From my experience, this is not a "versus" but the spectrum of a process. Being "religious" is needed for a while before our faith deepens, passing through that dark night of the soul. Being religious is wholly good, righteous, and just...until it is not enough. Then, its practice is detrimental to the soul, what God would have us be is greatly diminished or blocked. 
 
Our full restoration into the image and likeness of God, BEING the light of the world, depends upon releasing ourselves totally into the hands of spirit, which the ego-based religious cannot do; it even seems like evil to them. The religious need their control, safety, and certainty but there are to be no supports for faith.

We are to live by a lamp unto our feet; not enough light to illuminate the past or future (not even a step) but only sufficient, by grace, to brighten the moment we are in, making us a simple means without ends.