Spiritual Revolution and Religious Extinction I

According to the USA Today June 24th Publication as seen in their “Lifeline” edition, Americans are changing their view of religion. This is according to the article entitled “Believers OK with Many Paths”. The survey was taken by Pew Forum of www.PewForum.org. This was a cross section of people in all religious settings church’s and synagogues. It was done on about 35,000 different members of religious organizations, and contained a wealth of information on how different people in these religious settings actually diverge in thought from their teachings of the church or religion. For detailed interactive graphics visit www.news.usatoday.com.

Some of the data that I thought was interesting were statistics of how people viewed their religious teachings and how they were divergent in their thinking from the traditional teachings of their religion. One writer of Pew forum said that “the cultural agenda is set by Oprah-not religious leaders”, speaking of course of Oprah Winfrey and the Oprah shows that airs daily on national syndicated TV. Oprah, as you know has been introducing some pretty interesting guest on her own series entitled “Soul Series” on www.Oprah.com. She has had spiritual teachers such as Eckhart Tolle teaching a series from his new blockbuster release book entitled “A New Earth” and Marianne Williamson famous author of “Return to Love” to name just a few.

Oprah Winfrey has a traditional Christian background but has diverged from it to embrace a more expansive idea of God. Because of this stance Oprah has been put on the proverbial “chopping block” of many traditional religious leaders and is even thought of by some as an advocate of the devil. She is not afraid of telling people her own experience and how it has “expanded” from her traditional teachings of the church.

Here are some of the statistics I thought interesting from the Pew Forum survey entitled “Religious Landscape Survey”. It shows that of US adults surveyed that 92% overwhelming believe in a God or higher power. This makes sense since those surveyed were members of traditional religious groups. Some of the survey results that stunned me were what the church taught about heaven and hell. 74% of surveyed adults believed in a place called heaven where people go who led a good life, but of those surveyed, only 59% who believed in heaven agreed that there was a hell where people went after death if they did not lead a good life. This shows a divergence in their thinking about what the church or their religion believes. The reason for their divergent thinking according to the survey was, “only 29% relied on their religion to delineate these standards”.

If I were a minister or a traditional pastor/teacher I would want to know why they don’t trust the teachings of the church. I would want to know why people are departing from these teachings. It goes on to say that of those surveyed that “52% of them disagreed with the teachings of the church because of practical experience and common sense” reasoning.

Why would these surveyed diverge from this traditional teaching in favor of practical experience and common sense reasoning? The article goes on to say that “51% of those surveyed believed in a personal God, while the overwhelming majority was uncertain or that they believed that God was an impersonal God. The article also brought out that American traditionalists have an inherent mistrust of the church as John Green, a Pew Forum senior research fellow said, “Americans are highly suspicious of Institutional religion”. He goes on to say, (Some see religion) as about money, rules, and power”.

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