mom'sfolly :
Here and in a recent conversation I've had people say "I'm not religious, I'm faith-based". These people attend church at least weekly, and are self declared Christians, and say that faith and God are important in their lives. I'm wondering how this is not religious. Is this a new description that some churches are using to distance themselves from the term religious? Has the term religious come to have negative connotations? What is up with this? If it was just one person in a single place saying this I would have just brushed it off, but to have two people in very different contexts use almost exactly the same words, made me very curious.
My dictionary says that religious means "relating or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity".
Christianity is a religion, period. That is it. Christianity has a founder, holy scriptures, a set of conduct, a view on a supreme being and a belief in the afterlife. that is religion.
I found a site but I have to warn you, it is arrogant. Apparently because Christians consider their faith based on truth, some Christians do not think that they have a religion. All other faiths are 'man made' so are religions. The Christian who states that he does not follow a religion is just finding a new way to say, "My faith is true but yours isn't."
http://www.knightforchrist.com/Articles-S/christianity-not-a-religion.htm
Thankfully, most Christians understand that their faith fits the definition of religion.