Sermon Library
“Religious Literacy - Introduction”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
June 08, 2008
Service Theme: The Fourth Sunday of Pentecost
The Fourth Sunday of Pentecost June 8, 2008
Religious Literacy – Introduction
Gregg Anderson
“As we drove through a neighboring village, something struck my eight-year old son as odd,” said Paula Zentner. He pointed to a church with the same name as a church in our neighborhood. “Hey,” he shouted, pointing out the window, “we have a St James Church in our town too.” This coincidence had a simple explanation, according to his older and wiser ten-year old brother: “It must be a chain.” This is a recent true story.
Here is another similar and true statement. “The United States is one of the most religious places on earth, but it also a nation of shocking religious illiteracy.” This is the opening statement on the cover jacket of Stephen Prothero’s new book entitled Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know – And Doesn’t.” Dr. Prothero reminds us of the significant and strong influences of religion in the founding of these United States. He writes, “The tendency of textbook authors and publishers to reduce religion, as one critic has put it, to either a quaint relic or a chronic source of strife’ cannot erase the fact that what sociologist Gerhard Lenski called ‘the religious factor’ has been a major factor in US history. In fact, none of the classic events in American history – the Revolution, the Civil War, the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution – can be understood without some knowledge of the religious motivations of the generals, soldiers, thinkers, politicians, and voters who made them happen. As the following very short history indicates, religion has always mattered in American society.”
Religion Matters
“Religion mattered in North America’s English colonies. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America (1835), ‘It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society.’ The Puritans came here at least in part to worship God as they saw fit. In virtually everything they thought and did (fishing and farming included) they understood themselves to be in a covenantal relationship with God. According to the terms of this conditional covenant, God would bless them if they acted well and curse them if they did otherwise. In this way every aspect of life among the Puritans, including their economics and their politics, was brought under the sacred canopy of their faith.” (p.45)
Dr. Stephen Prothero clearly clarifies our religious roots as a country and our initial education was based on religious knowledge. Our primary and initial purpose as a United States was to be a free and religious land, Prothero clarifies, a new Protestant world. The Puritans were an evolution from the Protestant Reformation and sought freedom of religious expression from the Church of England and the Church of Rome.
Our initial schools during the foundational times of this country were primarily designed to teach children and older students religion and this new Reformed religion. The New England Primer, Noah Webster’s Speller and McGuffey’s Readers, were filled with biblical stories and language and were all part of the new colonies education. These original texts all emphasized the new America’s education with a strong religious background. This country was founded on religious freedom and its initial education was based on religious education. The original founders of this country and the original students of this country were Christian and Protestant.
Influence of Reformation
This country was a direct result of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. This Reformation created the need to learn to read, to understand, to interpret and to create. It began in Germany in the sixteenth century and spread rapidly throughout Europe. It gave birth to the Church of England along with many other political reasons and the fact that Henry the VIII wanted to remarry in order to have a male heir to the throne. Rome said no, so he simply started his own church. Okay, it was more complicated than that, but this personal purpose played a part. In the bigger pictured, however, the Reformation of the 16th century changed the world, the western world, more than any other change during the second millennium. It was an explosion of self discovery, expression and enlightenment that began with a religious premise, but spread throughout all realms of understanding. One such paradigmatic change was the impulse for greater freedom giving roots to seventeenth century democracy in the new Americas.
Stephen Prothero provides many more illustrations of the religious and Christian foundation of this country. He does this not to suggest that we should return to this earlier Protestant Theocracy, but suggests that it would be nice if people who live in this country today had some idea of the origin of our country and particularly the primary role religion played and still plays today. Religion is one of the major realms of understanding and should not be negated. It should also not fall victim due to a current misinterpretation of the first amendment.
Knowing the religious origin of our country is just one example he suggests as important. He expands his premise by giving more examples illustrating that people today not only do not remember our history, but even more significantly, a majority of people in this country today know very little, very little, about the basics of religion. Over 85 percent of people in the United States today profess to be Christian according to survey after survey, but their knowledge of the Bible and very basic stories of the Bible is becoming less and less and soon to be non-existent with the current social and educational direction.
Religious Fervor Without Knowledge
Hence, the title of his book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn’t. What is a most incredible point of his research is the fact that people in America today are extremely religious in their affirmations and fervor for spiritual experiences, but at the same time, their knowledge and academic background of religion, Christian Religion, let alone other religions, is less than minimal.
Stephen Prothero is approaching this problem not as a religious zealot with an axe to grind or even any religious bias. He is approaching it as a professor of history and religion at Boston University. He has no need to convert anyone, other than to convert people toward “religious literacy” simply because religion is an essential part of society, socially, historically and currently. He is approaching this matter as chair of the religion department at Boston University. He is a graduate of history from Yale and Masters and Ph.D. in religion from Harvard. This book has been running on the New York Times Best Seller list. Washington Post named it one of the top books of 2007; Booklist Magazine named it the top Ten as well; Publishers Weekly named it the best book of the year; it won the Quill Award; and is the Editors Choice from the New York Times. There are many other awards, but I mention these credentials to state this work’s credibility and substantial research. I just happen to find this book in an airport bookstore and read it before I knew all of these accolades. It is a book many people are resonating with and I am certainly one of them and I would like to share this with you for the next few Sundays, probably and appropriately, through July 4th.
Ignorance Is Bliss
Now that I have introduced you to Professor Prothero, let me read another excerpt from his introduction which states his premise more personally from him. “A few years ago I was standing around the photocopier in Boston University’s department of Religion when a visiting professor from Austria offered a passing observation about American undergraduates. They are very religious, he told me, but they know next to nothing about religion. Thanks to compulsory religious education (which in Austria begins in elementary schools), European students can name the twelve apostles and the Seven Deadly Sins, but they wouldn’t be caught dead going to church or synagogue themselves. American students are just the opposite. Here faith without understanding is the standard; here religious ignorance is bliss.”
“The religious differences between Europe and the United States are typically described in terms of beliefs and practices: Europeans are far less likely than Americans to join and attend houses of worship or to believe in heaven and hell. This book, however, focuses on religious knowledge. It begins with a paradox I had been wrestling with for some time when my Austrian colleague helped to clarify it for me. That paradox is this: Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion. They are Protestants who can’t name the four Gospels, Catholics who can’t name the seven sacraments, and Jews who can’t name the five books of Moses. Atheists may be as rare in America as Jesus-loving politicians are in Europe, but here faith is almost entirely devoid of content. One of the most religious countries on earth is also a nation of religious illiterates.”
U. S. Trends
“Biblical illiteracy has been fairly well documented. In fact, according to the Gallup Organization, which has tracked trends in US religion for over fifty years, Bible reading has declined since the 1980s and ‘basic Bible knowledge is at a record low.’ Virtually every American home has at least one bible, publishers sell about twenty million Bibles annually, and Gideon’s International gives away a new Bible every second of every day. Moreover, nearly two-third of Americans believe that the Bible holds the answers to all or most of life’s basic questions, and a majority claims that it reads that book at least twice a month. If so, Americans are not reading particularly carefully.”
“The Gospel of John instructs Christians to ‘search the scriptures’ (John 5:39), but little searching, and even less finding, is being done. In 1997 Tonight Show host Jay Leno took to the streets of New York to find out how much average Americans know about the Bible. Interviewees told him that God created Eve from an apple; that Jacob gave his son Joseph a new car, and that Matthew was swallowed by a whale. But biblical illiteracy is not limited to Manhattan. Consider these sobering facts gleaned from more general and statistical surveys:
Only half of American adults can name even one of the four Gospels.
Most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible.
One-third know that Jesus (and not Billy Graham) delivered the Sermon on the Mount.
A majority of Americans wrongly believe that the Bible says that Jesus was born in Jerusalem.
When asked whether the New Testament book of Acts is in the Old Testament, on quarter of Americans say yes. More than a third say that they don’t know.
Most Americans don’t know that Jonah is a book in the Bible.
Ten percent of Americans believed that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.
Based on recent religion questions given to college students, here are a few answers that were given which depict the dilemma, but are at least entertaining:
Moses led the Jews to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.
The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up to Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.
Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the Battle of Geritol.
Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
Jesus enunciated the Gold Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, ‘A man doth not live by sweat alone.’
The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is
another name for marriage.
This is not fiction or made up cartoons. They are all actual responses from supposedly the average American. It is illustrative of Prothero’s alarming hypothesis. It appears statistically to only be an hypothesis at one time, but now a statistical reality.
(This message concluded with passing out Prothero’s simple questionnaire)
THE 10 QUESTIONS: Religious Literacy
1.) Name the 4 Gospels.
2.) Where in the Bible can one find: “God helps those who help themselves”?
3.) What is the Golden Rule?
4.) What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament?
5.) President George W. Bush spoke in his first inaugural address about responsibility along the Jericho Road. What Bible story was he invoking?
6.) Where in the Bible can one find: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God”?
7.) List as many of the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism as you can.
8.) What are the seven sacraments of the Catholic church, the largest Christian denomination in the world?
9.) What are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
10.) What is Ramadan?
HERE are THE ANSWERS:
1.) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
2.) Nowhere. It’s not in the Bible.
3.) Treat others as you wish to be treated. (Matthew 7:12) (Prothero points out that “Love your neighbor as yourself is not the Golden Rule.”)
4.) Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
5.) The story of the Good Samaritan.
6.) Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:3)
7.) Here are the 4: Life is suffering. Suffering has an origin. Suffering can be overcome. The path to overcoming suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.
8.) Baptism. Eucharist/Mass/Holy Communion. Reconciliation/Confession/Penance. Confirmation. Marriage. Holy Orders. Anointing of the Sick/Last Rites. (Various names are acceptable for several of the seven sacraments, Prothero says.)
9.) Clause 1: “Congress shall make no law restricting an establishment of religion …” Clause 2: “… or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
10.) The Muslim month of fasting that celebrates the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. (Prothero says it’s enough to know it’s a Muslim month of fasting -– but still many students get this wrong each year.)
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
Aspen, Colorado
http://www.Aspenchapel.org