When
evangelicals protested that the respondents must have misunderstood the
question, Pew conducted the survey again.
Sixty-five percent of respondents said
— again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this
time, to clear up any confusion, Pew asked them to specify which
religions. The respondents essentially said all of them.
And
they didn’t stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go
to heaven — dragged there kicking and screaming, no doubt — and most
thought that people with no religious faith also could go.
When asked what they thought determined
whether a person would achieve eternal life, “nearly as many Christians
said you could achieve eternal life by just being a good person as said
that you had to believe in Jesus.”
Let us permit ourselves some high-fives
in celebration of our Universalist victory over Calvinism. Then what?
Then perhaps we recognize that we have
no patents on the use of reason in religion or respect for other
religious paths.
Leaving aside the question of “eternal
life,” it seems that most folks put a high value on how we live this
life.
We might wonder if we’ve become too comfortable with our status as a tiny minority religion and the low expectations that go with it.
We might be inspired to take up the practice of speaking about our faith to friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. We might accept this as a challenge to let our light shine—to reach out to those who are ready to hear our message of “Not hell, but hope and courage.” Many will be surprised to learn that such a faith exists. And some will be grateful to find a religious home with us.
Yours in
faith,
Benjamin
Unitarian
Universalist
Society of
Iowa City