The religious beliefs and practices of Americans do not fit neatly into conventional categories. A new poll by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse traditions. Many say they attend worship services of more than one faith or denomination -- even when they are not traveling or going to special events like weddings and funerals. Many also blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects. And sizeable minorities of all major U.S. religious groups say they have experienced supernatural phenomena, such as being in touch with the dead or with ghosts.
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Religiously mixed marriages are common in the United States, and the survey finds that the link between being in a religiously mixed union and attendance at multiple types of services is a complex one. Overall, people in religiously mixed marriages attend worship services less often than people married to someone of the same faith. But among those who attend religious services at least yearly, those in religiously mixed marriages attend multiple types of services at a higher rate than people married to someone of the same religion.
Here's the main issue: in our culture, we generally see no problem with this, because we see spirituality as a private, personal taste. Just like not too many people are going to raise an eyebrow at my buffet choices from the local Country Buffet (unless I go Jim Gaffigan-style), not too many people raise an eyebrow when we select different items from the spirituality buffet. In fact, we praise creative choices. My wife once organized a conference for a denomination not known for having Bible-centered beliefs about Jesus on ministering in tourist and resort communities. One of the participants called herself a "Buddeo-Christian." Somehow, we see this as cool: she's a Christian who's open to Eastern spirituality. The problem with this (at least the only one I'll point out for now) is that Buddhism and historical Christianity are not compatible in their basic tenets. It's important to teach the concept of absolute truth. That's Truth with a capital T. I'm not saying that I as a teacher have the corner on truth, but I do know that the concept of absolute truth--at least on spiritual issues--is losing ground (for more on this, check out Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey). As youth workers, we try to present the claims found in Scripture about Jesus as truth. Many times, we need to back up and show that there is such a thing as absolute truth and to at least help teenagers think through what they believe.
