Religious Poll Is A Surprise

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently conducted a survey of 35,000 Americans about their religious beliefs. Some of the results were a bit surprising. For the last few years, a lot of evangelical right-wingers have tried to shove their own religious views on mainstream America. That gave the impression that a majority of Americans believed their view of religion was the only acceptable one.

But that impression seems to have been a false one. It turns out that Americans are much more tolerant of other religions than was believed. According to the survey, America is a religious country. About 92% of respondents said they believed in God, 74% believe in life after death and 63% believe their religion's scriptures are the word of God. That's not surprising.

The surprise comes when they are asked about other religions. A full 70% of those with a religious affiliation said they believed that many different religions offered a path to eternal life. Also interesting is that 68% said there was more than one way to interpret the teachings of their own church.

Surprisingly, the tolerance of other religious teachings cut across a variety of religious lines and even included a majority of evangelicals. Here are some of the figures for those saying more than one religion offers a path to eternal life:

Mainline Protestants.....83%

Jews.....82%

Roman Catholics.....79%

Black Protestant Churches.....59%

Evangelicals.....57%

Muslims.....56%

Who would've guessed that tolerance was so widespread among religious people in America. It seems that we've been subjected to the rantings of a small minority for the last few years -- a minority of 30% or less.

Maybe it's time for our leaders to stop listening to this minority and act to protect real religious freedom for all Americans, including taking back our schools from this radical minority.