AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll entered an interesting story entitled Americans Don't Know Much About Religion on Sept 28, 2010 from which the excerpt below appears:
"A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
The survey was recently released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.
Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.
Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15. On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest."
I find the overall results of the survey somewhat disappointing, especially when "atheists and agnostics scored highest" in various points on religion. But while I find the last line to be the most condemning commentary of professing Christians, it hardly comes as any surprise, at least to me. The great irony is, of course, that most all Christian faith groups identify the Mormons belief system as a cult. If that's so, why are they so much more knowledgeable of the Christian faith that their detractors? The answer may surprise you.
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I admit to being surprised by this result. I had no idea Christians were so lacking in information about their own religion. I wonder if it could be that we have very little intentionality in our midst. Many have not studied our religion, or others, as the results indicate. Many Protestants attend church either because their parents did, or they always have, or because it's the thing to do, not because they have a genuine feeling of being called by God, or from knowledge of the tenets of Christianity and Christian practices.
MTPat
I am not surprised by the finding at all. I have never met an agnostic or an atheist that didn't love to passionately debate the hypocrisy and fallacies of organized religion or the existence of God. People study what they are passionate about or is relevant in their daily life.
The majority of Christians today are anything but "passionate" about their faith. Their church, their Christian leaders, their Christian families, relatively no one proclaiming to be Christian models the exciting, passionate, self-sacrificial, intentional, faith in action that characterized early Christianity and early Methodism. In fact, quite the opposite is so.
No one, pastors included, really believe anymore that they may be expected to suffer, sacrifice, take an unpopular stand, or trust God to literally provide direction or sustenance. The relevance of God in our daily lives has all but evaporated rendering the study of Christianity irrelevant to most folks.
I've heard many, many professing Christians in Bible Study after Bible Study state unequivocally that they are sure God wouldn't want them to do something that might cause discomfort or disrupt their lives. That God just wants us to be happy.
Pastors exhort their congregants to boldly step out of the boat - but, cringe when someone takes them literally. It is easier to do as they are told - secure their salvation by professing to be Christians and then go about their worldly ways unchallenged. The new mantra is not step out of the boat - it is don't rock the boat.
The Bible has something to say about being neither too hot nor too cold. Who WOULD want to study the tepid faith most Christians display.
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