"Religion" is not a simple word with a single definition.
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. . . believing in something, even God, but not having a true relationship with Him and more importantly on HIS terms . . . " is not the definition of religion. And is not the basis for declaring anything to be false or panned as "religion."
When the only use of the word in the Bible is not anything like what Lee swept into the definition, then you really have a problem. In the NIV, the word religion is used 6 times. And one of those is an inserted header for a chapter (not in the scriptural text).
- Jeremiah 7 is labeled as "False Religion Worthless."
- In Acts 25, Festus, consulting with King Agrippa made reference to the problem that the Jews had with Paul saying "Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion . . . ."
- In Acts 26 Paul is giving his defense and states that he ". . . conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee." He did not in any way disparage that religion in the comments he made.
- In 1 Tim 5:4, Pau says "But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God." I don't see anything wrong with religion here.
- Then there are the two references in James that need no further discussion.
Switch to the KJV and you drop Jeremiah and 1 Timothy, but add two in Galatians. Both of those are referring to the Jew's religion. Neither is disparaging about religion in general, and not even really about the Jew's religion in specific.
Switch to the NASB and you drop Galatians but add Colossians 2:23. "
These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." No one will dispute that a self-made religion is truly useless. But that says nothing about the "religion" that has arisen surrounding the grand narratives of the OT, the teachings of Christ, and the further elaboration by Paul and others under the inspiration of the Spirit.
As Ohio so clearly put it, Lee pointed to everything that he could declare to be evil and called it religion, insisted that religion was simply bad, and therefore everything that was not the LRC was religion and therefore bad.
The fact is that Christianity is not a man-made religion. It is the careful observance of what we are able to understand from the source material provided to us (the Bible) with the help of the Holy Spirit. And despite our fitful failures to be absolutely perfect about all of that is there, it is not of our own making. We did not make it. No, He is making us.
And if we need to consider how well it identifies with the underlying scripture, then the best you can say is that Lee claimed it didn't really say what it said in a number of places. And it didn't really mean what it said in a number of places. Not a very good track record for handling the Word of God as it is found. Rather a record of panning the actual scriptures and substituting his own words. We had a couple of guys come to this forum several years ago that claimed that if they wrote it, it was scripture. Lee would never say that, but it would appear that he essentially believed it.
And it didn't even matter that it was inconsistent with the scripture we already have.
But if we ignore those things, the LRC is no less the assembling of an understanding of the scripture for the purpose of faith and practice than any other Christian group. And if we don't ignore those things, it is evident that relying an centuries of faith and practice as handed down (including through the RCC) is much more likely to be reliable than a loner with no history except for a penchant for declaring that X really means Y. And you can believe him because no one else ever taught it that way. If it had been taught that way before, it would be suspect.
Yeah right. I'll take the history of scholarly study and consideration of what the scripture says over the whimsy of someone who says things like "it can't really mean that because of God's economy."