Be Diligent…

Was this the claim of Jesus? (John 14-6). Is He just one way to God? Evidently this is what most Evangelicals believe, according to an extensive study reported Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. I found many of the results to be surprising, if not totally appalling. For example:

• 41% of those classified as Jewish are “absolutely certain” of their belief in God.
• Of those classified as Protestants, only 46% believed the Bible to be the Word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word.
• To the statement, “There is only ONE true way to interpret the teachings of my religion”, 41% of Evangelicals answered in the affirmative, as did 19% of Catholics, 54% of Mormons, and 33% of Muslims.
• In a similar question respondents were asked, “Which comes closer to your own views even if neither is exactly right? First/next…My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life, OR Many religions can lead to eternal life.” Taking the “one true faith” route were 27% of the Protestants, 16% of Catholics, 57% of Mormons, 80% Jehovah’s Witnesses, 5% Jewish, and 33% Muslim.
• “Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases?” Nine percent of Evangelicals, 16% of Catholics, 40% of the Jewish faith, and 13% of the Muslims answered “Sure; why not?”. (Oh by the way, 41% of the atheists answered “yes”, too.)
• “Homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society.” Agreeing with that statement were 38% of the Protestants, 31% of the Baptists, 51% of the Methodists, 53% of the Lutherans, 52% of the Presbyterians, and 20% of the Pentecostals.

The report is very detailed, with breakdown by denomination, state, etc. Being a member of the Church of Christ, naturally I was curious how “our group” responded, so here we are… With a margin of error deep into the single digits, of the members of the Church of Christ 88% are “absolutely certain” there is a God, 50% of us believe the Bible is the literal Word of God, 40% believe there is only one true way to interpret “the teachings of my religion”, 39% agreed that “my religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life”, 9% of us believe abortion should be legal in all cases, and 31% believe homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.

Frankly I’m embarrassed at those findings. I do realize though, that interpretation of the question has a great deal to do with the response. Take, for example, this question:

Which comes closest to your view? The Bible is the word of God, OR the Bible is a book written by men and is not the word of God? [IF BELIEVE BIBLE IS WORD OF GOD, ASK:] And would you say that the Bible is to be taken literally, word for word, OR Not everything in the Bible should be taken literally, word for word?

That’s the exact question asked of Christians and those unaffiliated with any religion. “The Torah” was substituted for “the Bible” for those of Jewish faith, “the Koran” for Muslims, etc. I don’t have any problem interpreting that question, but I can see that some, hearing the phrase “the Bible” would interpret that to mean “the physical translation of the Bible that you hold in your hand”. Personally I use the NIV translation, and am happy with it overall, but there are a few places where I believe the translators totally missed the mark. Comparing particular New Testament passages with the Greek text, for example, I sometimes come to a different conclusion for the meaning of a text than what’s printed in the NIV. So if I interpret that question to mean “do you believe the text of the NIV is word-for-word the Word of God”, then no. I don’t. So I’m hoping that the other 50% of the Church of Christ members responding to the study were thinking just that.

This post is already long enough, but I would encourage you, no matter what your faith, to download the full report (which is available at no charge from the link above). Draw your own conclusions, then decide what we can do to change the results for the better.

Copyright © 2008 The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

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Posted on June 24th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: Authority of Scripture, Christian life, Faith, Salvation, Society