"Liberal" people who care about helping the poor, caring for the environment and emphasizing diplomacy rather than military force can take heart. A solid majority in every large group thinks government should do more to help the poor, even if that means going deeper into debt: 57 percent of all evangelicals, 58 percent of mainline Protestants, and 63 percent of Catholics agree. Solid majorities in all three groups also think stricter laws to protect the environment are worth the cost. And substantially more people in all three groups think good diplomacy is a better way than military strength to ensure peace in the world.

Conservatives can rejoice that the largest single group (37 percent) of respondents identify their ideology as "conservative" (36 percent are "moderate," and only 20 percent are "liberal"). Democrats can celebrate the fact that 47 percent of all respondents (and even 34 percent of evangelicals) identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party while only 35 percent are Republican.

There is also much in this massive survey to make almost everyone unhappy.

Secular Americans will have to live with the fact that the American people are overwhelmingly religious. Seventy-eight percent claim to be Christians, and 92 percent believe in a God or a universal spirit. Even 21 percent of those who say they are atheists reported such belief! And 55 percent of self-described "agnostics" say the same. Fifty-eight percent claim to pray every day. Seventy-seven percent of atheists think religion does more harm than good, but almost two-thirds (62 percent) of all Americans disagree with them.

Church leaders will find much to keep them awake at night. One would think belief in a personal God with whom people can have a relationship would be a given for all Christians. But only 62 percent of mainline Protestants and 60 percent of Catholics believe in this specific description of God. In fact, only 79 percent of evangelicals embrace this fundamental belief of historic Christianity. Large numbers (29 percent of Catholics, 26 percent of mainline Protestants) see God only as an impersonal force.

If church leaders assume that their preaching and teaching is shaping their people's political views, they need to think again. Only 14 percent report that their religious beliefs are the main influence on their political ideas. Personal experience (34 percent) and the media (19 percent) are both seen as more important. Only eight percent of mainline Protestants and nine percent of Catholics attribute their political views primarily to their religious beliefs. Despite extensive, persistent teaching, the Catholic leadership has not been able to persuade even a majority of Catholics to accept their views on abortion: Only 45 percent of Catholic respondents agreed that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Any church leader who still thinks theological truth can and should be distinguished from theological error will weep. A large majority think "there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion." These respondents are not saying that "our limitations and sinfulness mean we only partially and inadequately understand the truths of our religious tradition." Rather, it means that these respondents - eighty-two percent of mainline Protestant respondents and 77 percent of Catholics - are comfortable with multiple and even contradictory understandings of their religious traditions. Even a majority of evangelicals (53 percent) buy this postmodern relativism. Once again, we can reassure secular intellectuals that they need not fear that fundamentalist dogmatism is sweeping the nation.

This survey offers further evidence of the decline of mainline Protestantism. Only 18 percent of respondents said they were mainline Protestants, whereas evangelicals made up 26.3 percent. Catholics made up 23.9 percent of respondents. About 4.7 percent said they belonged to a religion other than Christianity (1.7 percent said they were Jewish and 0.6 percent Muslim), and 16 percent reported being "unaffiliated."

The portrait that emerges is that of a tolerant, open society of believers. They are largely unlike the too-prevalent image of rigid, fiery believers, they appear to make up their own minds, or at least say they do - which may distress religious leaders who'd like their flocks to to embrace historic orthodoxy. Whatever one's religious or political views, this important study offers much to ponder - some to celebrate and much to seek to change.

---Ronald J. Sider is president of Evangelicals for Social Action