In two short weeks, 22-year-old Jeff Bethke‘s YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” has been watched by an astonishing 16,352,074 people. When Bethke and his friends posted the video on a Friday night they each placed bets on how many hits their YouTube video would get in 24 hours, with the bets ranging from a low of 2,000 to a high of 8,000. They were each wrong, because in 24 hours the hits had skyrocketed past the 1,000,000 mark. This morning, Bethke appeared on CBS This Morning which profiled his smash hit video, and joined in a roundtable discussion alongside the show’s 3 anchors, as well as Edward L. Beck, a Roman Catholic priest. Things got a little bit tense roughly 2/3 of the way into the sit-down, with Beck closing his argument with: “Yes, but look at all the good that religion has done.” Whichever side of the fence you fall on, it’s amazing to see this debate popping up on street corners, restaurants, coffee shops, and dinner tables more and more often these days. If you have not yet seen the 2010 Munk Debate which took place in Toronto on November 26, 2010 it’s a brilliant debate with the motion: “Is Religion A Force For Good In The World?” The debaters were none other than former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (PRO) as well as writer and Contributing Editor of VANITY FAIR Christopher Hitchens (CON). Definitely worth watching, and I’ve attached it below. Hitchens ended up winning the debate which was determined by two audience polls of the 2,700 people in attendance that evening: one poll taken before the debate and one taken immediately afterwards [PRE-DEBATE POLL RESULTS: PRO=25%, CON=55%, UNDECIDED=20% / POST-DEBATE POLL RESULTS: PRO=32%, CON=68%]. For all things Jeff Bethke be sure to follow him on Twitter and visit his website ChiselSeason.com. After watching the CBS This Morning roundtable below, I came away with an understanding that the two opposite takes on Jesus and his powerful message are as follows: Father Beck is arguing that organized religion functions best when structured vertically, while Jeff’s argument is that Jesus would have preferred a horizontal structure. At the end of the day, the choice is yours.
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