A few words about the word RELIGION
Religion literally means to re-bind.
Rebind? What were we originally bound to?
We are naturally bound as corporate members of our natural family.
It is in our natural family that we learn how to love, give, forgive, rebuke, exhort, loose and bind by witness, testimony and doing and serving our family members in need.
It is through the family that we learn to have empathy for all families. For we are all the same, there is nothing new under the sun. What one family has experienced, most families on earth, through all time have also experienced.
So what is it that we are re-bound to? Our community, our nation. How do we do that? There are basically two ways to practice religion. Pure religion and impure religion. (Remember though that all men, male and female, have a natural right to change their nation, just as any man, male and female, are free to change families and be adopted or married into a different family. The United Nations' Universal Declaration on Human Rights at Article 15 preserves this natural right. The United States under Public Law, 15 United States Statutes at Large, Chapter 249, Pages 223-224 (1868) codified at Title 8 USC, Section 1481, and the Bible, when it talks about repenting, dying, being born again and baptized is talking about expatriating, i.e. coming out of (dying to) one father, patronus, parens patriae, state, nation, country, and being born again (alive to a new father, patronus, parens patriae, state, nation, country) and baptized (naturalized over time to learn the laws and way of the new father in order to walk the new father's path according to his will, and character). In others words we are free to change our religion any time we are led to do so.
First we have to understand that our modern understanding of the word religion has changed in the minds of most men (male and female). Today most people think that religion is what someone thinks about an unseen deity. But that is not what the word really means. As we have seen religion literally means, re-binding.
So what does this re-binding, actually look like in everyday action?
Religion is how a community, a nation, a state, or country, a body politic, cares for the needy of their society and also how the nation, state or country helps its national neighbors with foreign aid.
Examples of religion in the United States would be: Social Security, public schools, unemployment insurance, disability, medicare, medicaid, Obamacare, are just a few examples of the religion of the United States body politic, nation, states, country.
So what makes a nation's, community's, society's religion pure or impure?
The nature, name, character and spirit in which the religion of a people is provided. Do the people truly love their neighbor as much as they love themselves so they freely choose to fund their nation's religious programs, like Social Security, medicare and medicaid, by free will offerings freely given to the people's elected ministers, public servants, to administer the religious programs to the needy of the society? Or is the spirit, nature, name or character of the people of a nation selfish and covetous so they have to be compelled to pay a tax via consent, assent, application and participation in the nation's religion in order for the needy of society to be helped by the nation's elected and appointed ministers or public servants?
The United States has an impure religion. Its social welfare programs are provided by covet means. U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, U.S. persons lack faith, lack virtue, honor, love, charity and humility, therefore, they need a ruling authority to compel them to pay tribute, taxes, "tithes", to fund the nation's religious programs for the needy, and if they do not pay, as per the agreements, contracts, and constitutions they are re-bound to their nation by, they will suffer a penalty, fines, fees and even being stoned to death, which is a biblical term that merely means a defendant is found guilty and has been sentence to exile, excommunication, banished for a while from the community, which is what we today call prison.
The Kingdom of Heaven, aka the Kingdom of God, has a system of pure religion. In the kingdom the religion is financed by pure love, pure faith (fidelity), pure charity, pure honor, pure virtue, pure humility, by completely free will offerings by the members of the Christian nation called Israel. Israel means where God prevails. Which means where God's law, way, will and form of government prevails, a re-binding by pure love.
So what is your religion? Do you practice pure religion or do you practice an impure religion? You'll know them by their fruit.