Universalized-Not So Evangelical Faith
In recent news, the Pew Foundation released figures that reflect a highly tolerant, pluralistic Christianity in the U.S. However, these figures are being disputed by the Lifeway Research Group based on the wording of the Pew Foundation’s question regarding the exclusive claims of Christianity: “My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life.” Pew concluded that 70 percent of Protestants are universalist in faith.
Though Lifeway researchers agree that universalism is widespread, they argue that the “religion” in the Pew question is easily interpreted as “denomination” by many Chrsitians, which would skew survey results. As a result, they published thier own research:
“In total, 31 percent of Protestant churchgoers agreed (strongly or somewhat) with this universalistic statement compared to Pew’s 70 percent. This makes for a difference of 39 percent between the universalism in the LifeWay Research study and the Pew Study.”
Despite the numerical differences, it is clear that Christian and Evangelical belief has increasingly become less Christian and less evangelical. Ed Stetzer comments:
The Pew research is helpful even though this question needs clarification. However, the bigger issue here is why there are so many self-identified evangelicals who sit in evangelical pews but do not evidence evangelical beliefs, particularly in regard to universalism.”
I liked this finding from the study:
“A belief in God or a higher spirit is pervasive. Even Americans who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic have a robust sense of a higher power: Twenty-one percent of those who describe themselves as atheists expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit, and more than half of those who call themselves agnostic expressed a similar conviction.”
very interesting . . . hope it’s 30%
It’s also a sad commentary on the state of Christian and/or secular education today. To not know the difference between a religion and a denomination is pretty lame. The movie “Idiocracy” may be crude and puerile, but it is an accurate reflection of our society’s desire to amuse itself to death.