Religious Revival And Religious Diversity Come Together – OpEd

About 22 percent of the students in Catholic schools are not Catholic. And on the college level the recent rise of anti-Semitism on many campuses has driven Jewish students to seek a more welcoming environment at Catholic colleges and universities. Earlier this year a Jewish student and her parents admitted they chose Saint Louis University because it is a place where she will be respected.

A coalition of 100 organizations, led by Yeshiva University, expedites the transfer of Jewish students to Catholic colleges. The coalition has condemned Hamas, pledging a receptive milieu for these students.

Signs of the coming religious revival can be found in the National Catholic Educational Association announcement that nationwide US enrollment in Catholic schools increased by 62,000 to about 1.68 million students, marking the first increase in two decades and the largest jump it has recorded in at least five decades.

The U.S.A. and the U.K. have experienced two recent recessions, one during the 2008 financial crisis and the second in the first year of the pandemic. Both have hit younger people hardest.

The 2020 recession shut down much of North America and the U.K.'s hospitality sector, which has a high proportion of younger workers—overall, one in seven people under the age of 25 found themselves out of work. During the recession in 2008–09, the situation for younger workers was even worse. The U.K. unemployment rate rose to 8% generally but was over twice as high for the under-25s. This was due, in part, to firms cutting back on graduate recruitment schemes.

A July 2021 studyby the Public Religion Research Institute found the number of Americans who identify as white evangelicals has declined dramatically, from 23% in 2006 to 14.5% in 2020. Those leaving in the greatest numbers are younger Protestant evangelicals whose attitudes toward homosexuals are starkly at odds with their elders. While only one-third (34%) of white evangelicals age 50 and over favor same-sex marriage, 51% of younger white evangelicals ages 18-49 now favor it another PRRIstudyfound.

Disaffiliating white Christians fueled the growth of the religiously unaffiliated during the last 15-20 years. Only 16% of Americans reported being religiously unaffiliated in 2007; this proportion rose to 19% by 2012, and then gained roughly a percentage point each year from 2012 to 2017. In the2018 General Social Survey of USattitudes, "no religion" became the single largest group, edging out evangelical Christians.

And in 2020, 23% of U.S. adults said churches were at least "slightly helpful" to their family, compared with 34% today, the 2021 American Family Survey reported.

A Gallup poll taken during May 1-24, 2023 found that the percentage of Americans who believe in hell and the devil has edged downward by three to five percentage points since 2016. Still most Americans believe in hell 59% and in the devil 58%. Nearly three in 10 Americans do not believe in hell or the devil. Very few Jews believe in hell or the devil, and they are mostly Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Many of those who have left Christianity because they reject the idea of a devil will look for a more optimistic religion, and I believe that in the next two decades will see a major religious revival.

Also according to a 2008 Pew survey, one in five Christians in America believe that non-Christian faiths cannot lead one to salvation. That number soared to 60 percent for white evangelical Protestants who attend church once a week. But the PRRI study reports that white evangelicals (who are often negative about the Qur'an) have declined from 23 percent in 2006 to 14.5 percent in 2020.

This is especially important for America's Islamic and Jewish leaders because the Qur'an is a strong proponent of Religious Diversity: "Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve." (Quran2:62)

And a survey of over 35,000 Americans in 2008 found that most Americans agree with the statement: many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those affiliated with some religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life.

This view is shared by a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including 82% of Jews, 79% of Catholics, 57% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of Muslims. (From the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008, Pew Research Center.)

Thus, in the 21st century United States most Christians, Jews, and Muslims have rejected the 'only one truth' religious mind set and believe in the Qur'an's pluralism teachings: "For every one of you did We appoint a law and a way. If Allah had wanted, He could have made you one tribe, nation or people, but (He didn't) that He might test you in what He gave you. Therefore compete with one another to hasten to do virtuous deeds; for all return to Allah (for judgement), so He will let you know [about] that in which you differed."[5:48]

It is very important to understand that 'religious pluralism is the will of God' is different from religious, moral or cultural relativism. Relativism teaches that all values and standards are subjective, and therefore there is no higher spiritual authority available for setting ethical standards or making moral judgments. Thus, issues of justice, truth or human rights are, like beauty, just in the eye of the beholder.

Most people, especially those who believe that One God created all of us, refuse to believe that ethics and human rights are simply only a matter of taste. Religious pluralism as the will of God is the opposite of cultural psychological or philosophical relativism.

The fundamental idea supporting religious pluralism is that religious people need to embrace humility in all areas of religion. All religions have always taught a traditional anti self-centered personal egoism type of humility.

Religious pluralism also opposes a religious, philosophical, and self righteous intellectual egoism that promotes a tendency to turn our legitimate love for our own prophet and Divine revelation into universal truths that we fully understand and know how to apply.

Religious pluralism teaches that finite humans, even the most intelligent and pious of them, can not fully understand everything the way the infinite One does.

This is true, for every human being, even for God's messengers themselves. When prophet Moses, "who God spoke with face to face, as a person speaks with a friend" (Exodus 33:11) asks to see God face to face, he is told, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see My face and live." (33:20)

Similarly, in the Qur'an prophet Jesus admits to God, "You know everything that is within myself, whereas I do not know what is within Yourself". (5:116)

And when Prophet Jesus was asked, in private, by his disciples, "What will be the sign for your coming (back) and the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3) Jesus warns his disciples about upheavals and false Messiahs that will come. Then Jesus concluded by saying, "But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son: only the Father". (24:36)

A similar statement was made by Prophet Muhammad when he was asked, "Tell me about the Hour". He said: "The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner." (Muslim book 1 Hadith 1&4)

God taught the general principle of epistemological humility through his Prophet who taught his followers "I am no novelty among the messengers. I do not know what will be done to me, or to you." (Qur'an 46:9) In truth, the only universal truth should be the humility to admit: "Only God knows."

As Allah's Apostle said: "Don't give me superiority over Moses, for people will fall unconscious on the Day of Resurrection. I will be the first to regain consciousness, and behold! Moses will be there holding the side of Allah's Throne. I will not know whether Moses was among those people who became unconscious and then has regained consciousness before me, or was among those exempted by Allah from falling unconscious." (Bukhari Volume 8, Book 76, #524)

As God declares through Prophet Zechariah: "These are the things that you shall do:Speak the truth to one another;render in your gates judgmentsthat are true and make for peace;do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, andlove no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares theLord." (Zachariah 8:16-7)

As Prophet Micah makes it clear, what God wants is not one religious belief or ritual but your whole heart and commitment. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)

And as Prophet Isaiah states:"Learn to do right; seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless and plead the case of the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)