Religious Tolerance: What Does It Mean?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released some interesting survey results this week. One question asked by pollsters was whether many different religions can lead to eternal life. To this question, 79% of Catholics, 72% of Orthodox, and 66% of Protestants agreed that religions different from one's own could lead to eternal life.

In reference to this question, I can imagine someone from my home church (from the Baptist tradition) replying that such a tolerant view of other faiths directly contradicts Jesus' words in the the gospel of John that state "no one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) To someone from this perspective, this means that only Christians (those who confess Christ) will inherit eternal life. Yet the article states that 57% of evangelical Christians accept that other religions can lead to eternal life.

Catholics since Vatican 2 affirm this verse from John, but at the same time acknowledge that salvation can be achieved outside the church for those faithfully practicing other faiths. How? Because Christ is at work in the other faith. This is partly what is meant by the concept of the "anonymous Christian."

Though the survey does not report a figure for mainline Protestants specifically, the number that affirm the statement must be higher than 66%. What does it mean that more than two thirds of us do not believe that salvation is only for Christians?

Perhaps it means that many of us are interpreting scripture in light of its historical context. For instance, Marcus Borg theorizes that the words attributed to Jesus in John 14 reflect a concern among early Christians in the Johannine community that Jewish Christians will drift back to the synagogue.

Or perhaps the tolerance of other faiths is an example of an eclectic approach to religious life seen most readily in the "spiritual but not religious" crowd. Perhaps we mainliners are more secular than we realize. Perhaps the increasingly diverse makeup of our communities, the easy availability of information from all parts of the world, and growing acceptance of otherness of all kinds has made us less dogmatic. Perhaps we are interpreting scripture through this lens. The question is, should we? And, at the same time, how can we not?