I Hate Religion.

And I’m pretty sure Jesus did too.

This post is inspired by a sermon given by Sean Brown at West End Community Church last weekend. It might sound a tad harsh, especially coming from a Christian, but bear with me. In summary, here are the reasons I hate religion:

- It divides people.

- It causes war and strife.

- It makes people feel despised, judged, and excluded.

- It causes man to commit the greatest sin of all time. Pride.

- It makes people think that we are judged by our actions alone.

- It causes people to put up masks and hide who they truly are.

- It puts God in a box.

- It causes people to fear and avoid God-given pleasures.

- It blinds us to true communion and relationship with God.

- It makes people neurotic and fills them with confusion.

- It is the most deceitful illusion in history.

Thankfully, as I mentioned, Jesus feels the same way. The God that I worship is not interested in his love for humanity being institutionalized and commandeered by selfish, arrogant and unmerciful people. He didn’t come to institute a religion. He came to pronounce a new Kingdom in this earth,  and to invite the sick, the fatherless, the lost and the hopeless to come in. Please take a moment to read the following “woes” that Christ himself pronounced on the Pharisees, and think about how much of this describes the church today. Jesus saved his most vehement and forceful language for the “righteous” of his day.

If you have ever been burned, hurt, or cast out by the church, I am so sorry. Please know that what you have experienced does not represent the true heart of God, and it is not the true definition of church. He is LOVE.  He was, is and always will be, and you will know His followers by their marked love for others. Even in His judgment He is merciful and loving, and full of grace and compassion.  If you don’t know this God, through Christ Jesus,  then you haven’t met the real thing yet.

¹³“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.^[c]

¹⁵“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are…

²³…Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

²⁵“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

²⁷“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. ²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness…

³³“…You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ³⁴Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.”

Verse excerpts from Matthew 23