Jefferson Bethke uploaded a video on Youtube.com that has been receiving a lot of attention. The video has received nearly 16 million views since it was released Jan. 10.

The video, entitled “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus,” has been very controversial. Bethke talks about how he believes Jesus and religion are two different things, but in some parts of his poem he contradicts himself.

I would have to agree that you could believe in and love Jesus without associating yourself with any sort of religion. Religion is simply, as Bethke says, a “list of rules.”

Bethke contradicts himself in saying that he does not like religion but loves the church and the Bible, which is basically what Christianity is based on.

He goes on to say that churches are not “a museum for good people, (they are) a hospital for the broken” meaning that he can go there to repent his sins and become a better person by going to church.

I understand that he does not like a lot of aspects of religion but he still takes part in it by going to church and following the Bible. He seems to disagree with a lot of what Christianity does, such as building big beautiful churches instead of feeding the poor, but continues to partake in it.

Aside from the few contradictions that Bethke makes, his message is a positive one. He is not attempting to tell the world that they should not take part in religion, simply that a lot of religion’s rules are absurd and have nothing to do with Jesus.

This video has received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, via Facebook posts and YouTube video responses, such as TheAmazingAtheist’s video entitled “Why I Hate Religion, and Jesus too.”

In the rebuttal video Thomas Kirk, a.k.a. The Amazing Atheist, proceeds to make criticisms on every aspect of Bethke’s video. Although he has every right to his own opinion and religious views, he is disrespectful of those who do believe in religion and Jesus. His vulgar and rude words cause his own argument to fall apart.

Bethke’s video is quite popular, and the number of views continues to increase. The video has been spreading across the web like wildfire. The arguments and debates stemming from it will continue, but ultimately Bethke was not trying to cause trouble; he was simply stating his beliefs that Christianity has turned into something other than what it should be.

This powerful poem that Bethke has created may open the eyes of many that Christianity has taken a turn for the worse and needs to go back to its roots of focusing on Jesus Christ, not on finding the money to build huge churches.