How can you say Christianity is not a religion?

[OnceConvinced]

I hear it so many times, but only from Christians, that Christianity is not a religion. When I was a Christian, even, I used to say “Christianity is a relationship with God� even though there is no bible backing for this claim. In fact James says:

Jam 1:26 & 27 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his 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.

This is pretty much the what Jesus promoted and practiced, ie, looking after those in need and also keeping oneself free from sin and the influences of the world. James makes it quite clear that it’s religion.

Also many of these Christians who claim they are not religious practice religious activities on a regular basis and even insist that many of them are necessities, eg, baptism, communion, prayer, quiet times.

Here is a list that most Christians conduct, some of them on a regular basis. RELIGIOUS activities:

Saying grace before meals,
Attending church every Sunday morning
Baptism
Communion
Prayer meetings
Raising you hands to god in worship
Closing your eyes when praying
Standing together in a congregation and singing
Holding hands during worship or prayer
Altar calls
The laying on of hands
Annointing with oil
Chanting the lord's prayer
Quiet times
Speaking in tongues
Holy laughter
Being slain in the spirit
Spiritual warfare
PRAYER!

All one has to do is step into a church to see the religious activities that go on. I wrote an observation of a typical church service here:

How religious is church?

If you care to read it, it out lines the many religious rituals that make up a church service, from the greeting at the door to the closing prayer. Even just going to church every week is a religious ritual in itself.

Even if you don’t go to church you conduct religious rituals like prayer and bible readings. Even repentance and the sinner’s prayer is a religious act.

So based on the above facts,

How can anyone claim that Christianity is not religion? (and how do you get around the verses in James)

Where in the bible does it say that Christianity is not a religion or simply just a relationship with God?

Does anyone here who is not a Christian agree that Christianity is not a religion? Or is this simply just a Christian fantasy to try to make their religion something special?

[OnceConvinced]

[Replying to post 80 by McCulloch]

Well following Jesus is hard, I'll admit that

You kind of need Jesus to do it.

I personally found following Jesus easy. I surrounded myself with like minded people. It was attempting to make sense of the Bible that was difficult for me.

Actually I found following Jesus easy too. Oh sure there are always some struggles and room for improvement, but the struggles would have been there whether Jesus was in my life anyway. I also seemed to be ok with making sense of the bible too which was why I was put into positions of leadership.

I never really found anything difficult about Christianity. After all I had the holy spirit guiding me and I was in a relationship with Jesus. What else does a person need?

The difficulties arose when I started to learn to think for myself and then challenge the many teachings of the bible. When I started to get real, it became more and more difficult to remain in that Christian bubble.

[Liteninbolt]

[Replying to post 1 by OnceConvinced]

Though it is an applied human narrative, the etymological derivation implies a deity is involved to connote religious affiliation. Of course Christianity is a religion