Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27 KJV) .
I have always had a problem with the word "Religion". There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but the interpretations are so numerous and diverse as well as its application. Religion is supposed to be a means of worshipping God and building and having a relationship with him, but because the worship of anything including stones and carved objects can still be termed religion is a foundation of my distrust of the term. But this does not mean that religion is evil or man-made as some seem to think.
God speaks largely about religion. Israel was/is a religious people. Christianity is a religion...but now we must begin to see religion as a set of actions that draw us towards God, rather than a set of beliefs. Belief can be passive, but actions are active.
In James 1:27, the Bible describes the kind of religion that God wants. The religion that does and practices compassion. It says the true religion that God approves is the one that helps the helpless and causes you to separate yourself from wordliness. Now that's the religion that works.