Many congregations and the denominations with which they are affiliated affirm that faith has somehow gone awry. Conservatives see liberal betrayal, and liberals see conservative distortions of genuine religious belief and life. Both sides presume the power of the other to harm the lives of vulnerable people.
To the religiously uninitiated, this doesn’t make sense. Robert Putnam and David Campbell conducted a survey asking “whether religious diversity has been good for America or bad for America.” Given the religious divide we have, the results were surprising. It was no surprise that those who are not very religious saw diversity as a positive thing. But they found that even among the most devoutly religious, three-quarters say that diversity is good for America. Add to this that they found that 80% of all Americans believe there are truths in many religions, and one can see why making faith a binary choice is turning people away.
While congregations and denominations debate who has a truer, purer faith, people are passing them by because they yearn for a place where people are open to learn from a variety of perspectives, not to reject one in favor of the other. As MLK, Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters], or we are going to perish together as fools.”
To the religiously uninitiated, this doesn’t make sense. Robert Putnam and David Campbell conducted a survey asking “whether religious diversity has been good for America or bad for America.” Given the religious divide we have, the results were surprising. It was no surprise that those who are not very religious saw diversity as a positive thing. But they found that even among the most devoutly religious, three-quarters say that diversity is good for America. Add to this that they found that 80% of all Americans believe there are truths in many religions, and one can see why making faith a binary choice is turning people away.
While congregations and denominations debate who has a truer, purer faith, people are passing them by because they yearn for a place where people are open to learn from a variety of perspectives, not to reject one in favor of the other. As MLK, Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters], or we are going to perish together as fools.”
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