Pew Religious Landscape Survey Released - Is it Really a Smorgasbord?

This week the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a significant study of religion in the United States of America. This is important because I believe the public in the USA is still holding on to their faith where most of Europe has reverted to a denial of the Creator. USA stands alone in it’s majority affirmation of Christianity - or at least so it seems to me. If anyone has more data to shine on this topic I’d like to see it.

My concern is that the study shows US citizens are likely to view religion as a choice one can make almost with no consequence. I don’t know the underlying politics behind the Pew Charitable Trusts but the sensation I got while scanning the study was that we’re all in this huge marketplace trying on clothes based solely on whether we like the cut, the fabric, the latest trends, and not whether the clothes are appropriate for the environment. You see, believe ideas have consequences, especially ones which have eternal as well as short-term impacts. To quote Greg Koukl - Truth is not ice cream and faith is not wishing. This study of over 35,000 people matters because it reveals the fickle and fluid nature of American conviction. All roads cannot possibly lead to Rome. It seems so common these days to hear someone speak of “your truth” and “my truth” or “that might be true for you but not for me.” No, truth is truth. If you are sick and need medicine you need the proper medicine to treat the disease. The disease we face as humans is our sin and selfish nature. The only effective antidote is a heart transplant. The Creator of the universe offers us free-will (the option to love) and then makes a path back to Him when we choose to go our own way.

There are many other aspects of this study I’d like to unpack later but suffice it to say that the idea that we can make our own reality is inherently flawed. Christians need to get out into the marketplace of ideas and speak to nonbelievers about what the Lord has done for them. Explain that there really are only two ways to live - For the Creator of the universe and against Him. Make your life a beacon. Be so different from the culture in your service to others and selflessness that nonChristians are drawn to you. Be offensive with God’s love.