| Title | : | Responding to the New Religious Pluralism (Essay) |
|---|---|---|
| Author | : | Cross Currents |
| Release | : | 2008-03-22 |
| Kind | : | ebook |
| Genre | : | Education, Books, Professional & Technical |
| Size | : | 64468 |
| It is no longer news to say that Americans are having to confront the realities of a new religious pluralism. Despite much talk about interfaith relationships, the majority Christian population faces countless unanswered questions. Do these religions convey divine truth? Is their message essentially the same as Christianity's or are there fundamental differences? Should a Christian evangelize a Hindu co-worker? How does one feel about a son or daughter marrying a Buddhist? The questions are legion. Yet, an even deeper question is how this new pluralism may be affecting Christians' own theological views. Although it is difficult to estimate exactly how many Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists now live in the United States, all evidence suggests dramatic increases in recent years. By 2000 there were approximately 1,200 mosques in the United States with between two million and four million adherents. Thirty percent of these mosques had been established in the 1990s and another 32 percent in the 1980s. Currently there are 1,600 mosques with an estimated membership of six million, 65 percent of whom are foreign born and come from at least sixty-eight different countries. There are more than 700 Hindu temples, up from about 200 in the early 1990s, with between 1.5 and two million members. U.S. Buddhists number between 2.5 and four million and are represented by at least 1,000 meditation centers, 70 percent of which have been established since 1985. (1) |
