The Pew survey and universalism

This massive thing from the Pew Forum is making a lot of headlines. The main thing people are latching onto is the finding that a majority of people within each U.S. faith tradition except the LDS church and the Jehovah's Witnesses--including evangelicals--apparently believe in universalist salvation. Here's the lede from the Morning News:

Most Americans say they are absolutely sure about standards of right and wrong – and are just as sure that no one religion holds an exclusive franchise on the truth.

Overwhelming majorities of Americans say they believe in God (or a "universal spirit"). But substantial majorities from all major religious categories also say they believe their religion is not the only path to eternal life, and that there's not just one correct version of their faith.

Amazing, no? Well, no. It WOULD be--but check out the actual question in question:

Question wording: [IF RESPONDENT HAS A RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, ASK:] Now, as I read a pair of statements, tell me whether the FIRST statement or the SECOND statement comes closer to your own views even if neither is exactly right. First/next: My religion is the one, true faith leading to eternal life, OR: many religions can lead to eternal life.

"Even if neither is exactly right"--yet the news stories are presenting this as though everyone who chose the second response indicated that it's exactly right.

Terry raises some good questions--most significantly, what do we mean when we say "religion"? When I was a kid--in a small Midwestern town that was roughly equal parts Catholic, Lutheran, and low-church evangelical--people would often ask me what "religion" I was, w/o considering that I might be Jewish or Buddhist: They meant "denomination." Substitute "denomination" for "religion" in the Pew question--as many respondents may well have done internally--and it's a lot less surprising (though it might have been much different a few generations ago).

But my larger objection has to do w/ the very idea that the question of universalism-vs.-particularism can be reduced to a question w/ two possible answers. I probably would have given the second answer--counting, foolishly, on the news media reporting Pew's "even if neither is exactly right" caveat--but it would have driven me crazy that I couldn't elaborate as to why it's a difficult and inadequate question. In addition to "religion", what do we mean by "eternal life"? What do we mean by "leading to"? If I, like a lot of Christians, believe that Jesus is Lord but also insist that I have neither any business deciding who is and isn't saved nor any real reason to, how do I answer the question?

This sort of thing is inevitably lost in a survey like this one, and even the good information available directly from the survey's page at Pew--which is pretty transparent about the survey's limitations--is lost further in the press coverage.

See also this WaPost live discussion w/ one of the Pew researchers.