The Pearly Gates Are Wide Open

A new Newsweek/Beliefnet poll shows a stunning level of acceptance of other people's faiths.

BY: Steven Waldman

One of the central tenets of evangelical Christianity is that to be saved-to earn admission into heaven-you must accept Jesus Christ as your savior. Yet 68% of "born again" or "evangelical" Christians say that a "good person who isn't of your religious faith" can gain salvation, according to a new Newsweek/Beliefnet poll.

This is pretty amazing. Evangelicals are among the most churchgoing and religiously attentive people in the United States, and one of the ideas they're most likely to hear from the minister at church on a given Sunday is that the path to salvation is through Jesus. Apparently, rank-and-file evangelicals have a different view. [Editor's Note: Readers have suggested a variety of possible reasons why evangelicals may have answered this way. Beliefnet will present an entire package on the salvation issue on Friday]

Nationally, 79% of those surveyed said the same thing, and the figure is 73% for non-Christians and an astounding 91% among Catholics. The Catholics surveyed seemed more inclined to listen to the Catechism's precept that those who "seek the truth" may gain salvation-rather than, say, St. Augustine's view that being "separated from the Church" will damn you to hell "no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living."

For a few thousand years, wars have been fought over this point; countless sermons have been given-by people of all faiths-to prove the opposite point. It is one of the main ways that clergy of any given faith can explain why it's important for people to show up at their particular church and read their particular sacred text.

How could so many Americans be tossing aside such a central element of theology? I think the Newsweek cover story that grew in part out of this poll has the best theory. Americans have become so focused on a very personal style of worship-forging a direct relationship with God-that spiritual experience has begun to supplant dogma.

Other results from the poll indicate that the appeal of religion is more spiritual than cultural. Thirty-nine percent said the main reason they practiced their religion is to "forge a personal relationship with God" while only 3% said it was to be part of a community. This would help explain why many people report having a regular prayer life but not attending church. Seventy-nine percent said they pray at least once a week compared to 45% who said they went to worship services during that time. In addition, 40% said they felt "most connected with God or the divine" when they were "praying alone or meditating" compared to 27% who said they had that sense when they were in a house of worship or praying with others.

The poll also showed a more basic point that may be obvious to Beliefnet readers but not others: spirituality is crucial to most Americans. 57% said spirituality was "very important" in their "daily life" and another 27% said it was somewhat important. Their behavior seems to back up this notion. 79% said they prayed at least once a week and 55% said they read a sacred text -- Bible, Koran, etc -- at least once a week.

The Newsweek/Beliefnet poll produced a number of other fascinating findings:

One quarter of Americans have veered from their childhood faith. When asked to compare their current faith lives to that of their childhood, 68% said it was the same or mostly the same, while 24% said they'd changed faiths mostly or completely or become an atheist or agnostic. The spiritual approaches that seem to be gaining fans were evangelical Christianity and atheism, while Catholicism and non-evangelical Protestants lost ground. Nevertheless...

Most Americans describe themselves as pretty traditional. We tried to get at that question a few different ways. First, we asked directly-if they consider themselves traditional or not. Twenty-five percent said they were either "not traditional" or "on the cutting edge," while the remainder said they were either somewhat or very traditional. Then we asked whether they were "spiritual" or "religious" or some combination. Twenty-four percent said "spiritual but not religious" while 76% said either "religious and spiritual" (55%) or "religious but not spiritual" (9%). We also asked whether they were likely to borrow bits of spiritual wisdom or ritual from other practices. Thirty-two percent said sometimes or often while 66% said hardly ever or never.

Most American families have experienced religious diversity up close. We attempted to assess a typical American's exposure to other faiths or spiritual approaches. In all 42% of Americans either have a different approach from their childhood, saw a sibling shift approaches, or married someone of a different faith. These overall numbers don't explain how these changes might have affected them but it does mean that a large number of Americans have had very personal and direct experience with some religious approach that's different from their original spiritual practice.

We are all intelligent designers. Eighty percent of the population believe that the universe was created by God; only 10% do not. This would seem to indicate that many of those who advocate the teaching of evolution in school do, nonetheless, believe that the universe was created by God.

We are selfless pray-ers. Most people do not spend the majority of their prayer life trying to get God to do something for them. The most common purposes of prayer were "to seek God's guidance," to "thank God" or to "be close to God." Only 9% said it was to "improve a person's life."

Evangelicals love big churches and small groups. Much has been made of the rise of large stadium-sized churches for evangelical Christians. But 61% of evangelicals said they participate in some sort of religious activity outside traditional church at least once a week (compared to 35% for non-evangelical protestants and 35% of Catholics).

There's a big generation gap. In general, younger people are more experimental, less traditional, less Christian-and less passionate about their spiritual lives. While 63% of people aged 40-59 said spirituality was "very important" in their daily lives, 44% of those ages 18-39 said so. Ninety percent of the older group said they were Christian, while 77% of the younger group did. Before the older folks get too worried about kids today, remember that people tend to get more religious as they age.

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