Psychologically speaking, I am pretty sure it is an attempt to set Christianity apart from other religions.”

## Close. When people – typically Evangelicals of some kind – say this, they are making a theological point: that religion is what man does to go to God in his own strength, whereas Christian faith, by contrast, is in a God who “comes down” to man, to do for him what he *cannot do* in his own strength. God acts like this, in perfect freedom, because He is a God of grace, whereas man, precisely by being religious, has been trying to recommend himself to God by relying on his own works, rather than on God’s grace. What this means is that by being religious, man is digging himself deeper and deeper into the hole he is trying to escape from – & his very religiousness, far from being good, is sin at its worst, because it gives him the deceitful pseudo-certainty that he can find peace with God without relying on God.

It’s a fairly basic Evangelical insight. With a lot of implications. More “catholic” types of Christianity have difficulty in accommodating the idea that Christianity is not a religion – they would be more liable to say that Christianity is religion in its true form, or something of the kind.

The question of structures is not irrelevant, but Calvinism, which is Evangelical, has a very “high” doctrine of the Church, & is very keen on the importance of church attendance. It also pays a lot of attention to Church discipline. Other sorts of Protestestant Evangelicalism have a rather sceptical attitude to the Church and its structures – this is very marked among Dispensationalists.

Disclaimer: I’m Catholic, formerly Evangelical, and very Protestant in some ways, & very sceptical in others.

Hope that answers the question.

Since my faith in God was not acquired from exposure to religious practices (church, daily prayer, etc), but rather a pervading sense that God has always been in my awareness and heart, I have trouble with people’s expectation that I join in ‘churchy’ activities.
I like being with my friends there, listening to the Pastor, and knowing Jesus is my Saviour. I don’t doubt for a moment that’s true for me.
I simply don’t have a routine of ‘devotions’, or saying ‘just’ every 7 words or so.. I don’t even like to pray out loud – whether it be grace at the table or contributing to home meetings.
I feel artificial somehow if I try to fit into this pattern I see amongst most of my Christian friends.
It doesn’t mean I don’t love the Lord. I most certainly do, and I’d much rather skip some Sundays than be there looking vacant. I’m far more affected by music, dramatic illustrations of scriptural stories, and movies about Biblical characters.

Maybe I don’t join in events such as worship rallies, or prayer marathons .. that doesn’t mean I’m denying Christ. It means I want to be absolutely myself in His presence, without habits that I can’t call my own.

If not, what does your handle mean?

When I was a Christian and said, “I’m not religious,” I did it for a different reason. I saw that people tended to talk about religion as if you could box it up on a package, as if it was only one part of a person. In society, religion could be separated from state, personally it could be put to the side for the sake of a certain type of decision or interaction and then picked up again when it was convenient. In some cases, religion was viewed as more cultural than day-to-day lifestyle.

I thought (was taught) that a relationship with Jesus was much more than that. It could not be put into any kind of box in my mind or my life – it would influence every decision and every day of my life. Maybe I was trying to say Christianity was better than other religions – of course I was taught that it was. But the statement was not purposefully deceptive. I thought that Christianity demanded much more of me than following a religious code or participating in religious rituals, and that it was more fulfilling as well. It was a living interactive thing instead of a set of rituals or rules. Telling nonbelievers that I wasn’t religious was trying to get them to see that Christianity was a personal way of life, not just a book of rules (remember the Pharisees – that’s what I thought was religion).

Now that I’ve written all that, there is something else. I knew plenty of people who went to church and it didn’t appear to influence their actions at all…going through the motions of “religion” and not even finding joy or fulfillment in it. That is probably why I was trying to distinguish my “living” faith from a religion.

Of course, what I thought was a living, breathing, unboxed faith really was just me living out a creed to the extreme. I don’t think there was any way for me to know that at the time.

But you are correct. Those who claim Christianity is not a religion are either ignorant or dishonest.