus is our golden-calf idol; He’s GOD. And if there are people who pray to Allah, worship Buddha, or offer prayers to nature, we’re simply worshiping the one, true God - our Father in heaven.

It’s not the same as criticizing “the Egyptians who worshiped the sun,” or whatever the guy says in that video because, well, for one thing, the sun is not God. And I realize I may sound really ignorant and obnoxious to some people by saying this, but it’s not the same for the very reason that God is the truth. God can heal the broken-hearted; the sun cannot.

“Hating religion” doesn’t mean we believe the church shouldn’t exist, or that rituals and traditions shouldn’t exist; we hate religion because we’ve lost sight of what goes before religion, and that’s Jesus. Like Bethke says, “religion says do - Jesus says done.” Salvation doesn’t come from good works or even dedicated prayer; like we tell so many people, going to church won’t get you to heaven; only Jesus can get you to heaven, and He’s already paid the price.

Rituals/traditions exist to appropriately display our faith, but it’s not the main point of salvation. Those who are saved participate in rituals and church services knowing that it is the least we can do as finite beings to offer our worship to God. Those who are not saved but still participate in all those things probably don’t realize that it’s not the right way to salvation.

Simply put, we’re saying that an organized structure of faith (or, ‘religion’) isn’t what we should focus/rely on; it’s the loving grace, power, mercy, etc. of Jesus that we should focus/rely on, and that’s why we hate religion but love Jesus. He’s not an idol; He’s God.