Summary

In the Christian responses to the video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus,” it becomes apparent that the word ‘religion’ is defined differently among different Youtube users, or in some cases the term ‘religion’ is not really defined at all. There are multiple ways that lived religion is expressed through social media and it can be studied through religious symbols and images, action and practices, language and narratives, or location and context. Lived religion is not the same as official religion, it has a different approach and pays attention to different things. Lived religion is flexible and individualized, hence why it is so common to see lived religion on the internet. Lived religion pays particular attention to how actions identify beliefs as opposed to official religion which looks at how beliefs influence actions and practices. When looking at lived religion theories will emerge from observation and analysis, in other words it is inductive reasoning. 

Lived religion is important to study because observations made will show the gap between lived religion and official religion. Another factor about lived religion is that it shows how different individuals will interpret--or re-interpret-- their particular tradition. Like in the study I have been doing, all of the users I have observed are proclaiming to be Christian and yet they all have slightly different responses, both from one another and to the original video itself. 

This is where my research question comes in. We know that within lived religion people will have different interpretations because lived religion is so individualized. However, within the videos I have looked at, not only do they have different opinions about how to live out one’s faith, they seem to have different definitions of the term ‘religion’ itself. Why is that? It makes sense that these Youtube users have different ways of living out Christianity, but what does it mean when one considers the possibility that, in a way, they aren’t even talking about the same thing because they have different definitions of a common term? What I am purporting is that these individual Youtube users not only are living Christianity differently from one another, but they are also defining religion differently which affects the direction of the argument(s).