What is Religion?

Religion has become a much maligned word. But while many people are giving up on religions as contained in institutional churches, statistics show a majority of people in the United States believe in God. These people have determined that while there is a God, churches don’t really help them find Him.

These people might be helped, as can all of us, by stopping to contemplate what the word religion means. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has several definitions.

Religion is:

(1) a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

(2) the service and worship of God or the supernatural

(3) commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

(4) a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

In the scriptures the word faith is used to mean belief, trust, loyalty, power, or system of beliefs. But the most interesting and informative thing about the word faith for me is its history. There are two differing opinions of how we got the word. Everyone is agreed that re- means again. But some scholars think the word originally meant “painstaking observance of rites” or to perform the rites over and over again. Other Scholars believe the words originally meant ‘that which ties believers back to God’ so the concept is to again be with God. Another word that is related to the word religion is the word rely.

When we stop to ponder on what the word religion means it helps us visualize and realize what religion can mean in our lives. Religion ties us back to God. It is our mortal link to Him. It is what we rely on in order to return to Him.

As Latter-day Saints, we know that it is the covenants that tie us back to God and we understand the importance of making and keeping covenants. Those covenants are found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are the very things that tie us back to God.

What Am I Bound to?

Today the semester begins and that means I start teaching Book of Mormon classes again. As this beginning has approached, I’ve been thinking a lot about what religion is. We all use the word and usually when we do we are thinking of it simply as a denomination. For example, “My religion is Catholic or Baptists or LDS.” But that use of religion is synonymous with denomination. But when I say “Religion is a way of life,” what does it mean?

Our English word religion comes from the Latin word religare which means “to bind.” So the word originally referred to that which binds a person.  When used in the context of an institution which administers the things which bind us we realize that refers to the covenants, vows, and ordinances available in the Church which are meant to bind us to God.  But on another level we realize that what binds us to anything are our habitual attitudes and feelings. There is a valuable insight in this distinction. If our covenants, vows, and ordinances do not become habitual attitudes and feelings they fail to bind us to God—they remain only uttered words.

Religion, then is a way of thinking and living. It is something very internal to our being, Thus everyone has a religion, and it is important that we each determine what our religion is. Is it the same as what our covenants have proclaimed or is it something different?