The Days We Live In

I recently read the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey which asks Americans about their religious affiliations. In general, there are less people identifying themselves as Christian, less identifying with a particular denomination, more identifying with religions other than Christianity and more identifying themselves as "none". That may concur with your own observations as it tended to confirm mine. What does baffle me are the growing number of people who identify themselves with all religions. They are "Eclectics". In other words, they can mix and match what they want from any and all religious systems and ignore or reject the things they are either ignorant of or don't like.

Now just on a rational level, how is that supposed to work? Nothing else on the planet works like that. I couldn't possibly hope to assemble a working car if I visited every car manufacturer and took a bolt here and there, a piston or two from one, some from another, a driveshaft and some brakes from another and try to put them together. It just isn't rational and I don't think anyone could argue differently. So, why do a growing number of people think they can do this with spiritual matters? Barry Cosmin, one of the co-authors of the survey summed up his findings with this quote: "More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are." It's the "just making up" part that really gets to me. We can just make this stuff up and expect it to work because I said so? Unbelieveable. Really.

Part of the fog in the rationality is the lie that we can't be exclusive in our choices. Somehow it is wrong to say, my belief is right, yours is not right. That makes people mad and offends them. So now in order to not offend, everyone has to be right. Just like kindergarten t-ball, everyone wins because we don't keep score. Well, as offensive as this may be, hogwash. Why can we accept that there is only one and only one right answer to 2+2=4? If I feel strongly about the number 5 I could be really hurt. Who says 4 is the only right answer? If I want it to be 5 it is 5 no matter what you say! I may feel better after my tirade but I still flunk the exam.

Why then are we afraid to say Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Him? It is the only thing that makes sense. I am staking my eternity on that.