Matters of faith: June 2008 Archives

Here are some fascinating findings from the Pew people.

Although a majority of Americans say religion is very important to them, nearly three-quarters of them say they believe that many faiths besides their own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, reveals a broad trend toward tolerance and an ability among many Americans to hold beliefs that might contradict the doctrines of their professed faiths.

For example, 70 percent of Americans affiliated with a religion or denomination said they agreed that "many religions can lead to eternal life," including majorities among Protestants and Catholics. Among evangelical Christians, 57 percent agreed with the statement, and among Catholics, 79 percent did.

As an ex-evangelical who was worn down by years of internal criticism that I wasn't Christocentric enough, I wonder if most evangelical pastors and theologians would see this statistic as a good thing or a bad one. I'm tempted to believe that most would be inclined to see it as a case of weak theology, as an example of how society's prevailing pluralistic assumptions have eroded the laity's ability to acknowledge "Solus Christus, Christ alone" -- but when confronted with the charge that evangelicalism is narrow-minded and chauvinistic, they will quickly roll out these same statistics to counter that charge.

Meanwhile, the Catholic wing of Christianity continues to take a fascinatingly open-minded approach (I say this to butter up my boss at this site!).