Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A great summary of American religious belief

On CRC-Voices, an email discussion group, there have been some interesting discussions lately: how do you witness to a member of the Baha'i faith; is Rob Bell a universalist; is universalism heresy?  In the course of that discussion, Paul VanderKlay (who has an excellent blog here), wrote the following summary of the religious belief of most Americans, regardless of what label they put on their religion.

Moralistic, therapeutic deism if the functional religion of most Americans whatever religious affiliation they express on a survey.

1. A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

2. God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4. God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
 
Paul adds the following warning:
 
You will get into trouble with most church people if you start challenging these, especially number 3.
 
It couldn't have been said better.