Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But Christianity is religion. Not just a religion.
So the fight is really against hypocrisy. Against veiling evil and unrighteousness with the cloak of religion. Against wielding the book of the God of love as if it is a battle axe.
I despise the presumption that good Christians vote Republican (or even Libertarian); the insistence that America is a "Christian" nation (besides culturally -- and that is fading); the "wars" on homosexuality, abortion, etc. I despise the nasty, ruthless rhetoric of people who otherwise might claim to represent my position on things. My position is mostly about how I behave, live, and believe. It is not the basis upon which I decide who to love and/or what kind of love I will dole out. (And for the most part, I don't believe that so-called "tough love" is mine to mete out except to those for whom I have charge to discipline.)
Christ was not simply versus religion. He was versus religion that had lost its roots; lost its meaning; lost its reason for existing. He was versus people who used religion as a way to gain control over people.
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I disagree somewhat. "Religion" specifically defined as serving practices rather than God and/or attempting to please God in your own strength is a definite problem with mankind. It's not just hypocrisy. It's a specific kind of deception which replaces one type of devotion with another.
Lee got some things wrong, but his definition of religion as
attempting to please God apart from an ongoing relationship with Christ was pretty much spot on.
Religion as used here is attempting to be a Christian apart from abiding in Christ. The word
religion can be defined in other ways. But I've noticed that when people argue against this kind of thing it's usually becomes a matter of semantics, about how the word "religion" should be defined. But that's not an interesting discussion. The question is, once the specific definition is understood, does the rapper have a point, and he certainly does.