Christianity is not a religion

{{bronze}}{{Christianity}}
The odd-sounding claim that '''"Christianity is not a religion"''',<ref group=note>Or variants thereof such as "The Bible is not a religious book", "Jesus is not a religion or [[theology]]", "When God [[Judgement Day|judges]] you He will not care about what religion you followed, only if you followed Jesus or not", or "The [[Devil]] wants you to be religious"</ref> or its full version, that '''"Christianity is not a religion, but [[Self projection as god|a relationship with God]]"''', is made by some [[Christianity|Christians]], most typically by members of the [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] [[Protestant]] brands. Advocates usually make the claim as a form of semantic [[special pleading]] to claim a unique status for Christianity among the world's religions, as usual in apologetics either to reinforce either their beliefs or those of others, or in an attempt to recruit seekers disillusioned with their previous [[religion]] (or as a blatant attempt to sidestep around the [[Establishment Clause]] or the concept of [[separation of church and state]]).

Some supporters of this position, including [[Bill O'Reilly]], take this line of argument so far as to claim that since Christianity is not actually a religion, there is no [[United States Constitution|U.S.-constitutional]] or [[moral]] obstacle to [[Dominionism|establishing it by law or having it promoted by government]].<ref>[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/11/28/bill-oreilly-christianity-is-not-a-religion-its-a-philosophy/ Bill O’Reilly: ‘Christianity is Not a Religion; It's a Philosophy’], [[Hemant Mehta]] (has a video of the segment in question), November 2012</ref><ref>[http://news.atheists.org/2012/11/28/bill-oreilly-christianity-is-not-a-religion/ Bill O’Reilly: “Christianity is NOT a Religion”], Teresa MacBain, [[American Atheists]], November 2012</ref>

The people making this claim never follow through as far as wanting to remove religious [[tax exemption]] for Christian churches.

The first recorded use of this expression is, curiously enough, in 1958<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131213063451/http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/christianity-is-a-relationship-not-a-religion Christianity is a relationship not a religion]</ref>, even if versions of it were used since the late Victorian era albeit sparingly and taking off once attendance of men to churches began to decline in the '60s and '70s<ref>[https://davidmurrow.com/why-personal-relationship-with-jesus-confuses-men/ Why “Personal Relationship With Jesus” Confuses Men]</ref>.

==Wait, what?==
[[File:Jack_Chick_Soul_Story_Not_Religious_Christian_small.gif|thumb|left||From the [[Jack Chick]] tract "Soul Story"]]

===Argument from grace of God===
This claim is that other [[religion]]s teach that you must justify and sanctify yourself, earning the favor of the deities by practicing religious rituals and observing religious law, but that Christianity is not supposed to be like that. Instead, Christianity is founded on the unearned and unearnable [[grace]] of [[God]] which He bestows on believers by his own initiative and which enables them to become Christians.<ref>See, e.g., {{wpl|Mark Driscoll||,}} ''[http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/why-believe-in-jesus/why-christianity-is-not-a-religion/ Why Christianity is NOT a Religion].</ref> Nothing an unsaved person can do can earn God's favor or oblige God to save your soul; [[humans]]' moral inability to save themselves is what [[Calvinist]]s call "total depravity". Only through [[faith]] can Christian [[salvation]] be claimed, and faith is not humans choosing to make themselves holy, no more than you can choose to believe or disbelieve; if you have the faith that brings salvation, it's because God has [[predestination|chosen]] to allow you to have it. It's only ''after'' the Christian has been saved that he becomes obliged to practice his faith by observing rituals and following a code of rules. 

Some fundamentalist Evangelical pastors have gone further still claiming religion does not give salvation, condemns, enslaves, corrupts, etc (ie, it's anything but good) in addition to, as noted above, having also claimed the Bible is not a religious book and of course that they're not religious, with the latter claim being seemingly quite extended in such circles and reaching extremes as that its claimants will not define themselves as not just not Catholics or [[Anglican]]s (of course), but also not as Evangelicals or members of any of its brands, only as Christians, even if outside their sermons they will accept to be, for example, [[Pentecostal]]s, and/or will brand ideas they dislike (such as [[Purgatory]]) as "religious", using such a term pejoratively.

===Argument from Christianity as personal relationship with Jesus===
A related argument maintains that Christianity is not a religion because Christianity is founded on a "personal relationship" with [[Jesus Christ]] as a [[deity]], included here the [[Holy Spirit]] being a person with whom they deal. This is claimed to make it categorically different from other religions and the relationships of their believers with deities or incarnate deities, with its proposers going as far as to make claims such as "Christianity has no rites".<ref group=note>This is patently false; Christianity has ''several'' religious rites, such as [[baptism]], [[Eucharist]], elaborate [[marriage]] ceremonies, etc. In fairness, most Protestant sects aren't as big on [[sacrament]]s as the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and a lot of fundie Protestants who make the "Christianity isn't a religion" claim [[Anti-Catholicism|do not consider Catholics to be Christians]]. But Protestants do still maintain ''some'' religious rites.</ref> Never mind that you can hardly call it a personal relationship when you talk to someone who remains studiously silent, fails to appear when you tell people who make such claim you want to meet him in person, or communicates in hilariously low-tech ways [[Pareidolia|such as in toast, wood, and clouds]].

===Argument from Christianity as a series of moral codes===
This claim states that Christianity is not a religion, as it merely obliges its followers to follow a set of moral codes. It follows that Christianity is just another [[ethics|ethical framework]], such as [[philosophical]] [[libertarianism]] or [[utilitarianism]]. Which is funny, because we also seem to recall ''believing in God'' to be a requirement. (Also, the vast majority of religions require their followers to follow a set of moral codes.<ref group=note>That's… kinda part of the entire ''point'' of religion — to reinforce morality.</ref>)

===Argument from the Bible===
Another argument is that Jesus said nothing in the Gospels about having come to establish a religion (see also further down for mentions of such word in the Bible). Typically those who affirm that will also claim that [[Pharisee]]s (including here to consider Paul, who defines himself as one in the Bible, as a "religious" man who persecuted Christians) were religious people who followed the Law (the more than six hundred laws of the [[Old Testament]]) to a T, thus being legalistic, putting them unfavorably next to Jesus, who had come to abolish it and will extend that consideration to people who they consider behave in the same way following "the Law" (liturgy, other religious rituals, etc.) so legalistically, thus being "religious", as Catholics and even other Evangelicals as (precisely other) Pentecostals often fond of things as dress (ie, skirts not shorter than knee-length for women)/haircut (ie, women having forbidden to cut their hair) codes.

To be fair, the modern concept of religion was not applicable to all the cultures of those times as for example to the Greeks (see for example {{wpl|Ancient Greek religion|here}} for [[Classical mythology|ancient Greek religion]]) and given the background in which the [[New Testament]] was written its authors would be familiar with such setup, even if it's unlikely at best the people who claim Christianity is not a religion will know such fact. Likewise, Paul in his epistles is clearly presenting a new religion to the Gentiles, even if such word is not mentioned on them for the same reasons, even if "religion" as explained below is mentioned once in the New Testament.

==Problems==
===Unconventional usage of the word "religion"===
[[Argumentum ad dictionarium|Merriam-Webster defines]] "religion", in pertinent parts, as "the service and worship of God or the [[supernatural]]" (read "a relationship with the same"), "commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance", or "a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices".<ref>"Religion." Merriam-Webster.com. Accessed April 2, 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion.</ref> This matches common usage of the term; by contrast, the definition of 'religion' used by the slogan is idiosyncratic, ''almost'' to the point where you'd think it was tailored to carve out a special exception for one particular faith.

===Christianity calls itself a religion===
[[Protestant]] leaders such as [[Martin Luther]] call their religion a religion: "A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing." [[John Calvin]] called his chief [[theology|theological]] treatise the ''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' (''Institutio Christianae Religionis'', 1536). [[Roman Catholicism]] acknowledges that it is a religion: "Still, the Christian faith is not a 'religion of the book.' Christianity is the religion of the 'Word' of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living". If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the [[Holy Spirit]], 'open [our] minds to understand the [[Scriptures]].'"<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c2a3.htm#108 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church''], para. 108.</ref>

The [[New Testament]] twice uses "religion" for the thing it espouses:

*{{bible|James|1|26|27}}: "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (NIV; Greek words translated as "religious" or "religion" are "θρησκὸς" (''thrēskos'') and "θρησκεία" (''thrēskeia''), which is accurate.)
*{{bible|1 Timothy|5|4}}: "But if a widow has [[children]] or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God." ([[NIV]]; some translations render "εὐσεβεῖν" (''eusebein'') as "piety", "godliness", or "devoutness".)

===Christianity behaves like a religion===
[[File:Snakehandling.png|thumb|300px|right|Seriously, we're not.]]
Christians gather for communal worship and [[prayer]]s, often conducted according to a ritual liturgy. Christians use their faith as a source of social rites on occasions such as [[birth]]s, weddings, and funerals. Christianity's social expression and function is, very simply, not much different from those of other faiths. The claim that Christianity is not a religion would appear to be as empty as the [[Roman Catholic Church]]'s claim that the [[saint]]s it prays to are not [[deity|deities]], even while they are the target of believers' prayers and their [[idolatry|cult images]] receive offerings and are carried around in public processions.

Similarly, the "personal relationship" of some Christians with Jesus is not appreciably different from the relationship of a [[Hinduism|Hindu]] with Vishnu or any of the other deities or for that matter what happens among some [[Neopagans]] and the deities they worship. Yes, according to Christianity, Jesus is a deity who once was incarnated as a man, but {{wpl|Vishnu}} has several incarnations, including [[Krishna]] and Rama, and the 'relationship' between a Christian devotee and Jesus is not perceptibly different to an outsider's eyes from the relationship of a Vaishnava with Krishna.

===Apologetics===
The claim that Christianity is not a religion appears also to conflict with other claims made by Christian [[apologetics]]. In its original form, [[Pascal's Wager]] asserted that faith enough to gain Christian salvation might be achieved by nonbelievers who choose to immerse themselves in religious observance as if they actually believed, through an acquiescence born of habit. In short, if Pascal's Wager is a valid argument for Christianity, it follows that a Christian can be made and saved by going through the motions of piety. This contradicts the central argument of this claim that salvation is an unearned gift from God.

In fact, the underlying [[theology]] behind "Christianity is not a religion" throws a curious monkey-wrench into Pascal's Wager. One problem with "Christianity is not a religion" is that if you aren't saved, there isn't anything you can do to '''get''' saved. One problem with Pascal's Wager is that while it proposes that you save yourself by practicing religion in the absence of inner conviction, it doesn't tell you which one to practice. If we accept both Pascal's Wager and "Christianity is not a religion", the odds shift in your favor on the Wager because there's one major world religion you can strike from the list.

===Tax-exempt status of churches===
Churches in the U.S. don't have to pay [[income tax]], because [[Section 501(c)|Section 501(c)(3)]] of the [[Internal Revenue Service]] Code exempts "religious" organizations (among [[Charity|charities]] and other 'non-profit organizations') from [[taxation]]. (Similar rules apply even in secular non-U.S. countries.) If Christianity doesn't qualify as a religion, a Christian church wouldn't qualify for the tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) and would have to pay income tax.{{efn|Or that they would have to be filed under charities and non-profit organizations and distribute most of the revenue made. Choose the way you want to hand over the money, through government or charitable activities.}}

Amazingly, no American church whose luminaries claim that "Christianity is not a religion" has bolstered that argument by stepping forward to voluntarily pay income tax.

=== "Relationship" - a non-biblical concept ===
Another teeny-weeny carping criticism of the "relationship with God" alternative: the word "relationship" does not appear in the [[KJV | Divinely Inspired King James Bible]].<ref>
https://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?t=kjv&q=relationship&s=bibles
</ref>
The concept of "relationship" is just some namby-pamby modern sociological jargon - post-biblical mumbo-jumbo from the godless [[Age of Enlightenment | age of enlightenment]], adopted and popularized from the 1940s to apply to an emotional association between people.<ref>
''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v. "relationship".
</ref>

==Similar claims from other religions==
Followers from other religions will also claim not to be a religion, ''e.g.'' [[Buddhism]] (the Buddha is not supernatural or divine) or [[Scientology]] (an "applied religious philosophy"). In the case of Buddhism, this could be considered correct in some cases, depending on which definition of "religion" is used. Hinduism has several forms of worship, and ''bhakti'' matches closely the Christian claim of personal relationship with Jesus.

===Hinduism===
''Bhakti'' in [[Hinduism]] can take several forms, such as close friendship with the deity, the deity as a lover, or the deity as the child of the devotee. All these forms of worship are intensely personal and are characterised by the (purportedly) mutually-intense emotional attachment and love of a devotee toward a personal god and of the god for the devotee.<ref name="Britannica.com/bhakti">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63933/bhakti Bhakti on ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''].</ref>

===Buddhism===
If "religion" refers to a belief in ''any'' supernatural being, then Buddhism ''is'' a religion, as it observes supernatural ideals of [[Heaven]] and [[Hell]], though these concepts are tied very closely to merit, not belief (a moral and upright [[atheist]]/Christian/etc can be said to go to Buddhist Heaven, for example). Spiritual Buddhists (Buddhists who accept Buddha's supernatural concepts) also, however, believe in [[angels]] and [[ghosts]] (which is a result of mixture of the Buddhist philosophy with local beliefs), but ''not'' a single [[Omniscience|all-knowing]], [[Omnipotence|all-powerful]], all-timeless, all-et cetera god. On the other hand, if religion is defined as "the belief in God, Gods, or supernatural deities", then Buddhism is ''not'' a religion, because there are no observable gods in Buddhism.

Buddhists do not accept that ''a single, all-powerful God'' created the [[Universe]], nor do they believe that God/deities control their lives (what they get is a result of their [[karma]], even if from [[Reincarnation|past lives]]). The idea of creationism itself, in fact, is explicitly stated by the Buddha that it should 'not to be pondered about too much, as it leads to unanswerable questions that disturb the mind'. Philosophic Buddhists (Buddhists who reject the supernatural aspects/stories of Buddhism and stick to his moral teachings) believe that Buddhism is a method to live one's life, not a series of spiritual beliefs revolving around merit (though merit is very prominent in both sides of the argument). Both sides, however, do not have any specific [[dogma]] and thus readily accept science, which is something many religious people don't.

However, this argument is pointless in Buddhist countries because to them, it doesn't really matter if what they believe is a religion or not. It doesn't affect them.

===Judaism===
Some people have claimed that [[Judaism]] is not a religion, on the basis that it is tied up with ethnicity, tradition, and history, although the distinction between Judaism as religion and Jewishness as an ethnicity is commonly made. Proponents of "Judaism is not a religion" face the problem that even if it's not just about religion, it is clearly partly a religion: Nick Lieber, in an essay called "Judaism is not a religion", admits "Judaism is a mixture of religion, ethnicity, nationality, peoplehood, and culture."<ref>[https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/judaism-is-not-a-religion/ Judaism is not a religion], Nick Lieber, Times of Israel, Jan 25, 2015</ref> Other proponents of this idea seek to redefine Judaism, e.g. "Judaism is a people..."<ref>[https://israelunwired.com/judaism-is-not-a-religion-and-this-is-why/ Judaism is NOT a Religion, and this is why], Israel Unwired, Aug 26, 2018</ref> But that's like saying "Christianity isn't a religion, it's just a bunch of dudes with crosses." Which rather overlooks what they're doing with the crosses in the first place.

==See also==
*[[Atheism as a religion]]

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20210623165925/https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/christianity-is-a-relationship-not-a-religion/ Relationship not religion] (Dictionary of Christianese)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200922132529/https://www.christianityunfiltered.com/christianity-is-a-religion-not-a-relationship/ Is Christianity a Religion?] (Christianity Unfiltered)

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Apologetics and counter-apologetics]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Pseudolaw]]
[[Category:Clichéed sayings]]
[[Category:Fundamentalism]]

Categories: Christianity, Apologetics and counter-apologetics, Religion, Pseudolaw, Clichéed sayings, Fundamentalism