Contending for the Faith

“Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 1:3

I have been saying for years that one of the great problems of the church is that we have raised a generation of doctrinally illiterate Christians. You either know what you believe - or you don't! You're either a missionary or on a mission field! You live by what you believe to be true.

I believe that the Bible is the incarnate, infallible, inspired Word of God, PERIOD.

But where is America? Read on for the next few days:
From the Religion News Service By Adelle M. Banks -

Think you know what Americans believe about religion? Think again.
Seven in 10 Americans who follow one particular faith believe many "religions" can lead to eternal life. Despite the intense attention paid to evangelical and Catholic voters in a high-stakes election year, only half say they pay close attention to politics. And more than a quarter of people who are not affiliated with a faith nevertheless attend religious services at least occasionally.

A new report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life demonstrates the myriad ways faith in America is more variegated and nuanced than it may appear at first glance.

Researchers for Pew's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey analyzed the religious practices of more than 35,000 US adults and found they are not as dogmatic or isolationist in their beliefs as many might think. Rather, them embrace their own faith while respecting - and sometimes even practicing - aspects of other religions.

"Many religions - maybe even most - can be perceived as having an exclusivity clause: We're right and therefore everybody else is wrong," said John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum.

"What we've found is that many Americans apparently don't invoke the exclusivity clause."

Researchers did not track which other faiths people might say lead to salvation, so a Protestant or Catholic might be thinking of, for example, fellow Christians like the Eastern Orthodox, or non-Christians like Jews or Muslims. Either way, respondents seemed more focused on pragmatism than conversion.

"While Americans may have firm religious commitments, they are unwilling to impose them on other people," Green said. "It may be a kind of attitude that works very well on a practical level in a society that is as diverse religiously as the United States."