Pluralism in the United States of America

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Do you believe there are many ways to Heaven?

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

- John 14:6

Apparently, most of the U.S. does believe there are multiple ways to Heaven. This including a majority amongst Christians. Pluralism seems to have taken a solid hold here. There's an article being published in tomorrow's NY Times attesting to this. Here's an excerpt:

"70 percent of Americans affiliated with a religion or denomination said they agreed that “many religions can lead to eternal life,” including majorities among Protestants and Catholics. Among evangelical Christians, 57 percent agreed with the statement, and among Catholics, 79 percent did.

Among minority faiths, more than 80 percent of Jews, Hindus and Buddhists agreed with the statement, and more than half of Muslims did."

- NY Times article entitled "Survey Shows U.S. Religious Tolerance " by: Neela Banerjee - click here to read.

I believe this is a problem. I think "religious tolerance" is something that should be applied to our dealings with others in a general sense. I think it should be applied to politics and government, but not to the truth of what is and what isn't. I don't imply a religious tolerance where we should not try to spread the word and gospel of Christ. I simply mean that we should respect people's freedom to ultimately choose what they believe as we would like to be respected.

That still leaves a problem. You see, I'm a Christian, and I know that the only way to Heaven is through Christ. I'm not going to tell you that believing in Buddha will save your soul. Or following the laws of Islam. They won't. From an eternal perspective, if you believe in either of those, you're doomed. You need Christ.

So, what am I getting at here? Well, basically, we Christians should be worried about ourselves and our brethren here. Apparently, a bunch of us (57% of evangelical Christians!!!) don't realize the truth that no one comes to the Father except through Christ. That's disturbing.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

- Jude 1:3-4

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**Updated with the following **

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In other news that is pretty cool, there is this article out of the Chicago Tribune about the growing number of churches and Christians in China. Good stuff.