“Christ is not religion!” A phrase frequently used by Protestants and often thrown in the faces of Catholics who feel proud to belong to the Church. Those who use it tend to have, consciously or unconsciously, an attitude of superiority and false freedom toward Catholics who have “not opened their eyes” and remain “bound” to religion.
This ideology has been progressively gaining ground within Protestantism, to the point that it is increasingly common to hear them repeat, almost in the same words: “Christ is not religion,” “I do not belong to any religion; what I have is a personal and true relationship with Jesus Christ,” and phrases of that sort.
Several years ago, while chatting online with an Evangelical girl I met in our former community of converts to the Catholic Church, I activated the automatic log of the conversation. Here is a brief excerpt:
Kattvic: Are you a Christian?
José: Yes, I am a Catholic Christian.
Kattvic: Ah, I see.
José: And you?
Kattvic: Well, I used to be Catholic, but now I have been converted to Christ.
José: And when you were Catholic, were you not converted to Christ?
Kattvic: Yes, but it is not the same; when one is Catholic, one tends to forget many things.
José: When one is Catholic and does not go deeper into one’s faith, one may forget many things; but when one goes deeper and has a true relationship with Christ, that does not happen.
Kattvic: Well, that is true, but it is also true that, as Catholics, we do not go deeper into our relationship with Christ — of course not all of us, but most.
José: In every Church there are “nominal” believers, if they can even be called believers.
Kattvic: Well, I do not speak of religion, because if I did I would not have any; my love for the Almighty surpasses any barrier of religions.
José: What is religion for you?
Kattvic: Religion is when you say you have one and you go to its church, you pray, you sing and all that, and when you leave that place you remain the same.
José: Who told you that is religion? Have you looked up the meaning of the word “religion” in the dictionary?
Kattvic: No, I have not looked it up; I say it from my personal experience.
José: It is not a matter of experience, but of really knowing the meaning of the word. I ask you: does the Bible say that religion is good or bad? What does it say about religion?
Kattvic: I am really not very knowledgeable about the Bible; I am barely beginning to read it… Well, I do not know what others’ definition may be; mine is personal — that is how I feel it, that is how I believe it.
What struck me about this conversation is that the girl had an entirely sentimental definition of the word religion. When I asked her to argue it either rationally (with the dictionary) or biblically (with some biblical passage), she could not tell me the reason for her notion that her faith was not religion; she simply concluded with a deep and emphatic:
“That is how I feel it, that is how I believe it”… AND THAT IS THAT!!!
She was certainly an Evangelical with little doctrinal preparation, but what is curious is that this way of thinking is found in Evangelical leaders and pastors. When I have asked them to provide a foundation for their assertion, I have yet to find anyone who can give me a satisfactory answer.
But is this new ideology well-founded? What does common sense say? What does the Bible say?
The Concept of Religion
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy gives us the following primary and secondary meanings of the word religion:
“Religion [from Lat. religĭo, -ōnis] 1. A set of beliefs or dogmas about the divinity, of feelings of veneration and fear toward it, of moral norms for individual and social conduct, and of ritual practices, principally prayer and sacrifice, for rendering it worship. 2. The virtue that moves one to render to God the worship due to him.”[1]
The Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia says:
“In general terms, a way of life or belief based on an essential relationship of a person with the universe, or with one or several gods. In this sense, systems as different as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Shintoism can be considered religions. However, in a commonly accepted sense, the term religion refers to faith in a world order created by divine will, conformity with which constitutes the path of salvation for a community and therefore for each of the individuals who play a role in that community. In this sense, the term applies above all to systems such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which entail faith in a creed, obedience to a moral code established in the sacred Scriptures, and participation in worship. In its most specific sense the term refers to the rule of life of a monastic or religious order.”[2]
Summarizing the meanings given by the Royal Spanish Academy and the Encyclopedia, we can conclude that religion is the way each person has of relating to God, rendering to him the worship that he considers due to him.
Under that definition, Christianity is certainly a religion; the very dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it as such:
“Christianity 1. The Christian religion.”[3]
According to the Encarta encyclopedia we find a similar definition:
“Christianity, a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels, which has profoundly shaped Western culture and is currently the most widespread in the world. It is widely present on all continents of the globe and is professed by more than 1.7 billion people.”
Christianity is not only considered worldwide a religion, but also the most widespread in the world. Hence the contradiction of calling oneself a Christian while claiming that one’s Christianity “is not religion.”
If someone is a Christian, Christianity is his religion — of that there is no doubt, no matter how much antipathy his pastors may plant in him toward the word.
Religion According to the Bible
There is not in all of Scripture a single biblical passage that can be understood as a negative reference to the word religion. The word religion, religious, appears repeatedly, and in every instance it is used in a positive sense.
“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is religious and does his will, God listens to him.”[4]
The passage recounts how the man born blind who was healed by Jesus answered the Pharisees who were questioning him. When the Pharisees insult him, he answers them with those words, to make them understand that if Christ healed him, it is because God listened to him.
The Bible also says that Saint Paul was persecuted on account of “his religion”:
“but they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about one Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.”[5]
Many may say they have no religion, but here the biblical text reports that Saint Paul did have one. He later explains that he had been a Pharisee and asserts that Judaism was “his religion.”
“They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.”[6]
When Paul says “our religion,” he implies that he considers it his own as well. Judaism was the true religion, which was now coming to its fullness in Christ.
One of the most forceful passages that mention the word religion is the following:
“If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”[7]
This text speaks of a pure and undefiled religion before God — which is nothing other than a faith that translates into a way of acting in accordance with that faith. Therefore, it is not that Christians have no religion, but rather that their life and conduct must bear witness to what they believe, because otherwise their religion is vain.
The problem lies in living religion outwardly rather than through a living faith, since as the Apostle James said: “faith without works is a dead faith.”
Where Does This Rejection of Religion Come From?
Those who embrace this ideology do so because they have adopted a “cafeteria Christianity” (a religion at the end of the day, but à la carte, where one takes or discards what one wants). If they do not like one church they move to another; after all, since they do not belong to any religion, it matters little which one they attend. They thus feel a false sense of freedom, not having to assent to the Church’s dogmas of faith, while redefining the word religion to mean nothing more than a simple, bare “fulfillment of precepts.”
All of this we owe to the Protestant reformers, their concept of the “invisible Church,” and their doctrine of the free interpretation of the Bible (private judgment). An ideology entirely foreign to Scripture, which on the contrary teaches that the Church must remain united under one Lord, one Baptism, and one Faith.
“I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”[8]
