Is It A Religion
or A Relationship?
Many "christians" claim that "christianity" is not a religion, but a relationship; an acceptance of the teachings of Jesus Christ and a belief in the claim that he, alone, is God's representative on earth. According to their definition, a 'religion' would be something that has to do with any spiritual teacher other than Jesus Christ, and/or a set of spiritual beliefs which included ritualism or tradition with which they are not familiar.
A closer look at the word 'religion' shows that it is derived from the Latin religiare, which means 'to tie fast', and this from the cognate 'leig', which means 'to bind' (related words are leagumeans 'to bind' (related words are league, liable, lein, alloy, ally, furl, oblige, rally, rely).
The word 'relationship' is derived from the word 'relate' which, in turn, is derived from the Indo-European cognate telə, which means 'to weigh', 'to lift', or 'to support'. Many of the words that have decended from this cognate have to do with measured weights, money and payment (toll, philately, tolerate, retaliate, talent, tantalize, Atlantic, Atlas, collate, elate, legislator, relate, superlative, translate, extol).
One definition of the word 'religion' is 'the conscious relation between man and God, and the expression of that relation in human conduct.' (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia). If 'religion' is 'relation' then obviously, the people who think Christianity is not a religion are mis-informed about the meaning of the word 'religion'.
Or, to put it another way, a relationship is a religion, especially when it is taken into consideration that the word 'relationship' bears such a strong, historical implication of support and reward, and that the word 'religion' bears such a strong historical implication of being linked, tied, or bound together.
Either way, ultimately it seems that both of the words should imply friendship in a way that goes beyond our common understanding of the word 'relationship' and usually isn't even included in our common understanding of the word 'religiohe word 'religion'.
When most people think of God, they do not think of someone with whom it is possible to be friends in the way that one is friends with another human being.
"christians" will freely admit that 'christianity' is essentially slavery to Jesus, and they use scriptures such as Matthew 20.27, Matthew 23.11, Mark 9.35, Mark 10.44, John 12.26, Romans 6.16 and Ephesians 6.6 support that argument. At the same time, they claim that the only way to experience "true freedom" is to accept the role of a slave. (1 Corinthians 7.22)
A lot of "christians" will argue that, in spite of hard evidence to the contrary, many unprovable and fantastic things are true. There are those who, for example, will denigrate a diabetic person for injecting themselves with the insulin that keeps them alive, because they are giving in to the demon of diabetes, and because they should be able to overcome their affliction through prayer and faith in God. There are those who believe that people who are mentally ill are so because they have been afflicted with demons, and they even go so far as to attempt to prove their claims by casting these demons out of people... for a hefty fee...
Furthermore, the "god of the bible" is reputed be the inspiration for all sorts of horrendous and abominable things including the sexual mutilation and murder of infants, children and adults, ien and adults, incest and genocide, and this "god" is even responsible for killing off almost everything on the planet in a great flood. These atrocities do not need to be enumerated in any further detail, since they are well documented and widely known. And yet, "christians" continue to maintain that the "god of the bible" is an entirely good "god".
This begins to sound a lot like George Orwell's description of "doublethink":
Freedom is slavery
Knowledge is ignorance
Good is evil
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