Comments about ‘Landmark evangelical survey finds both unity and division’

From the article: "While nearly all surveyed said the Bible is the word of God, they were "divided between those who say the Bible should be read literally, word-for-word (50 percent), and those who do not think that everything in the Bible should be taken literally (48 percent)," according the Pew study.

Also, approximately 42 percent felt alcohol consumption was compatible with a good Christian lifestyle, while 52 percent disagreed. They also split evenly regarding whether a belief in God is necessary to be a moral person: 49 percent said yes, and 49 percent said no."

Theological disagreement among "Christians?" And yet, if Mormons dare define the nature of God differently than evangelicals, they're not viewed as "Christian." Curious logic.

Nothing divides us like religion.

I tend to lump fundamentalists and evangelists together. What is the definition of an evangelical? A fundamentalist?

Hutterite,

And the corollary: Religion poisons everything. Even itself.

"Lausanne is still very much about shared faith and religious commitments that transcend boarders." Hal, where would the boarders be staying?

The question on whether the Bible should be read literally sounds like it could have some semantic issues which would have caused the split statistic. How do you define "literally"? When you read a parable of Jesus, you read it "literally" as parable genre. But you don't read it "woodenly literal," as if it actually happened in real life. This semantic factor would probably account for some of the difference in the statistic.

Now, to compare one's view on alcohol with one's view of who God is, as if they are equivalent, is perplexing, to say the least. Mormons are polytheists. Orthodox Christians are monotheists. These two propositions alone are mutually exclusive. I'm not sure why this is so difficult for many Latter-day Saints to see. We worship different Gods, different Jesus's, different Spirits.

Evangelicals are united on the majors; they allow differences in the minors. Everything flows from who God is-- that is the "major" major. This conference is a great example of the unity among evangelicals.

It is true that the southern hemisphere is experiencing unbelievable growth rates in the evangelical population. And evangelical intellectualism is indeed burgeoning.