In this Newsweek article, Lisa Miller says that Christians in America are increasingly becoming more Hindu than Christian in their beliefs. First on the exclusivity of faith:
The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: “Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names.” A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur’an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. …
According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life”—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that’s great, too.
Also on the afterlife:
Christians traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the “self,” and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies.
So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we’re burning them—like Hindus—after death.
What would Jesus say? Probably what he already said two thousand years ago. He boldly proclaimed the exclusivity of the salvation he offers: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And he looked forward to the time when he would eat and drink with us in heaven (which implies we will have physical bodies there): “I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:18).