At a show tonight, I was asked by a couple tonight what I was studying for in school. When I responded with "Religious Studies," they were taken aback (in a way). The man (at this point noticeably inebriated) remarked that he actually received the highest marks in his religion classes during school and that he never "fucking understood why." I'm not going to lie, his remark made me chuckle.

Why is it that society places such a negative view on religion? If I were to be completely honest, I wouldn't blame them in the slightest way.

In a way, I feel obligated to defend "religion," but at the same time I know what it deserves.

Religion (specifically Christianity) has become a corporation in our Western society, and so instead of being seen as something free, vibrant, and alive.. It has become structured (wide and shallow), and misleading.

To paraphrase Rob Bell, how did something so amazing become so looked down upon? If Jesus' story is the greatest of its kind, how did it ever become something it was never intended to be?

I'm beginning to believe that one of the greatest threats to Jesus' message is not money, or self-righteousness, or sin, or hell, or even Satan himself; but Christianity, religion.

Religion is a dangerous idol. When we worship our churches, and our doctrine we have turned Jesus into something He never was.

I don't care who you are, or what you believe in.. If you are are "believing" because it is convenient or because of the status quo, do us all a favor and take the responsibility of finding out who you are. Don't let empty motives define you. You're far more valuable than emptiness.

This is important to Christianity in our world, today. Don't believe in convenience.. but seek out the truth of Jesus' message and find freedom in the life he so willingly surrendered.

Don't settle for rules and checklists and offering plates. But truly discover what Jesus' message means to you and what it means to the world.

This is how we change the world: By realizing that He is the center, Jesus is the point of all things. Not overtly religious assholes. Not self-help Christian books. Not Christianity. Not the ink of the Bible.

Look through the ink, and find out what it means. What does it say? Look at Jesus' life and we find the greatest exposition and rising action and climax and falling action this world has ever see and ever will see.

The story is far more than how to build buildings to worship in, it is how to build lives with which we resonate with the glory of God. From which truth and humility and love echo throughout creation, deeply rooted in the farthest reaches of the universe; and at the same time, in the deepest confines of our being.

If we take it seriously, how can it ever be anything different?