God without Religion

May 9, 2011
Lots of folks these days seek a primitive Christianity, that is, the kind of faith and practice that Jesus taught before the church went all dogmatic and messed everything up. Farley (The Naked Gospel), teaching pastor at a Texas evangelical Christian church, makes a case for "just give me Jesus, but hold the religion." For him, religion is the law, the old way, the sin/judgment/reward/punishment economyâthe bad stuff. Jesus brought a new way; sins are paid for by Jesus' death, and faith involves less hard work and more resting in God. Farley's arguments depend a lot on key passages in Paul's epistles, some of which get cited frequently; so Christian believers may not need religion, but they do need Paul. The conflation of religion and law depends on a fairly narrow definition of "religion." For some, this is just another nouveau Christianity wearing hipster glasses; others can argue that Farley's take is fresh and scripturally grounded.