In James, the "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (1:27).
Practicing What I Believe 5: Religion
Cognitive Dissonance, Despair, and Practicing What We Believe
Whenever we have a conviction and cannot or do not live by it, we create a mental distance between our beliefs and our actions--we are singing two notes that don't go together. To protect ourselves, we mute the noise. As the distance grows, so does our guilt and despair.
Little Did She Know 