[CpnHook]

Btw, when I earlier used the word "religion" in a reply to a fellow Catholic, Metmom jumped in and called it "pathetic." You should refrain from quoting James 1:27 as you just did:

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.

That sort of thing might cause her some serious cognitive dissonance. "Religion" is apparently a bad thing for her. Though not necessarily so in Scripture.

[CynicalBear]

Using the word "religion" gets a little sloppy as the primary meaning of the Greek word is "worship as expressed in ritual acts". A much better wording of James 1:27 would be "worship pure and undefiled before our God".

[metmom]

Religion is not a relationship with Christ.

It’s simply works one does for whatever reason, usually to earn a place in heaven or appease a wrathful God.

Cynical Bear posted a good comment about the meaning of the Greek word for *religion* in James.

It’s this......

http://biblehub.com/greek/2356.htm

threskeia: religion

Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine

Transliteration: threskeia

Phonetic Spelling: (thrace-ki’-ah)

Short Definition: ritual worship, religion

Definition: (underlying sense: reverence or worship of the gods), worship as expressed in ritual acts, religion.