We believe in... ?

NOTE: This post was originally accompanied by a video but it came to my attention that the video seemed to be having a negative impact on the capability of some readers to open my blog page. In light of that, I've removed the troublesome video which was not an illustration of the material posted but not something critical for understanding the following.

-ConcordPastor

(AP) America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.

The findings, released Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.

Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.

In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.

...

By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.

But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews.

Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent "absolutely certain" of it.

"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'"

Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found similar results.

Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).

By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices.

"What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect other people,'" said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

...

Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace.

The Catholic church teaches that the "one church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church" alone and that Protestant churches, while defective, can be "instruments of salvation."

...

More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in 10 Catholics described God as "a person with whom people can have a relationship" — which the church teaches — while three in 10 described God as an "impersonal force."

"The statistics show, more than anything else, that many who describe themselves as Catholics do not know or understand the teachings of their church," said Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput. "Being Catholic means believing what the Catholic church teaches. It is a communion of faith, not simply of ancestry and family tradition. It also means that the church ought to work harder at evangelizing its own members."

(Read the complete report)

These statistics certainly match much of what I hear Catholic people saying today. No, this is not what I hear from all Catholic people but I certainly recognize that many of the Catholic attitudes and stands of my youth (born in 1947) are not those of many Catholic people today.

On the one hand, there's something very refreshing about the respect people have in our own day for other beliefs and religions. I grew up in a less ecumenical, interfaith climate! On the other hand, Archbishop Chaput is correct when he points out that "many who describe themselves as Catholic do not know or understand what the Catholic church teaches."

Many Catholic people are startlingly illiterate in matters of faith. Sadder still is the reluctance of many adult Catholics to avail themselves of opportunities as close as their own parish to develop an adult grasp of their faith. One frequently hears Catholics as well as members of other faiths uttering some amazing claims.

Let's try a little test. I'll bet you'll find the following statements absurd and foolish:

All political parties have candidates and ideas about how to run the country so it doesn't really matter which one you belong to.

All restaurants serve food and drink so it really doesn't matter which one you go to.

All professional baseball teams play the same game and want to win so it doesn't really matter if you root for the Red Sox or the Yankees.

The Globe and the Herald both print the daily news so it doesn't matter which one you read.

All music is basically notes played and sung in varying tempos, so it doesn't matter what you listen to.

How about this one?

All religions teach you to love your neighbor so it doesn't matter which one you belong to.

At least some of the respondents in the Pew Forum survey quoted above think just this way. And I've heard enough Catholics say this same thing to know that it's not unusual. But nothing as important as faith is that simple. No faith can be reduced to such simple terms. Faith involves our efforts to speak the ineffable, to articulate the infinite and to manifest the spiritual. Seeking order to preserve us from chaos in this process, our faith seeks understanding. This quest for understanding draws on revelation of the divine, the wisdom of the ages, the words of holy writ, the tradition of ancestors and the ritual and lived experience of allowing faith to nourish and shape our lives.

Because faith matters, religion matters. And because religion matters, it matters which one you belong to. Faith and religion seek to know the truth of God in a universe in which truth is often difficult to discern. If everything everyone believes is, on that account, held to be true then truth is an absolutely subjective reality. But if everything is true then nothing is false - and most of us know better than that.

Oh, yes! It very much matters what one believes, what faith one holds, what religion one belongs to. And because it matters and because all faiths seek the truth, I respect and reverence the religion of all.

I believe that the God of eternity took flesh in Jesus and that the universe is suffused with the Spirit of the risen Christ. I believe that God is the source of all life and of every good gift that is ours and that God desires union with creation and especially with us, the beloved handiwork of the divine Artisan. I believe God desires this union with every human being: those who believe and those who do not believe.

By my life and ministry it's clear that I believe according to the faith and religion of Roman Catholic Christianity. But I don't believe that God's arms will be shortened by the sabbath we observe, the book we read or the temple in which we worship. I marvel at the infinite number of ways the Father of Jesus is constantly seeking union with the children of his heart.

I believe that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, that he gave his life that we might live and that he has sent his Spirit to dwell within us and be our advocate. His is the Word of life; his is the path I follow; his is the forgiveness I seek; his is the peace I long for; his is the Spirit who strengthens me in my weakness. The One who sent Christ is, I believe, the One who draws me to life that has no end. And the motley, sinful, redeemed, graced people of Christ's body who call themselves the Catholic Church are, for me, the band with whom I make the journey to seek and find the truth, to know even now the peace we have been promised.

Oh, yes! It very much matters what one believes, what faith one holds, what religion one belongs to. And because it matters I belong to the Roman Catholic Church. And because people of all faiths seek the truth, I respect and reverence the religion of all and pray that the Father of us all will gather us home as one.

-ConcordPastor