Ask Southern Baptists to name their \u201creligion\u201d and most of them will simply say, \u201cI\u2019m a Baptist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Ask Roman Catholics the same question and most will say, \u201cI\u2019m Catholic.\u201d Odds are good that most Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and occupants of other name-brand pews will take the same approach.<\/p>\n\n
However, some of these believers may choose to define \u201creligion\u201d more broadly and say, \u201cI\u2019m a Christian.\u201d A researcher would certainly hear that response in scores of independent evangelical and charismatic churches across America.<\/p>\n\n
This may sound like nitpicking, but it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n\n
Confusion over defining the word \u201creligion\u201d almost certainly helped shape the most controversial results from the new U.S. Religious Landscape Survey produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.<\/p>\n\n
In one of several questions probing the role of \u201cdogmatism\u201d in American life, interviewers asked adults which of two statements best fit their beliefs: \u201cMy religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life\u201d or \u201cmany religions can lead to eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The results leapt into national headlines, with 70 percent of those affiliated with a religion or denomination saying that \u201cmany religions\u201d can bring eternal salvation. <\/p>\n\n
In fact, 83 percent of those in liberal Protestant denominations affirmed that belief, along with 79 percent of Catholics, 59 percent of those from historically black churches and a stunning 57 percent of believers in evangelical pews. In other world religions, 89 percent of Hindus polled said \u201cmany religions\u201d can bring eternal life, along with 86 percent of Buddhists, 82 percent of Jews and 56 percent of Muslims.<\/p>\n\n
But there\u2019s the rub. It\u2019s impossible, based on a straightforward reading of this research, to know how individual participants defined the word \u201creligion\u201d when they answered.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a set of interview guidelines or talking points that we used when asking that question,\u201d said Greg Smith, a Pew Forum research fellow. \u201cThe interviewers didn\u2019t say, \u2018Well, that means someone who is a member of a different denomination than yours\u2019 or \u2018that means someone in a completely different religion than your religion.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n
\u201cSo people may have answered that in different ways. There may have been Baptists that interpreted that question as simply referring to members of other churches. Others may have answered with a more universal concept of \u2018religion\u2019 in mind. That\u2019s possible. In fact, it\u2019s highly likely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
There is no way \u2014 based on this round of research \u2014 to know precisely how many believers have decided to reject what their faiths teach, if those faiths make exclusive truth claims about salvation and eternal life. Thus, said Smith, the Pew Forum is planning follow-up work.<\/p>\n\n
For example, it\u2019s one thing for evangelicals to say they believe salvation can be found through \u201creligions\u201d such as Catholicism, Lutheranism, Pentecostalism<\/a> or other forms of Christianity. It\u2019s something else altogether to say a majority of American evangelicals now believe that salvation can be found through Islam, Buddhism<\/a>, Hinduism, Wicca and various non-Christian \u201creligions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Meanwhile, many traditional Christians may believe that all people will \u2014 somehow, in this life or the next \u2014 face some kind of spiritual decision to accept or reject Jesus. However, when asked if that means that only Christians will \u201cbe saved,\u201d these believers may say that only God can know that. The Rev. Billy Graham has given this kind of answer on many occasions.<\/p>\n\n The bottom line: It\u2019s hard to write a question that will reveal how many Christians now believe that Jesus was mistaken when he said, as quoted in the Gospel of John, \u201cI am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n In fact, a new survey by the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s LifeWay Research team specifically asked Protestants if they believed people can find eternal life through \u201creligions other than Christianity\u201d and only 31 percent agreed \u201cstrongly\u201d or \u201csomewhat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe problem is that all religions make mutually exclusive truth claims,\u201d noted evangelical activist Charles Colson, in a radio commentary criticizing the Pew Forum survey. \u201cWhat Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus say about the person and work of Jesus Christ cannot be reconciled. They may all be false, but they cannot all be true. <\/p>\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s called the law of non-contradiction. It goes back to Aristotle. If proposition A is true \u2014 that is, if it conforms to reality \u2014 then proposition B, making a contrary claim, cannot be true as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ask Southern Baptists to name their \u201creligion\u201d and most of them will simply say, \u201cI\u2019m a Baptist.\u201d Ask Roman Catholics the same question and most will say, \u201cI\u2019m Catholic.\u201d Odds are good that most Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and occupants of other name-brand pews will take the same approach. However, some of these believers may choose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[334,654,764,893],"class_list":["post-1497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eternal-life","tag-pew-forum","tag-salvation","tag-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\n