Spiritual illiteracy

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"My mind is my own church," proclaimed patriot Thomas Paine, rejecting the constraints of America's Puritan founders in favor of individual freedom. Over time, the independence of faith and conscience that Paine espoused has probably made America one of the most religious nations on earth.Professor Stephen Prothero disagrees, arguing that our religiosity as a people is sustained without drawing much at all from our minds.A decade ago, when Prothero moved from the Bible Belt to teach religion at Boston University, he began to doubt his effectiveness in the classroom. Time and again, his students reacted to his lectures with blank stares. "When I would say things like in Matthew, blah, blah, blah, the students would get that look like they sort of knew what I was talking about, but they really didn't," he confesses.Then it occurred to him that even his most faithful and intelligent students might suffer from spiritual illiteracy. So, five years ago he summoned the courage to check every new student's knowledge of faith. He devised a test consisting of 15 questions, viz., Name the four Gospels. Name a sacred text of Hinduism and the holy book of Islam. Where was Jesus born? What are the first five books of the Bible called? What is the Golden Rule? Is "God helping those who help themselves" to be found in the Bible? Where is "Blessed are the poor in spirit" found in the Bible? Can you name the Ten Commandments, the four Noble Truths of Buddhism, and the seven sacraments of Catholicism? What are the two religious clauses in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? What is Ramadan, and which religion celebrates it? Finally, match eight major biblical figures with the stories in which they appear.Few students managed to score even a passing grade. Overall, Catholics scored 52 percent correct, Protestants 44 percent, Jews 39 percent, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs 32 percent, and Atheists and Agnostics 26 percent.The best scores: 96 percent correctly placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; 85 percent knew the Koran to be the Muslim scripture and 62 percent that Ramadan was Islamic; 76.5 percent knew that "God helps those who help themselves is not in the Bible, and 61 percent that "Blessed are the poor in spirit" is there. Some 63 percent knew the Golden Rule; and 60 percent knew Jesus was born in Bethlehem.The worst scores: On average, students could name only 2.3 percent of the four Gospels and 4.6 percent of the Ten Commandments. Only one in eight students could name the first five books of the Bible. Only one in four could identify a Hindu scripture and 17 percent the Four Noble Truths. Some 13 percent placed the Serpent in the Garden of Gethsemane (rather than Eden), and only one in three could name even one of the First Amendment clauses that guarantee us our religious freedom.In his first inaugural address as president, George Bush invoked a story from the Bible, mentioning the Jericho Road. Fewer than 3 percent of Prothero's students identified it as the story of the Good Samaritan, so the president's reference likely went over the heads of most Americans.(David Yount's Growing in Faith: A Guide for the Reluctant Christian is published by Seabury in a new edition. He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount(at)erols.com.??