More Americans Dropping Dogma for “Spirituality”

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Newly released data from a major survey finds that most U.S. adults range far from knowing or caring about the distinctive teachings of their professed faith.

They believe overwhelmingly (92%) in God and 58% say they pray at least once a day. But when it comes to specific religions — the teachings of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Roman Catholic Church or scores of other denominations — they’re all over the map, finds the latest data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Some key findings:

•78% overall say there are “absolute standards of right and wrong,” but only 29% rely on their religion to delineate these standards. The majority (52%) turn to “practical experience and common sense,” with 9% relying on philosophy and reason, and 5% on scientific information.

•74% say “there is a heaven, where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded,” but far fewer (59%) say there’s a “hell, where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished.” Only evangelicals and Muslims are as likely to believe almost to the same degree in both.

•70%, including a majority of all major Christian and non-Christian religious groups except Mormons, agree that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”

•68% say “there’s more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion.”

•54% say being devoutly religious isn’t a challenge in modern society. Another 42% say they “often feel that my values are threatened by Hollywood and the entertainment industry.” • 45% of adults say they seldom or never read their religion’s holy texts. This includes 49% of members of mainline Protestant churches, 57% of Catholics and 70% of Jews. Among groups that emphasize reading scripture, the numbers are sharply higher. Those who read scripture at least weekly include: evangelicals (60%); historically black churches (60%); Mormons (76%); Jehovah’s Witnesses (83%); and Muslims (43%)

•44% want to preserve their religion’s traditional beliefs and practices. But most Catholics (67%), Jews (65%), mainline Christians (56%) and Muslims (51%) say their religion should either “adjust to new circumstances” or “adopt modern beliefs and practices.”

•50% say “homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society,” but the most consistently traditional religious groups say society should discourage it — 76% of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 68% of Mormons, 61% of Muslims and 64% of evangelicals.

•14% overall, including 28% of evangelicals, say religion is the “main influence in their political thinking.”

Read the entire article HERE

———————————————-

“You have to wonder: How do you guarantee the integrity of a religious tradition when so many people are coming or going or following ideas that don’t match up?”

You can’t, says the Rev. Frank Page, of Taylors, S.C. He adds ruefully, “I’m a pastor in the real world. I see this every day.”

Page is immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Its growth statistics, he says, “are pitiful.”

Page says people don’t know their faith because “Gospel, once clearly preached in virtually every Protestant church, is rarely heard in the 21st century. The number who teach a clear doctrinal Christianity are a minority today. How would people know it when they never hear about how to be saved?”

This is the situation that you find yourself in. How do you respond? Do we fight the “Truth War”? I doubt that would be very effective but for a small minority. I think it will be a great challenge for many churches and denominations to learn how to speak the gospel, doctrine, and theology into our churches in a language laypersons can understand instead of answering questions that nobody is asking or offering shallow self-help moralism.