This story in the USA Today analyzes the early findings in one of the more thorough surveys about religious attitudes and values in the United States in recent memory.
I strongly recommend reading the entire article, but there are some points I want to highlight:
"Sociologist Paul Froese says the survey finds the stereotype that conservatives are religious and liberals are secular is "simply not true. Political liberals and conservative are both religious. They just have different religious views."
"Evangelical" may be losing favor as a way Americans describe themselves. About one in three Americans say they belong to denominations that theologians consider evangelical, but only 14% of all respondents in the survey say this is one way they would describe themselves. Only 2.2% called it the single best term. Top choices overall: "Bible-believing" (20.5%) or "born-again" (18.6%)."
The data shook out most view of God into one of four categories; The Authoritarian God, The Benevolent God, The Critical God, and The Distant God. The articles explains these groupings in some detail. Interestingly, "Those who picture a critical God are significantly less likely to draw absolute moral lines on hot-button issues such as abortion, gay marriage or embryonic stem cell research. For example, 57% overall say gay marriage is always wrong compared with 80.6% for those who see an authoritarian God, and 65.8% for those who see God as benevolent. For those who believe in a critical God, it was 54.7%."
More than one way to view a God--what an interesting concept. That would make it hard to legislate more than the most basic Christian values, wouldn't it, since there is so much disagreement about the very nature of God?
Reasonable minds would think so.
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The other day a fundamentalist told me she was praying for me since I was gong to hell. Why was I going to hell, I asked her? Because I believed that God could mean different things to different people and because I don't believe that Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or Jews or anyone else who leads a good life is going to hell simply because their God might be different from my God.
ReplyDeleteI believe that one of the beautiful things about God is that he is able to be something entirely different to all of us. He fits our needs of what we imagine him to be and that's kewl with me.
God is known by different names in different cultures, and is worshipped under different traditions. The Lord knows the hearts of humankind, he knows all the different names we call Him, and He can distinguish between what is devotion and what is idolatry of false Gods. Kelly, I'm so happy that God is the one who decides who gets salvation and who doesn't, because if human beings like the woman you describe made the decisions, everyone they didn't like for whatever reason would go to Hell . . . and Heaven wouldn't be worth aspiring to!
ReplyDeleteDo not be afraid. The Lord is not an enemy of the homosexual -- rather, the Lord has infinite plans for them. Right now the lord is the enemy of vulgar destruction of female purity by means of the male. The MAN who is danger of hellfire is the corruptor and the rapist. He who keeps to his BROTHERS shall be sanctified and blessed before God for keeping the feminine sacred and apart. In this paradise there shall be wanton bliss for the New Sodom. Those who have the TRUE understanding of GOD shall see these words and hear their truth. There is no other than the ONE who is Love and who is the eternal I AM.
ReplyDelete((I believe that one of the beautiful things about God is that he is able to be something entirely different to all of us. He fits our needs of what we imagine him to be and that's kewl with me.))
ReplyDeleteKelly,
I'm afraid your "fundie" friend is correct. Jesus said, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life....NO ONE comes to the Father, except through Me."
Either you believe what Jesus said, or you call Him a liar.
It's actually an ugly and deceitful thing to believe that God can be anything anyone wants Him to be. That would make Him a God of many contradictions. And where's the Truth in that?
Oh....and STuffed....you don't "aspire" to heaven (that's a works-righteousness thing); you're INVITED to it, but only, as we've already discussed through REPENTANCE and faith. You're still not getting the picture.
((Different srtokes for different folks?))
ReplyDeleteSure, if you want, but only if you're willing to risk the consequences.
It isn't man who determines who God is.....God determines who God is. You can have all the strokes you want, but God won't ever contradict Himself to accomomodate you.
Concerning the religions of the world, not everyone can be correct, but everyone can be incorrect. This is logic. And, while it was once the religious who were intolerant, it is now the so-called "open-minded" people who are only tolerant of those who share their own ideology. Everyone has a religious ideology, rooted in faith. If you think the big bang and evolution is not rooted in faith you're a fool. Ultimately, there is a deep mystery behind our existence, but today, it seems if you believe in absolute truth you are ridiculed.
ReplyDeleteThere is one truth, he who claimed to be the truth--Yeshua ha Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah). I challenge you to read his words.