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DIGGING DEEPER |
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Stephen Prothero's book includes a religion reading
list. But for a quick intro to key religious stories
and ideas, he suggests:
Christianity and Judaism. Reading Genesis and
the Gospel of Matthew "will give you about 80% of the
references" in Western literature, art and U.S.
politics.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Mormonism for Dummies is actually really good
fair and smart. The LDS Church has a great website." (LDS.org)
Islam. "The Quran is a lengthy text, and the
early suras (chapters) are more spiritual while the
later ones are more harsh, political and militaristic"
as the tradition moves into a period of conflict. Read
some from both periods.
Hinduism. Better than trying the 11 sacred
texts, find "a wonderful small catechism of the
religion in a children's book," Am I a Hindu?: The
Hinduism Primer by Ed Viswanathan.
Buddhism. The Story of Buddhism: A Concise
Guide to its History and Teachings by Donald S.
Lopez Jr. covers three major schools of the tradition.
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Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can't name
five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think
Sodom and Gomorrah were married.
Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston
University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world
religions their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq,
Darfur or Kashmir is dangerous, he says.
His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to
Know and Doesn't, argues that everyone needs to grasp Bible
basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of
other faiths.
Belief is not his business, says Prothero, who grew up Episcopalian
and now says he's a spiritually "confused Christian." He says his
argument is for empowered citizenship.
"More and more of our national and international questions are
religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches
laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim
member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on
Thomas Jefferson's Quran.
"If you think Sunni and Shia are the same because they're both
Muslim, and you've been told Islam is about peace, you won't
understand what's happening in Iraq. If you get into an argument
about gay rights or capital punishment and someone claims to quote
the Bible or the Quran, do you know it's so?
"If you want to be involved, you need to know what they're saying.
We're doomed if we don't understand what motivates the beliefs and
behaviors of the rest of the world. We can't outsource this to
demagogues, pundits and preachers with a political agenda."
Scholars and theologians who agree with him say Americans' woeful
level of religious illiteracy damages more than democracy.
"You're going to make assumptions about people out
of ignorance, and they're going to make assumptions about you,"
says Philip Goff of the Center for the Study of Religion
and American Culture at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
Goff cites a widely circulated claim on the Internet that the Quran
foretold American intervention in the Middle East, based on a
supposed passage "that simply isn't there. It's an entire argument
for war based on religious ignorance."
"We're impoverished by ignorance," says
the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the
National Council of Churches. "You can't draw on the resources of
faith if you only have an emotional understanding, not a sense of
the texts and teachings."
But if people don't know Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities
destroyed for their sinful ways, Campbell blames Sunday schools that
"trivialized religious education. If we want people to have serious
knowledge, we have to get serious about teaching our own faith."
Prothero's solution is to require middle-schoolers to take a course
in world religions and high schoolers to take one on the Bible.
Biblical knowledge also should be melded into history and literature
courses where relevant. He wants all college undergrads to take at
least one course in religious studies.
He calls for time-pressed adults to sample holy books and history
texts. His book includes a 90-page dictionary of key words and
concepts from Abraham to Zen. There's also a 15-question quiz
which his students fail every year. But it's the controversial,
though constitutional, push into schools that draws the most
attention.
In theory, everyone favors children knowing more. The National
Education Association handbook says religious instruction "in
doctrines and practices belongs at home or religious institutions,"
while schools should teach world religions' history, heritage,
diversity and influence.
Only eight percent of public high schools offer an elective Bible
course, according to a study in 2005 by the Bible Literacy Project,
which promotes academic Bible study in public schools. The project
is supported by Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, a
Washington, D.C., non-profit that promotes free speech.
The study surveyed 1,000 high schoolers and found that just 36% know
Ramadan is the Islamic holy month; 17% said it was the Jewish day of
atonement.
Goff says schools are not wholly to blame for religious illiteracy.
"There are simply more groups, more players. Students didn't know
Ramadan any better in 1965, but now there are as many Muslims as
Jews in America. It's more important to know who's who."
Also today, "there is more emphasis on religious experience as a
mark of true religion and less emphasis on doctrine and knowledge of
the faith."
Still, it's the widely misunderstood 1963 decision by the U.S.
Supreme Court that may have been the tipping point: It removed
devotional Bible reading from the schools but spelled out that it
should not have been removed from literature and history.
www.USATODAY.com
Not all external links express
the opinion of our church exactly. They are merely "food for
thought" for our congregation and visitors.
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