Can you love coffee but hate the coffee bean? (UPDATED)

Can you love toothpaste but hate the toothpaste tube?  How about loving your HDTV but hating 1080p?   Or loving light while hating electricity?

Those are the questions that come to mind as I attempt to understand the mindset put forth by a young man named Jefferson Bethke who actually says a lot of good things in what follows but who also says more than his share of things that fall well short of the mark.

Mr. Bethke's video has garnered over 11 million views since being posted less than a week ago and it's the talk of the religious blogosphere.  I was surprised to hear Father Mike mention it during the homily this morning.

I first saw it when my young nephew Zach posted it on his Facebook wall, a posting that garnered quite a number of Likes.  I myself like good portions of it.  But other parts are simply... well... shallowly expressed.  I felt the need to convey something to that effect to Zach, a rising high school baseball star who has an excellent shot at playing college ball, and so I left the following reply on his wall:

Love this Zach... seriously good stuff... I liken the poet to [a] pitcher I know... he throws lots of strikes, his heart is in the game and he knows a thing or two about pitching... if there's one beef I have with it, is this one idea that he hates religion but loves Christ... it's a little like the pitcher I know who loves to pitch but hates the strike zone... doesn't compute from over my way... without that strike zone, the pitcher can't pitch, without that strike zone, the pitcher can't engage the game he loves so much from his heart... the strike zone makes the pitcher... and religion is what brought us Christ... and if I can take this a bit further (and haven't lost you yet), where would this pitcher be without good coaching? Where would this pitcher be if someone hadn't taught him the game? The coaches and the rules that make up the game of baseball... they're essential... without coaching, without a set of rules, there is no game and that pitcher again can't engage the love of his heart... our apostolic faith, taught us over the ages first by Christ's disciples and then the apostles they appointed, are essential to our understanding of who Christ is... so baseball absent a strike zone, coaches and the rules that make up the game is what? It's whatever someone decides to make it... and how much fun would that game be? Religion, and particularly and especially our Catholic faith, brought us Christ... and without religion, Christ would be whatever someone decided Christ ought to be... Yea, I love what your poet has to say... the dude threw some wicked and much needed strikes... but hating religion means he's stuck in triple A ball... the only way he's going to make it the show, is to embrace religion and in my less than humble view, that's embrace our Catholic faith... love you man... and I'm confident that you're well on your way to the show. 

Zach did Like that in response but we've not had a chance to talk about it further... and frankly, probably won't.  We don't typically have these kinds of conversations.

But conversations are being had by others as a result of Jefferson's video and I see that as a very good thing.  

Father Mike was quick to trumpet that though there were good things to see, there were bad things that needed countering and he took the time to mention the counter of wisdom put together by a young man who attends our Church.  Ryan's a freshman at college, a young man I've seen but not met, and his video response follows.  It may not be as stylish as Mr. Bethke's offering, it may not have the production value, but I'm of the belief that it more than makes up for those shortcomings with substance:

Job well done.

Ryan lists in his notes at YouTube two links I assume were inspiring to him as he put this together.  One is to Marc Barnes piece at Bad Catholic, seriously insightful and filled with wisdom, and the other to a video posted at MakeAFriar.Com.

Others posting on this who are in my blogroll include:

St. Blogustine

Frank Weathers

Brandon Vogt at Thin Veil

The Anchoress

UPDATE: Anya in the comments liked this one... and I do too:

Comments

[Leslie]

Matthew 5:17 at the end of the second clip was exactly the verse I thought of when I watched the first. In the end I didn't enter into any discussions about the first clip when it started going around but probably should have.

I wonder if it boils down to the definition of "religion" that people are using when they say Jesus abolished religion. Often they are talking about legalism. I can buy the idea that Jesus work abolished legalism. But often "religion" is meant for a bunch of pretty foundational things Christ did not abolish. And for some reason, once you paint the picture of Christ abolishing stuff he didn't abolish, it's a quick trip to social justice-ville.

[GoneWithTheWind]

You got the comparison wrong and it gives insight to why you don't understand what he is saying. It isn't liking coffee and hating the coffee bean; it is liking coffee and hating the purveyor of coffee that charges too much for it and takes advantage of his customers and his suppliers.

[Rick]

From the coffee bean comes the coffee, from the tube of toothpaste comes the toothpaste...

And from Religion comes our knowledge and love for Jesus Christ...

There are surely those who attempt to take advantage of the faithful... they are called wolves in sheep's clothing... and Christ warns us about them via Scripture, which comes our way via the Church... via religion...

I think my comparisons stand...

[Anya]

Here's another you tube response to this video called Spoken Word made Flesh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLF7yJOBn78&feature=youtube_gdata_player