The question of an exclusive gospel. IE "How can you say Jesus is the only way?" I appreciated how Mary answered the one question about being good - do you have to be Christian... I'd like to explore how to handle this "only way" issue a bit more.

Every person who holds religious or secular beliefs believes that the way they have chosen is the right way or that they are searching for the right way. We often have a naive assumption that all religions and/or world views can be true. Logically all religions can be wrong but only one can be true because they are so very different. I once heard the Dali Lama say something similar - Buddhism and Christianity naturally lead to different paths. While of course all religions are seeking truth, goodness and beauty, they are not the same nor do they lead to the same ends.
As a Christian I believe that Jesus is the only way and the truth. I determine that from two sources - His words (which interestingly are so strong that surely if he were wrong we could not even call him a "good human teacher." Secondly I am also convinced of this because the more I study and try to follow him the more I see that the principles he set forth lead to more human flourishing in myself and others. And when I am not following him, I am not led to more growth but stagnation.

Great answer, Dr. Poplin!

I just wanted to add that people sometimes question why God made only one way to Him. It's not that God was too stingy to make only one way, it was extremely compassionate of Him to make a way at all, when He didn't have to make any. After all that Jesus suffered for us, God is not going to trample on that by saying, oh well, any way works.

Also, when Christians point out that Jesus' disciples died for what they believed in, it has been brought up that adherents of other beliefs have been martyred as well. However, the Christian martyrs were the only ones who died for something they saw with their own eyes. They died for saying that they saw Jesus alive after His death and touched Him and ate with Him. Persons of other beliefs dohaven't died for what they have seen, they have died for what they believe others to have seen. For example, Muhammed's followers did not see the angel giving Muhammed revelation. Neither Buddha nor any of his followers have seen Nirvana and lived to tell it the way Jesus has seen heaven and come to tell us about it. It's different to be martyred for a set of beliefs than to be martyred for something that actually happened to you, which is unique to Christianity.

Hope that helps.