October 21, 2002
Many see Bible, Koran, Mormonism as equals
___GLENDALE, Calif. (RNS)--More than 40 percent of Americans think the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon express the same spiritual truths.
___This finding was among several in a new nationwide poll by the Barna Research Group that defy traditional Christian teaching.
___While 44 percent of those surveyed said "the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths," 38 percent of Americans disagreed with that idea.
___On more traditional footing, the survey found three-quarters of American adults believe in the Trinity, agree that "every person has a soul that will live forever either in God's presence or absence" and reject the idea that only well-trained theological scholars can correctly interpret the Bible.
___However, 51 percent of Americans agree with the statement "praying to deceased saints can have a positive effect in a person's life," while only 39 percent disagreed. But the difference of opinion is more striking between Protestants and Catholics, with 80 percent of Catholics agreeing with the statement, compared to 41 percent of Protestants. Sixty percent of Hispanics agree with the statement.
___Thirty-five percent of American adults believe it is "possible to communicate with others after they die," compared to 55 percent who dispute that idea. Forty-five percent of Catholics believe in such communication, compared to 26 percent of Protestants.
___Fifty-nine percent of those polled said Satan, or the devil, is not a living being but rather a symbol of evil, compared to 34 percent who believe Satan exists.
___Americans are more divided over views about whether Jesus sinned when he lived on Earth, with 42 percent saying he did and 50 percent saying he did not.
___Respondents also were divided about whether a person earns a place in heaven if he or she "is generally good or does enough good things for others" while on Earth. Fifty percent of them agreed, and 42 percent disagreed.
___Asked whether "the Bible does not specifically condemn homosexuality," 27 percent agreed with the statement and 53 percent disagreed.
___The results are based on a telephone survey of 630 American adults in August and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. In general, the percentages in the survey do not add up to 100 percent due to respondents who said they did not know the answer to a particular question.
___George Barna, president of the Ventura, Calif.-based marketing research company, said he thinks the results reflect an increasing inclusivity about faith among many Americans.
___"Christians have increasingly been adopting spiritual views that come from Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, the Eastern religions and other sources," he said in a statement. "Because we remain a largely Bible-illiterate society, few are alarmed or even aware of the slide toward syncretism--a belief system that blindly combines beliefs from many different faith perspectives.
___"Our continuing research among teenagers and adolescents shows the trend away from adopting biblical theology in favor of syncretic, culture-based theology is advancing at full gallop," he added.
___What's troubling to him, he added, is that "relatively few adults are alarmed by this trend, since teens and adolescents are merely reflecting the trail that their parents and teachers have already blazed."
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