Most Americans respect diverse religious traditions, poll shows

By Jeffrey Weiss

Jun. 23, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex) -- Most Americans say they are absolutely sure about standards of right and wrong -- and are just as sure that no one religion holds an exclusive franchise on the truth.

Overwhelming majorities of Americans say they believe in God (or a "universal spirit"). But substantial majorities from all major religious categories also say they believe their religion is not the only path to eternal life, and that there's not just one correct version of their own faith.

These are among the results reported Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report is based on a massive national poll commissioned by the organization last year

The seeming conflict between certainty and ambiguity may show that most people see overriding truths behind many religious dogmas, the Pew researchers said.

The researchers also said their results indicate that it's wrong to assume that Americans can be pigeonholed on the basis of religion. There is a wide diversity of beliefs and behaviors, even among people who say they belong to the same religious group, said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum with a long history of studying faith-related polls.

"Even I was stunned by just how diverse it was," he said. "The diversity goes all the way down."

Pew issued its first report on the poll in February. That report was notable for suggesting that nearly half of Americans older than 18 have switched faith traditions at least once. Monday's report drilled more deeply into what people say they believe and how they practice their faith.

The poll's unusually large sample size -- more than 36,000 people, compared with most national surveys of about 1,000 -- allowed researchers to more accurately assess the entire population and to offer a snapshot of faith groups too small to show up in most other polls.

About seven in ten of those surveyed said they believed that many religions can lead to eternal life and that there is more than one true interpretation of the teachings of their own religion. Researchers admit, however, they don't know whether, say, some Baptists consider Methodists another "religion," or how different the interpretations might be and still be considered true.

But a willingness to accept diverse views could be found even in members of many faith traditions known for strictly defined religious truths: More than 60 percent of those who said they were Southern Baptists said many religions can be right about how to get to the hereafter. And about eight in 10 Catholics said there was more than one true interpretation of their faith.

In both of those cases, the majority seems to be at odds with official teachings. Members of much smaller religious groups also expressed disagreement with some of the official teachings of their faith.

About six in 10 Buddhists say they believe in Nirvana and about the same percentage of Hindus say they believe in reincarnation. Those concepts are central to most descriptions of the two faiths, so what does that say about the other 40 percent of those groups?

Some results are just plain baffling: How to explain that one fifth of those who said they were atheists also said they believe in God, and that one in 10 said they pray at least once a week? Did some people think they were asked if they were "a theist?" The Pew researchers say they think there's more to it than simple misunderstanding.

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Almost eight in ten of those surveyed said they believe in "absolute standards of right and wrong." But only a third said they turned primarily to religious teachings to set their standards.

As other surveys have indicated, the Pew study indicates that America has drifted slightly more secular over the decades, but overwhelming majorities continue to say they believe in God (92 percent), heaven (74 percent), hell (59 percent), and angels and demons active in the world (68 percent).

And also tracking other surveys, this poll showed that the more often someone says that they attend religious services, the more likely they are to say they are Republican and consider themselves politically conservative. For those who said they attend church at least weekly, 43 percent said they were Republican, compared with only 30 percent of everyone else.

One question got more interesting in the aftermath of the controversies about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. John Hagee and their presidential endorsements of senators Barack Obama and John McCain. About half of those surveyed said that churches should express their views on day-to-day social and political questions -- with almost seven in ten members of historically black churches saying they should.

The survey also offered a new measure of how many people constitute the religious right. Generally, that term has been applied to religiously and politically conservative Protestants who have been reliable Republican voters at least since the Reagan era.

Depending on the question, from a third to half of those who said they belong to Evangelical churches took religious and political positions generally associated with the religious right. If those results are accurate, 10 to 15 percent of voting-age Americans would be in that group.

Other questions indicated there are potential majorities for some Democratic policy positions, the researchers said. Large majorities of most religious traditions said that the government should do more to help needy Americans, even if it means going deeper into debt, that stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost, and that diplomacy rather than military strength is the best way to ensure peace.

Hot-button issues that have strong Republican support did not fare as well. A slim majority of 51 percent said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 50 percent said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.

The Pew researchers acknowledged some limits to their results. For one thing, there's no way to check on the accuracy of what people say. For instance, about four in 10 of those surveyed said they attend religious services at least once a week, about the same as reported in other polls.

But other well-regarded studies of actual attendance indicate that only about 20 percent of Americans actually attend services every week. The difference is what's called "social desirability bias." Some people give answers to pollsters that match what they think sounds best.

Pew plans to go back into the field this summer to re-interview several hundred people in an attempt to explore some questions left unresolved by the first round of questions.

"Stay tuned," said Forum director Luis Lugo.

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