I love to read! I find it hard to have an unread book in my possession and I am equally excited when I find a new author. I will read almost anything, cereal boxes, toothpaste tubes, manufacturers' warnings, but books, of course, are my best of all.
As a small child my unfulfilled dream was to be accidentally locked in my local public library where no one could tell me: "It's time to put out the light and go to bed."
And I love to recommend a new author to someone who might also enjoy finding a new friend. Stephan Prothero is my newest discovery, and I warmly recommend his Religious Literacy. It is a most readable approach to a vexing problem. In a world where the unspeakable is done in the name of Allah and where religion is involved in so many facets of our daily lives, the vast majority of United States citizens lack the most basic sense of what the Bible actually says or event what it says at all.
This summer, Rev. David Lewicki is leading a program called "90 Days with the Bible," where we'll read the entire Bible—cover to cover. In just 12 pages a day, you can greatly increase your own Biblical literacy and take an important spiritual journey of faith. Click here for more information.
Prothero makes the unarguable point that if we Americans lack basic religious literacy how can we function in a world with Muslims, Buddhist, Jews? So many of us shy away from discussions where religion is the issue because we feel inadequate to add out "two cents worth." If we cannot list the ten commandments, can we name the five pillars of Islam or even identify the biblical story behind Hanukkah?
There are several identifiable causes of this phenomenon.
- In our anxiety to separate church and state, basic biblical knowledge has disappeared from the school curriculum as has teaching of the Bible as literature.
- In our increasingly pluralistic society, some of us have become entrenched in our own belief system to the point that we look with suspicion on all others rather than trying to acquire some information about them too.
- Although most American homes have a Bible, what the owners have learned from those volumes is very little.
Prothero's research reveals that only half of all Americans can name one of the gospels, 85% of teens think Moses was an apostle and most cannot identify "Blessed are the poor in spirit" as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.
I would like to think that we have come a long way from the early Methodist convention cited by Prothero that met to discuss building seminaries to educate the clergy. One bishop took the stance that faith was strongest in a soul unfettered by book learning!
Religious ignorance and piety do not go hand in hand. Now as our neighborhoods increase in diversity, we all have the challenge to learn the basics about Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism. Prothero's book is a great place to begin.
Ignorance is never bliss. Today, it is a dangerous political stance in a very religious world. The more we know the less we have to fear.