It
seems every Easter now we are seeing someone new talking about
Jesus in unorthodox ways. This year it’s about a new tomb
found with proponents claiming Jesus was married and buried
with his wife. Are Americans buying this story? Very few,
especially as compared to the DaVinci Code when it came out in
movie form last year.
While
the great majority of Americans claim to believe
in God and to be of the Christian faith, what do Americans
really know
about God?
USA
Today reported last week
on the outcome of a quiz given by Stephen
Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston
University and author of “Religious Literacy, What Every
American Needs to Know”, which shows 60% of Americans
can’t name 5 of the 10 Commandment in the Bible, and over
half of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah
were...married.
I
picked up the paper while waiting for an appointment at the
Hotel to finalize plans for our upcoming
WOMANTalk Spring Luncheon, and decided to
conduct my own mini survey, and asked three young women in
their twenties working behind the front desk, if they knew
what
Unbelievable.
But, whose fault is it that young people are so unfamiliar
with such (formerly) common known accounts from the bible?
Parents for not passing on an education of the Bible? Society
for pushing God out of the schools? Or the individuals
themselves?
Here
are some of the other questions in the Pop quiz:
- Name
the four gospels
- What
are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the
Christian Old Testament?
- Where
according to the Bible was Jesus born?
- What
are the Seven Sacraments of Catholicism?
“We’re
impoverished by ignorance,” says Rev. Joan Brown Campbell,
who blames Sunday Schools for ‘trivializing religious
education.’
Interestingly,
Prothero’s solution is to require middle-schoolers to take a
course in world religions, and for high schoolers to take one
on the Bible, and all college undergrads to take at least one
course in religious studies.
The
author also says schools are failing on the religious literacy
front because they ‘reduce religion to morality’. “We
are not all on the same one path to the same one God.
Religions aren’t all saying the same thing. That’s
presumptuous and wrong. They start with different problems,
solve the problems in different ways, and they have different
goals.”
While
the author’s ideas are great, it would be a huge battle to
implement them.
The
ACLU, Richard Dawkins and others of the
‘new
atheism,’ which is a more aggressive
atheism, (see
‘Blasphemy Challenge’) wouldn’t stand
for a return of God to our public schools. And their
allies, such as the Center for Progressive
Christianity and Soulforce, the gay-activist
group which is currently on its
Equality
Ride across the nation protesting the moral
codes of Christian colleges, would be fighting alongside them.
I
asked earlier in this article who is to blame for
Sharon Hughes
is Founder and President of The Center for Changing Worldviews
and a radio talk show host on KDIA AM1640 in San
Francisco, RIGHTALK.com, and
online at Oneplace.com. Her column appears in many
recognized news sites and publications, most recently FRONTPAGEMAG.
She also writes for
NewsBusters.org.,
a division of The Media Research Center. For
further information visit her Websites www.changingworldviews.com,
WOMANTalk.us,
and Blog http://changingworldviews.blogspot.com.
Radio Talk Show Changing Worldviews, KDIA AM1640 San
Francisco Bay Area and Around the world Online at Oneplace.com
http://www.ediblog.com