I Think They Can

I just took an on-line poll sponsored by Newsweek and Beliefnet that corresponds with this week's Newsweek cover - Spirituality in America. One of the questions asked was:

"Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?"

Here are the answers broken down by how people identified themselves spiritually. The first percentages listed are from the poll conducted for the article; the percentages in parentheses are from the on-line version.

Evangelical Christians

• 68% - Yes (48% on-line)
• 22% - No (30% on-line)
• 10% - Don't know (22% on-line)

Non-Evangelical Christians

• 83% - Yes (63% on-line)
• 10% - No (12% on-line)
• 7% - Don't know (25% on-line)

Catholics

• 91% - Yes (64% on-line)
• 3% - No (7% on-line)
• 6% - Don't know (28% on-line)

Non-Christians

• 73% - Yes (55% on-line)
• 3% - No (10% on-line)
• 24% - Don't know (36% on-line)

Disturbing numbers, if you ask me. However, I believe the question itself is flawed.

As an evangelical Christian, do I believe that a good person not of my religious faith can go to heaven or attain salvation? Absolutely ... if they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior first. The fact that there was such little agreement among our evangelical brothers and sisters leads me to think (or hope) that they were extending the same grace to the hypothetical "good person" in question.

My assumption, though, is that that interpretation is not what was meant by the pollsters.