I know what they mean though. It was always one of my biggest beefs with the Lord of the Rings is that it pretends religion doesn’t exist almost. No churches, no priests, no organized religion or the conflicts between them. None of the kings have priestly advisors, no holy knights roam the lands slaughtering the orcs, etc.

I’ve heard the LOTR nerds claim that Gandolf is “an angel”… But that doesn’t make it a religious story. He just comes off like a wizard/druid.