Two weeks ago a dear friend told me this deeply spiritual story. It seems a lady phoned a Baptist pastor to say that she'd been visiting and wanted to join. "That's wonderful," he replied. "Yes, but first I'd like to ask you something. My dog just died, and I'd like to bury him at the church." The pastor was shocked: "Ma'am, we don't do such things in the Baptist church. Maybe the Methodist church down the street would do that for you." "I'm so sorry," she replied. "I was thinking of giving half a million dollars to the church." The pastor immediately answered, "Oh, you didn't tell me it was a Baptist dog."

Being Baptist or Methodist has never mattered less than it does today. A new study reports that for the first time in American history, Protestants will soon comprise less than 50 percent of the total population. The proportion of Roman Catholics in the general population will remain stable at 25 percent. But the group growing the most quickly is those who declare no religious affiliation at all.

The watchword in our culture today is "tolerance." After 9-11, for three years we heard from every side that adherents to Islam and Christianity worship the same God, that we must learn to respect and affirm each other's faiths. To claim that Jesus is the only way to God is to persist in the kind of intolerance which led to 9-11.

Most Americans believe that. Many Christians believe that. Perhaps some of you believe that this morning. But should we? And what difference does the answer make?