The Indianapolis Star had an interesting article this morning on its website. 35, 000 Americans were surveyed last year about their personal beliefs of salvation. The results showed a growing tolerance for other religions. The survey showed that as most of America still considers themselves “believers,” a vast majority think that their way is not the only way. Let me note that this does not apply to people of other denominations within their own faith. This survey applied to those of other faiths.
Of those who took the survey, 83% of the Protestant responders, 59% of Black Evangelical Protestants, 79 % of Roman Catholics, 82 Percent of Jews, and 56% of the Islam faith believe that many religions can lead to eternal life. Ironically none of those faiths leave any room for other religions holding the same eternal value as their own.
I am not sure why this disturbs me. I am a tolerant man. I think that i have a healthy balance of listening and understanding people of other faiths, but I am not sure i can walk through the door that, though he or she truly believes in what they practice, that their salvation is secure. I know, that is such a close door, bigoted comment. Many who will read this will think that i am an ignorant, intolerant christian…
I hope the principle of pluralism is right. I hope when we get to the end times, people of all faiths will be healed from their sinful nature and that the sacrifice of Jesus crossed religious boundaries and atoned for all the sins of man. However, my interpretation of scripture and interaction with God tells me differently. The God I know does not respond to “earners” of salvation. The God that i know daily and continually gives out grace to those who realize they need it and ask for it. The God I know has many different names in many different countries and cultures. I may not always recognize my God by what he is called to other people, but i always recognize his existence in other people. That is, if they truly interact with the God i know.
Salvation, for me, must come from the greatest expression of grace, which was the atonement of our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Salvation cannot come from “doing good.” It must come from “being” good and one becomes good when their desire to live apart from God is changed and their lives/desires/sins/pursuits/loves are washed with the forgiving blood that was shed as that replacement for those things. Can a Muslim be “saved” (I hate that 50’s protestant way of phrasing stuff by the way…)? Can a Buddhist’s come to know the love, the ever surpassing love of the One True God and become a true follower? Definitely. And for them, God will look differently than He does to me. He must because we still see things through our cultural lenses. But what is “required” is that knowledge of their dependence on God for salvation and God alone…
Of course this is still in process for me. I am open to hear what you believe, whether you agree with me or not. Although I do have my own “convictions” on what i believe is truth (and not only truth but the most fulfilling and freeing reality of all time, that Jesus did the work for us in his death and now we must realize our need for it and respond in a way that glorifies the one who took away our impurities…), I still love to talk about these things. I also truly believe that, although we as people may have religious differences as well as cultural differences, life is to be lived in peace with each other. I will still befriend and lean on people of other religions for the sake of humanity. If I need sugar, I can’t see myself walking down to the Christian neighbor’s house only because they may or may not believe in the same God I do. Does that make too tolerant? If that is my label for what i believe, i can live with that…
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