Family, friends and politics, not theology, shape faith

"Jews are the most popular religious group in America."

"Aunt Susan trumps theology"

"Most people change their religion to fit their politics. They don't change their politics to fit their religion."

These are just three of the most provocative quotes from political scientists Robert Putnam of Harvard and David Campbell of Notre Dame who presented their new book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us this weekend at the Religion Newswriters Conference in Denver.

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The professors argue that America is simultaneously religiously devout, diverse and tolerant, based on comprehensive surveys they conducted.

As Campbell pointed out, the real observation to ponder today is not that a Florida pastor grabbed global headlines for a claim he would burn a pile of Qurans but "that it doesn't happen all the time."

They found that on the ultimate religious tolerance questions -- who is saved -- Americans overwhelmingly believe "a good person who is of another religion (than your own) can go to heaven. The group that scored lowest, evangelicals, were still greatly in favor of a wide and generous grace with 83% saying yes to this.

But did they really mean non-Christians, or was this Methodists saying, sure, Lutherans are saved, too? They asked again,adding "even if they are not Christian" and 54% of evangelical protestants on up to 98% of Mormons agreed.

The two experts attribute this to "Aunt Susan," your pals and your neighbors. These are the good, kind, moral people you know and care about -- who don't happen to have the same religion as you.

Americans may know well the Christian truth claim that Christ is the only way to salvation, but they just can't picture the next life without people they cared about in this life.

The new work stands on two surveys of the same 3,108 people, conducted in English and Spanish, sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation in 2006 and 1,909 (62% of the original survey subjects were reinterviewed again in 2007.

Their comprehensive analysis comes just as the culture war, often split along lines of religious claims as well as politics, race, gender and ethnicity, rev up for the mid-term elections. I've plucked just a few highlights out of their presentation but there's much more to return to in coming weeks.

Personal salvation is not the only focus of their massive new book. Rather it is faith, community and politics and their intersection -- familiar ground for Putnam who wrote the much talked about book looking at the decline of communal civic life, Bowling

Alone. They trace the history of American religiosity, the peak years of church attendance (60% went weekly in 1959) to modern times with the rise of the nones (people who claim no religious identity) to 17% of Americans, who, says Putnam, seem to strongly base their opposition to religion on its role as a political influence.

If you synthesize people's congregational ties with their political views, the God Gap comes clear: "More and more people are either churched and conservative or unchurched and progressive" and, says Putnam, "God has nothing to do with it."

He said,

I could not believe that people would hazard their souls over their reaction to George W. Bush.

Yet they found that religious identity was clearly affected by the search for a political comfort zone, leading Putnam to say,

Most people change their religion to fit their politics. They don't change their politics to fit their religion.

Yet we are all able to fly the same flag. How does this work? Again, it's the gentling influence of our greatly diverse world in which it is very unlikely all our family friends and neighbors share the same religious perspective.

We like each other, by and large, it turns out. Campbell and Putnam asked people their how positively or negatively they viewed faiths other than their own and found, "Jews are the most popular religious groups in America."

Presented on a thermometer scale of viewed warmly or coldly, Jews were on top with a reading of 59, Catholics were almost parallel and mainline Protestants were slightly behind.

Dropping below the mean score of 55 into cold territory were Evangelical Protestants at nearly 54, followed by the nonreligious. Way down in the chilly 40s were Mormons, Buddhists and Muslims.

But the authors conclude in the book that

... The coolness with which religious groups view each other does not match the negativity that those on opposite side of the political spectrum feel toward each other... In other words, in spite of religion's capacity to sow division, religious conflict in America is muted."

And, says Campbell, the overwhelming majority of Americans say religious diversity has been good for America.

Very few Americans are true believers why say only one religion is true and all others are not. Campbell and Putnam call them "the intolerant 10%."

Why are the vast majority of Americans willing to say their are basic truth in many faiths? Because we are enmeshed in social ties of family and friendship, says Campbell.

As Putnam says,

Aunt Susan trumps theology. She doesn't win against the Bible for everyone but she's pretty powerful.

Do you find that your religious community matches up with your political views? Which one shaped the other? Do you think you will see loved one and good friends, even those whose politics you don't like, again in heaven?