How is Christian worship different than Christian religion? I'm afraid I may have slunk to the depths of troll question engineering, but I'm having a hard time with this answer. 

According to some facebook meme



it is "dictionarily" invalid to argue that "sanctity" is a state that can be enforced by the government.

I attempted to call this particular facebook personality out on the carpet by saying that their definition of religious was invalid; that it did not include worship.  

I've been hearing a lot about this recently on Relevant Radio concerning the redefinition of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to mean literally, freedom of worship, instead of freedom of religion.  

Did any of the Popes write on this?  What is Christian religion over and above Christian worship and why must it be protected?
The biggest issue I can see in America is the frequent confusion of Christian marriage and Governmental marriage (which hints at a greater confusion between America and God, but that's another topic for another day.)

From a Christian perspective, marriage is defined as a covenant between a man and a woman to honor and love each other, and treat the other as better than oneself until one of them should die.  The relationship between the two in marriage should represent the relationship between Christ and the Church in how it operates, and thus, point to Christ and his love.  Ultimately, the governmental definition of marriage shouldn't matter at all from a Christian perspective. 

The crux of the problem is that American Christians have, for too long, viewed things as though Christianity was primarily made for marriage, and not marriage for Christianity.  Visit a large singles group in the Bible belt in the US, and you'll see what I mean.  It becomes the ultimate desire of the average church-going single to find a mate, not to worship God.  This kind of attitude begets a Christianity that doesn't seek after God, so much as it seeks after happiness in marriage, which means people are seeking earthly things instead of the creator who created those earthly things.  This kind of seeking for earthly things ultimately fails.  It's like C.S. Lewis' quote: "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."  And of course, when two Christians, looking to their spouse for happiness ultimately find that they're not fulfilled in that search, their marriage looks no different than a non-Christian marriage.  Not understanding the true meaning of marriage (to represent Christ and the church: Ephesians 5:22-33), these people view marriage as a religion unto itself, and attribute the worship of it accordingly. 

So the question in my mind is: what is the difference between Christian marriage and any other marriage?  Should we even care what non-Christians (including the government) do?   I don't think we should.  As Christians, our focus should be more on making sure our own representation of Christ and the Church, through our marriage, is so clear, that it shines before men and points to Jesus. 

As for the United States, the right to worship as one sees fit ought to be protected, as it's part of the constitution, but I see nothing in any proposed constitutional redefinitions of marriage that would ultimately prevent someone the right to worship as he sees fit.  Unless, of course the object being worshiped is the Governmental institution marriage, in which case, yeah, you've got a problem.

And to answer the basic question at the end: I think Christian religion and Christian worship cannot be completely separate.  Romans 12:1 says that our spiritual act of worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.  I think it's possible to practice the Christian religion without practicing Christian worship.  All you need to do to do that is do "Christian" things, but proper Christian worship is recognizing Christ's ability to save us from our own depravity, and then glorifying God for having had sent his Son for us.  I don't think, however, it's possible to practice Christian worship without practicing some semblance of the Christian religion, which, in it's purest form, is glorifying God... be it through marriage or through some other means.