iVoteValues

The New America: A Melting Pot of Faiths

Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on July 9, 2008   Biblical Values •

What do you get when you add a little bit of this belief and a dash of that religion and sprinkle some of your own understanding on top? You get a combined recipe for spiritual disaster in America.

I can’t begin to tell you how many people I’ve known throughout the duration of my life who have come to the conclusion that there is more than one path to spiritual enlightenment, God, and eternity in heaven. Some have recognized the path that took them there. Others are still clueless.

Our culture is rapidly becoming a melting pot of various faiths and beliefs. I recently read this article about it in USA Today:

“There is so much spiritual diversity and so much exposure to so many different ideas, that if people are searching for something meaningful spiritually, they often end up creating a religion of their own preferences that mixes and mingles spiritual ideas from a variety of sources. To them, the idea that there can be only one right way and only one path to one God is ludicrous. Religion today in the USA is a salad bar where people heap on upbeat beliefs they like and often leave the veggies—like strict doctrines—behind. There are so many ways of seeing God, public policy expert Barry Kosmin says that ‘the highest authority is now the lowest common denominator.’ And the wide-ranging ways people construct their spiritual lives could make the so-called religious vote unpredictable in the 2008 elections.”

The article goes on to quote statistics from a recent Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans saying: “The survey finds U.S. adults believe overwhelmingly (92%) in God, and 58% say they pray at least once a day. But the study’s authors say there’s a “stunning” lack of alignment between people’s beliefs or practices and their professed faiths.”

This proves to be all the more reason why we need to KNOW what we believe and why we believe it so we can defend our faith and truth in our society. It is critical in the upcoming election that we know what each candidate stands for and how that lines up with God’s Word.

Is the Bible truth for you—through and through? Do you stand by it as the authority on what is true and what is false? Or do you find yourself siding with the majority of Americans who have tossed together a “mixed salad” of beliefs?

At this point, we as believers can’t afford to go along with the crowd for popularity’s sake. We must stand firm on biblical standards regardless of what the rest of the world may consider as being the latest and greatest trends.

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