Are All Religions Equal
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Once I intentionally sought to learn the truth about God and humanity,
I found myself on a journey that was accelerated with every new discovery.
I learned that modern religious pluralism (the idea that all roads lead to heaven, in an effort to combine all religions) seeks to have all religions considered equal and to attain religious unity. This appeals to our American sense of fairness. But as I continued learning, it became glaringly apparent that it is impossible to combine different religious beliefs without requiring serious compromise from each respective belief.
America’s founding fathers knew that religious unity is not possible. In response, they sought to create a government that allowed for religious diversity. This was in keeping with their view that each human being is created equal and endowed by his/her Creator with certain inalienable rights. Moreover, America’s founders worked hard to escape specific religious “unity demands” of the British government. Religious freedom that allows individuals to worship as they choose is an inalienable right (a right based on natural law that cannot be taken away, denied, or transferred). This right is protected in America’s Bill of Rights and codified in the Constitution of the United States of America.
America’s founding fathers sought unity through unique and distinctive moral and governmental ideas, which inspired the fabric of American government—ideas such as inalienable rights, individualism, limited government, full republicanism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and an educated and virtuous citizenry. Those ideas produced a national unity that encompassed America’s great diversity of race, ethnicity, and religion.5 In the founding of America, Judeo-Christian values were the bedrock for governmental and national ideals with the right for people to maintain other religious faith completely protected.
Erwin W. Lutzer, in his book Christ Among Other gods: A Defense of Christ in an Age of Tolerance, offers an explanation of how the movement for America to become pluralistic has grown. In 1993, he attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions that met in Chicago. Lutzer writes, “With lofty ideals and utopian plans to unify the religions of the world for the common good, this parliament met to break down the barriers that exist in the accelerated march toward religious unity. Six thousand delegates came to learn from one another, explore areas of agreement, and grasp a better understanding of one another’s religious heritages.” The premise in the minds of virtually all in attendance was that “it doesn’t matter what god you pray to, because every deity is ultimately the same deity shrouded in a different name."6
The efforts of this parliament echoed a religious viewpoint that has existed for thousands of years under different names such as ecumenism, traditionalism, or perennialism. The parliament described what was then representative of a minority of people, but that today seems to be increasing by leaps and bounds. This perspective was confirmed with the 1993–1994 Barna research report, which indicated that nearly two out of three adults contend that the choice of one religious faith over another is irrelevant, because all religions teach the same basic lessons about life.7
J. P. Moreland, distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, wrote about an unnamed student’s response to the discussion of the specific claims of Jesus. The student’s response was, “I think Jesus is great for you, but I know Buddhists and Muslims, and they’re just as sincere as you are. And they think their views are true just like you do. There’s no way a person can know his religion is the ‘right’ one, so the best thing to do is to just believe everyone’s religion is true for them and not judge anyone.”8 Aware of it or not, this student echoed the view of religious pluralism.
Especially important to the secular point of view is the acceptance of all religions as equal. It’s not enough to tolerate the existence of different religions—we must accept them all as equally valid. And if one can’t quite accept that all religions are equally valid, then at the least, in today’s cultural climate, one must adhere to inclusivism (open to other religions). Inclusivism is a movement that began with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. This Enlightenment movement declares that ignorance and narrow-mindedness would limit “God’s” revelation to only one particular faith group. Inclusivism has brought Americans to selectivism, which, according to Lutzer, teaches that we “must not follow any one religion, but compile our own personal list of cherished beliefs.”9
Increasingly, today’s generation wants to take religion out of the realm of rational discourse and relegate it to the area of personal preferences and opinions. If there are thirty-one different flavors of ice cream, why not have variety in religions? The gods of the New Age movement are always tolerant of sexual preferences, feminism, and hedonistic pleasures at almost any cost. Why shouldn’t people choose a religion that is compatible with their private values? Americans have become caught up in the belief that in order to have meaningful faith, it must agree with their deeply held personal preferences.
The bitter pill of deception has been sugar-coated with what appeals to us carnally—that is, what appeals to us physically and especially sexually. We have become a society that makes decisions on the basis of what we subjectively or emotionally feel rather than what we have objectively reasoned.
In today’s politically correct climate, it is assumed that no one is in any position to judge another. But in doing this, we permit ourselves, and those we love, to be deceived. In reality, without objective principles to guide our chosen beliefs, any choice is either purely arbitrary or totally based on emotion or upbringing.
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