I’m going to use this Friday to follow up on my last commentary on diversity and it’s impact on the American religious landscape. And if you think culture isn’t impacting people’s faith, let me share the following information with you.
Let me kick off with a statement from Ken Wilber, “During the last thirty years we have witnessed a historical first: all of the world’s cultures are now available to us. In the past, if you were born a Chinese person, you likely spent your entire life in one culture, often one province, sometimes in one house, living and loving and dying on one small plot of land.” Translating that into what you might relate to; fifty years ago everyone was like everyone else. Today, on one side lives a Buddhist from China, on the other a Hindu from India, and across the street is an African-American Muslim.
A recent poll by George Barna shows that almoste everyone now knows somebody who is Muslim, Buddhist, and or Hindu; however, three other questions point to the earthquke that’s altering the religious landscape. First, seventy one percent of the Christians polled said they felt they should leave others alone and not attempt to convert them! Unheard of fifty years ago!
Secondly, more than seventy-eight percent felt that there are elements of truth in all religions. Religious fundamentalists in America have gone from being in the majority on this count to a small minority in less than fifty years.
Finally, only seventeen percent of those polled (all Christians) felt that theirs was the ONLY true religion. Now that registers about 7.5 on the religious richter scale.
So what can we glean from what diversity is doing to the American religious way? For me, it is bringing reality and credibility. I don’t follow Jesus Christ because it is popular or out of vogue. But neither do I stick my head in the sand and become a religious red neck who has all the answers to life. I have always felt that the best way to witness is not leaving a track in the bath room (one can’t find a phone booth any more), but by LIVING JESUS CHRIST. Since when was conversion ahead of transformation. Is’t it about you, me, us being who He called us to BE. Until we do that, what do we have to share anyway? Maybe a little hypocrisy and a lot of rules, that we don’t even follow?
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