What It Means To Be A Christian

As a year-end gift for my service as a middle school Sunday School teacher, I was given a book with the alarmist title of The Last Christian Generation, by Josh McDowell. The photo of an abandoned church is the thousand words summarizing the title.

Basically, McDowell believes that post-modern attitudes -- attributing meaning to something based on attitudes of the moment -- has degraded the understanding of Christianity to a point that it's meaningless to most young people. Despite the rather dire predictions he uses to shore up his ideas in the beginning, he does have a fairly solid argument that, again, ignorance and lack of education on what Christianity is all about is creating a lost generation of children who don't really believe in anything. As he writes:

"Recently, Newsweek and Beliefnet asked 1,004 Americans this question: 'Can a good person who doesn't share your religious beliefs attain salvation or go to heaven?' Sixty-eight percent (68%) of evangelical protestants said yes. The thinking is 'It's judgmental and intolerant to say that one person is right and everyone who doesn't believe like him or her is wrong.' That's why sixty-three percent (63%) of our kids don't believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God."

Since Christianity is based on the life and example of Jesus Christ, your identity as a Christian is questionable if you don't believe in that one fact. As McDowell explains in great detail, the scripture says that, "Unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in your sins." Unlike other religions that are based solely on philosophy, without belief in Christ as the true teacher, you cannot be a Christian, McDowell points out. If we believe in Christ and his teachings, then we must help our children learn the truth and grow in the knowledge and love of God.

Here's his explanation for why kids don't want to go to church (and I'll bet it reflects their parents' attitudes.)
1. Church is boring
2. Church is non-stop activity (too much entertainment/art, not enough real talk.)
3. Church isn't the biggest influence in my life or spiritual development (parents are.)
4. Church seems like just a series of events to me (no involvement.)
5. Church may help save my soul, but it won't help me grapple with the real issues of life (they all want quick fixes.)

McDowell's observations sound very familiar to me. His solutions are many and varied, and half of the book lays out his mission, graphs, charts and call to change the educational model completely, so that the children are engaged in activities that reflect Christ's teachings and help them to become more "Christ-like." There are a lot of complex ideas that require the whole congregation to participate in this educational process. It will take a real shift in how things are done to make his ideas reality, or would "take a village" to raise Christian children. Considering how hard it is just to get the parents of kids to bring them each Sunday -- both boys' and girls' soccer are the latest enemies of church school in my church -- I think it's going to be a tough sell.

How to Deal with Church Politics, Or a Crisis of Faith

Last night I met several of the Sunday school teachers at my church for a group dinner to celebrate the end of another year. We talked about our lives, the kids, the church and our ideas for how to make things work better.

After the meal and a couple of drinks, as we waited for dessert, one of the teachers admitted that she'd had her own doubts about church in general and some people in our church in specific. Other teachers agreed that they'd gone through the same thing at times. Her issues were with certain people in the church whom she felt had snubbed her at social events or criticized her for not being up to their standards in certain volunteer activities that she had performed. Politics and hurt feelings made her think about walking away and never coming back.

I wonder how many people are hurt by a remark at church or someone's insensitivity and do just that? I did several years ago. I was a member of a church that I had been very involved in and gave my support to, but when I went through a divorce I didn't feel any love or support back. People seemed afraid to talk about it, like they would "catch" my divorce bug or that I would steal their husbands, or who knows what. Consequently, and for other reasons I won't go into here, I stopped going all together.

A lot of people might ask, why go to church at all? Why not just stay home and worship on your own? The truth is, if we believe in the Judeo-Christian tradition and follow the hard and fast rules of the Ten Commandments, we need to "keep the Sabbath holy," whether that's on Saturday as the Jews believe, or Sunday as Christians believe. How do we do that? By going to a temple or church and participating in our religious community. Temples have been around since recorded time for a reason -- our religions tell us we are a part of something bigger than we are and that we must be there for each other, too. It's part and parcel of the whole experience.

Does that community have to be in a building and under and organized denomination? No. I know people who meet weekly and study the Bible under no organized religion, and they believe that's enough. However, I believe that unless you are a Biblical scholar and have all of the answers, you could be stumbling around in the dark and misinterpreting the Word on a regular basis. I learn something new in church almost every week from our Rector.

Also, what does that say about the importance of God in your life? If you want something lasting, you have to invest in it and put your time and self and money into it. One day a week for a couple of hours, minimum, plus some good works here and there doesn't seem like asking for a lot to be part of a community.

In the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 18, verse 20, Jesus explains to the disciples that we are meant to be a part of a community, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." He then tells Peter, who asks if his brother sins against him seven times, should he continue to forgive him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." In other words, help each other, keep forgiving -- because you will sin and need forgiveness, too -- and God will be there to take away the pain and the burdens.

It was several years before I felt the desire to search for a church to go to again after my departure from that church. I tried several that didn't fit, until I found the one I'm in now. The people, in general, are warm and caring and supportive of each other. When people are sick, the congregation pitches in and delivers meals or helps in other ways. People really pray for each other and show they care.

People are flawed, though. A church is its people, and people make mistakes. That's why it's so important to forgive. Even Jesus had to deal with the politics of his day from the Pharisees and politicians, the squabbles among his own disciples and the arguments over ritual and tradition. As my husband often says, it's not easy being human. We are so driven by chemical reactions in our bodies, emotions triggered by psychological events of the past and our genetic make-up. People are complicated.

Jesus told us over and over that we have to love each other, forgive each other and treat each other the way we want to be treated. If we pray and connect with God, we should have the power to do that.

(Image above is a painted stencil of Jesus on the West Pier in Brighton, England.)

Dead Sea Scrolls & Sting

Anyone who's read Sting's autobiography of his youth, Broken Music, will remember his anecdote about the Dead Sea Scrolls. It would stand to figure that a man who made such soulful music with intense lyrics found their discovery of interest.

What was even more interesting was that his bandmate in The Police, Stewart Copeland, was the son of Miles Copeland, one of the early "founders" of the CIA, who had served as an operative in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt as part of the OSS. He told Sting about how when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave in 1947, they were sent to the CIA office in Damascus. Miles Senior and his fellow operatives couldn't really see them in their dark offices, so they took them outside on the roof to get a better look. "They had just unrolled the mysterious 2,000-year-old document from end to end on the flat, scorching concrete when a strong wind picked up and blew the fragile parchment into the air and across the rooftops of Damascus, where it fragmented into a million pieces, never to be seen again. Miles senior and the CIA boys retired downstairs in some disarray. The precious scrolls were then entrusted to the more circumspect and cautious hands of trained archeologists. I often wonder what was written on that scroll."

Sorry Sting. It may have been the key to Jesus's teachings, but now we'll never know! Actually, it was probably a manuscript we already have, since many of the scrolls were copies of books that are part of the canon, but it is interesting to imagine...

Adulterated Stories & Other Bible Editing Crimes

In Bart Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, he describes how one of the most startling stories in the New Testament Book of John is a complete fabrication, added in by a scribe possibly centuries after it was written.

The story is the one in which Jesus is teaching in the temple when a group of Pharisees arrive with a woman in tow who has been caught in the act of adultery. They ask Jesus what they should do, since the Law of Moses says that she should be stoned. It is a test for Jesus, because if he tells them to let her go, he is going against God's law; if he says to stone her, he's going against his own teachings of forgiveness. In the story, he tells them that the person without sin should cast the first stone.

As Ehrman points out, "It is a brilliant story, filled with pathos and a clever twist in which Jesus uses his wits to get himself -- not to mention the poor woman -- off the hook."

Even though Biblical scholars know the story is not in the original Book of John (although no one has the actual original of that book or any other, for that matter) it remains in the Bible because it has been there so long that it is a tradition. Ehrman's opinion is that it should be edited out.

Ehrman was greatly disillusioned about the Bible after he became a scholar of the New Testament and textual criticism, but he began his quest as a fundamentalist/literalist (after leaving his Episcopal roots.) He admits in the book that's he's mellowed in recent years in his views.

Based on the scholarship available to a literate world now, it's obvious that the Bible is full of errors that were added in prior to the existence of the printing press, and then even later due to the translations of translations. It's far from a perfect document, nor could anyone seriously consider it the literal word of God if they have a clue about its history. Even in its imperfections, it contains poetry, stories and ideas that should be read with an open heart and an open mind.

Anne Rice's Christ Books

Anne Rice's shift from dark Gothic novels about vampires to the life of Christ was so startling to me when her first novel appeared in 2005 that I refused to think it was anything more than a calculated means of finding a new audience while exploiting the old one. Now, after reading her second novel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, I am a convert.

Despite my curiosity, I didn't read the first novel until after I got the second one at a sizable discount (so much for mass appeal) and was so thoroughly entranced by the story told in first person by a Christ who came of "age" as his destiny began. Previously, I had flipped through the first book in a Barnes & Noble and saw that it included material about Jesus' life that seemed a bit out there and not entirely from the New Testament as we know it. However, now I do embrace some of the apochryphal works as likely writings of the era. The current thinking is that they were not in favor at the time of the official church for reasons that are not entirely clear to Biblical scholars still trying to figure things out.

In the first novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel, Jesus is a child of age 7 who is just becoming aware of who he is and the story of his birth. He has powers that he discovers and learns how to use. His startled family teaches him to hide them until the right time. It's almost akin to Superman learning how to tame his abilities and use them when appropriate. In the second novel, Christ is 30 and everyone is on his case to grow up, get married and move on with his life (except Mary and Joseph). He finally begins to gain a full understanding of who he is when he is confronted by the devil. Then he reveals his identity when he casts out a demon in a woman, followed by performing his first official miracle at the biggest wedding of the area in Cana. The bride is a woman who wanted to marry him and the groom is the nephew of the richest guy. Jesus not only arranges the marriage, but pays the dowry with the gold that was given to him by the three wise men. Then at the wedding, when the wine runs out because of the enormous crowd of revelers, he turns the water used for handwashing into wine.

Both books possess a simple beauty in the language, which is rich with subtext for those familiar with the New Testament and the prophecies of the Old Testament. I'm actually glad I read the first book after it was published in paperback, because I wondered the whole time I was reading the Cana book about how much research Rice did for it, because of the tremendous historical detail. An Introduction and Author's Note in the paperback edition provides a glimpse into the way she threw herself into learning both ancient and recent scholarship on the Bible, absorbed the arguments on various books, analyzed the critical writings along with the supportive ones and determined what she found to be true through careful study. Her bibliography is incomplete -- she only mentions the works she found useful -- but it is rather impressive.

Even more impressive was her account of how she lost her faith and regained it, and how her husband of 41 years, an atheist, married her in the Catholic church before his death from brain cancer four months after the diagnosis. It's an inspiring story, one in which she confesses how she felt anxious and empty without her faith and whole again once she regained it. The paperback Author's Note clarifies several aspects of the Introduction in the hardcover edition, most notably that the apochryphal stories are not Gnostic, or heretical, but rather earlier accepted teachings. Also, it describes her struggle to reconcile some of her beliefs with Catholic doctrine, since that was the church in which she was raised.

"How, I asked myself, could I express the love for God that I felt by becoming a member of a community of believers when I didn't know what I thought about the literal truth of Adam or Eve or Original Sin? How could I join with fellow believers who thought my gay son was going to Hell? How could I become connected with Christians who held that there was no evidence for Darwinian evolution, or that women should not have control over their own bodies? How could I affirm my belief in a faith that was itself so characterized by argument and strife?"

She attributes her decision to "a glimpse into" the "Infinite Mercy of God," which convinced her that none of those theological and social questions mattered -- only faith mattered. She also has decided to spend the rest of her life writing about Jesus and the world of the first century as she works through what she believes and why.

It stands to reason, then, that her version of Jesus is a very human, compassionate and intelligent man who urges people to stop worrying so much about Jewish rituals and fighting over disagreements about religion and morality. Instead, he teaches them to love each other in spite of that -- even to love enemies! As Rice explains, she believed God would show her the way, and perhaps that's the case. All I know is that I can't wait for the next novel.

Hansen's Jesse James & Other Exiles

Last night I watched the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a screenplay based on the Ron Hansen novel of the same name. It's a strange film with a narrative voiceover, full of disturbing scenes of violence as it provides an intimate peek into the mindset of outlaws of the 1800s. Having grown up in the St. Louis area, the legend of Jesse James and his gang was known to me, but I didn't know a lot of what I learned from the film about his personality and paranoia. The story gives a close-up look at the banal nature of evil, and how it becomes celebrated in our culture.

Hansen has also written novels with religious themes, most recently Exiles: A Novel, which was the focus of an interview he gave on National Public Radio last week. He also wrote Mariette in Ecstasy.

What was most fascinating about the film, besides Brad Pitt's performance, was the level of detail in describing his characters and their motivations. I think that Robert Ford's obsession with fame and his pride in killing Jesse James were the basis of the morality play conceived by Hansen, rather than focusing on the unredeemable life of Jesse James. It was a masterful character study, one that I look forward to reading -- in spite of the inherent violence -- now that I've seen the director's interpretation.

Christian Attack Dogs On Page 1 of New York Times

I'm reminded today by a story on the front page of The New York Times why Jesus never got involved with politics. It seems the nature of the people involved in trying to influence opinion often leads to corruption of all that is good associated with them.

The headline was "Ready to Attack Obama, If Some Money Arrives," and it was about a guy who puts together negative advertisements for Republican presidential candidates, most notably the Willie Horton TV ad that was against Michael Dukakis. To my chagrin, the story starts with a quote from the Bible taped on a whiteboard in his office: "That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties." Talking about distorting the words of the disciples. This guy IS NOT doing God's work. It's blasphemy, from my perspective, for him to even pretend that he is.

Jesus was all about loving each other, treating each other like we'd be treated, etc. He was clear about his point of view on politics -- deal with Caesar on his own terms, and God on his, and leave me out of it. If his role was to be a political instrument, he would have led the revolution against the Romans, as he'd been urged to do. He did the opposite. He laid down his life for us -- the greatest thing a human being can do -- to save our souls and as a symbol of hope. We are, each one of us, supposed to live according to what he taught. I doubt that he would see the spread of distortions, half-truths and outright lies about our neighbors as doing God's will.

Politics should be a private matter, and decisions made prayerfully and using our discernment as Christians and as citizens. Picking a president SOLELY because of his stand on abortion, for instance, is not a great idea as the events of the past eight years demonstrate. If we survive the coming economic collapse and the lack of leadership on environmental issues, it will be by the grace of God. Just as Jesus's Jerusalem had an environmental problems involving the disposal of garbage (he described Hell as being like the smoldering dump outside of the city gates), we'll have to contend with global warming, polluted air, contaminated food and the gas crisis created by irresponsible energy policies.

Let's hope, through God's help, we can make right decisions without promoting fear and hate.

Mary Magdalene & A Screaming Teenage Girl

Yesterday was a beautiful day that ended very strangely with screaming teenagers stalking off of the beach in front of my house from a campfire party after midnight. Their connection to Mary Magdalene (or in reality, Mary of Magdala) will become apparent as I explain what happened prior to that.

Earlier in the afternoon, I was on the deck overlooking the beach and Long Island Sound with my husband, soaking in the sun, watching the boats and enjoying the breeze as I perused The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition. The giant tome of 844 pages is a compilation of writings found in 1945 at the foot of a cliff along the Nile River. Similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were secret or apochryphal Christian writings, hidden after a decree went out to destroy any of the writings that didn't fit in with the current Pope's beliefs of what should go into an official Bible.

Just like the Bible, this is not a book you can just sit and read and easily understand. Also, most of the books are clearly "Gnostic" or based on an anti-Christian Greek philosophy. It's obvious why the church omitted most of them. A few of the 50 writings, however, do ring true and fit the overall style of the Bible as it exists, and the introductions by the board of Biblical scholars who studied the writings give them some creedence as well. Based on other findings, for instance, at least one book attributed to the Apostle Thomas is thought to be written earlier than the other gospels.

Those writings include: "The Secret Book of James," "The Gospel of Thomas," "The Revelation of Paul," the First and Second "Revelation of James" books, "The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles" and "The Gospel of Mary." In the "Secret Book of James," the writer even describes how the disciples all put down their stories in the 550 days after Jesus's resurrection. In addition, "The Gospel of Thomas," according to the introduction by a panel of scholars, is believed to be the first widely distributed gospel. It may have been excluded from the Bible because there's no narrative -- only sayings by Jesus.

The Gospel of Mary, on the other hand, is a narrative with Mary as the main character. It begins with Jesus answering disciples' questions, then leaving. Mary comforts the other disciples, who are all gloom and doom about their fates, since even Jesus wasn't spared. She talks about the glory of life after death and how Jesus wanted them to move on and teach others as he commanded. Peter asks Mary for some words of inspiration, then she teaches a few things that Jesus taught her, and no other disciples -- like how a person sees visions with the mind and the process of how the departed soul ascends into heaven. There's a lovely line in the first teaching, "Blessed are you for not wavering at seeing me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure." Very much The Secret in current thinking. Anyway, Andrew challenges her about knowing something the others don't know, and she cries because she feels he's calling her a liar. Levi chastises Andrew for his temper, and they all move on to preach.

Now, you're probably wondering where the incident last night fits in. The reason I mentioned it is that emotions were running high from my neighbors, who were upset that they were awakened by the noise coming from what was apparently a high schoolers post-graduation party. They yelled at the kids to leave, and the kids yelled back in defense, angry because they wanted to have a good time, and they all kept yelling back and forth. I went outside to see what the ruckus was all about. Then it deteriorated into name-calling between my neighbor, a mother of three boys in their pre-teens, and one of the girls. They slung words between them that ranged from "slut" to the "c" word, and used colorful descriptions of what each other did and didn't do with their, ahem, femininity. The gutter talk then escalated, and when I asked that the girl shut up, I was called a whore, and they ran away.

It just made me think of how Mary was labeled a whore, despite all evidence to the contrary, just because she was a woman who followed Jesus. It hurts even when it's not true.

I could imagine how Mary of Magdala, wrongly maligned by confused and overwrought disciples, would have cried when they tried to disparage her friendship with Jesus. I'm no DaVinci Code fan, but somehow the tone and substance of the writing was very convincing, and the fact that Mary was denigrated as a prostitute by the official church seems like the kind of name-calling that comes from trying to defend a policy of marginalizing women in the church and in the religion. Interesting how women are the backbone of churches anyway, despite the way they've been treated. It just goes to show that Jesus was right all along to treat Mary as a righteous person and an equal to the men.

Coolest Bible-Related Book Ever

If irreverence is the watchword of the Gen X generation, then there's a book that seems tailored for those who want to educate themselves about the Bible without actually cracking the cover of the Good Book. I'm talking about Pocket Guide to the Bible: A Little Book About the Big Book, by Jason Boyett. It covers the Old Testament, which is the Jewish scripture included in the Talmud, as well as the New Testament, or everything that's written about Jesus and his disciples, or at least, the official version.

What's really great about it is that it provides a pithy, quirky and humorous aside about every book in the Bible, every person and includes an overview of major tenets. It starts with an introduction to the history of the Bible, and then a glossary of terms called "Biblicabulary" to give an overview of terms for the truly clueless. Judging from my conversations with non-Christians (one of whom is Jewish and didn't know about the Old Testament), this kind of primer is extremely helpful. On top of that, it's the most painless book about the Bible I've ever read, though some more conservative types may find it a bit sacrilegious. I'm fine with whatever gets people reading and thinking about the Bible -- since most view it the way I do the Bhagavad Gita -- incredibly difficult to slog through, strange and even incomprehensible at times.

Here's a sample of what you would read in The Pocket Guide on FAITH: "From a human standpoint, a belief in and reliance on God. It's the intellectual and/or emtional acceptance that God exists, apart from any measurable scientific evidence. According to the Bible, it is only through faith in Christ and his atonement for the sins of humanity on the cross, that believers are made righteous. And, according to James 2:14, the best evidence of true faith is a life punctuated by good works. So get crackin'.
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: George Michael's chart-topping 1987 debut album and hit single of the same name. Because, sure, he talks about how important it is to have "faith-uhfaith-uhfaithUH," but there's also that part about how nice it would be to "touch your body." And we're guessing that's probably not a bride-of-Christ metaphor.

Here's a description of JEZEBEL: "If wickedness were money, she'd be Bill Gates. A Phoenician princess and the evil wife of Israel's King Ahab, Jezebel is so adept at villiany that her name becomes synonymous for a shameless, scheming woman..." LOW POINT: Eventually killed in graphic fashion by servants of King Jehu, who throw her out of a window. She falls to the ground and then gets trampled by horses, her blood spattering all over the walls of the city. Then her mangled corpse gets finished off by wild dogs, until only her skull, feel, and hands remain (2 Kings 9:35). And that's a detail the Pocket Guide could have lived without."

The fact is, those are the details that make the Pocket Guide worth reading -- the summaries that bring clarity to the moral issues being discussed, while keeping you entertained. The author, Boyett, also wrote Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse and Pocket Guide to Adulthood. Go figure.

Answers To Quiz; Questions By Gen Xers In Book

One of the reasons I chose the Episcopal Church as my denomination in college was a bit of clever advertising in the school paper, The Daily Illini. In an ad with an image of Christ on a cross, it said, "He died to take away your sins, not your mind." Then there were other enticements, such as the church's acceptance of women as ministers, its liberal or open stance on other political issues and the fact that the church was across the street from where 90% of my classes were held.

Otherwise, I may have become a Baptist or Methodist, who knows. Certainly, the form of worship, which is very Catholic in nature, was not the appeal. The long hour-and-a-half services were also not very motivating. Somehow I got past the boredom of ritual and now find meaning in it. The fact that I'm now in my 40s probably helps with the patience part of it now. In any case, it's not a form of worship that comes naturally. I'm sure it's the same feeling for people who convert to Catholicism from other forms of worship.

But I digress.

The reason I bring it up is because I've read a book about the Gen X view of religion called Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X, which throws into relief the reason why traditional forms of worship are such a turn-off for so many younger people. I don't know what generation my Sunday School kids fit into, but it must be post-Millenium or even Post 9/11, since it's a group that's even more detached than Gen X.

The surprise in this excellent book, written by Tom Beaudoin, an authentic Gen Xer and theology scholar, is that they are a spiritual generation. However, because they have been shaped by the media -- TV, film, magazines, the Internet -- they need a different way to wrap their heads around God. They express their beliefs in music, culture and even fashion, rather than in going to church, taking everything at face value and adhering to what is expected of them. They are more comfortable "praying" online and watching TV evangelists than they are sitting in front of a minister in a pulpit who tells stories that are as far removed from their reality as the parables Jesus told to the people of his time. In short, they are a tough crowd. A very tough crowd.

If anything, humor and irreverence are the best tools to reach this group, according to Beaudoin, who also reveals that they find spiritual meaning in everything from music videos to tattoos. Will they change as they get older? Maybe. But getting them into a routine of worship or in the door of a church is going to be a challenge for a long time to come. It's a fascinating book, and one that just might make a dent in the psyche of the religious powers that be. As someone pushing for a U2-charist at my church (a service with the spiritual songs of the rock band U2) I can tell you firsthand it takes time to institute change.

Here are the answers to the quiz from yesterday:

Answers for Christianity Quiz

1. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
2. Bethlehem
3. The Good Samaritan
4. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
5. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
6. No
7. Yes. In the Sermon on the Mount, in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew
8. (See Wikipedia on the Ten Commandments.)
9. baptism, confirmation, reconciliation (confession), Holy Communion, marriage, ordination of priests, anointing of the sick
10. “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion” and the free exercise clause, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
11. Paul AND Road to Damascus; Moses AND Parting of the Red Sea; Adam & Eve AND Garden of Eden; Noah AND Olive Branch; Jesus AND Garden of Gethsemane; Abraham AND Binding of Isaac; Serpent AND Garden of Eden

Religious Literacy Quiz

1. Bhagavad Gita is the most popular Hindu scripture. (more attached)
2. Quran
3. (See Wikipedia on the Four Noble Truths.)
4. A period of obligatory fasting from dawn to sunset observed by Muslims during the ninth month of the Islamic year. It ends with the Eid al-Fitr, the feast of the breaking of the fast, commemorating the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad.

Religious Literacy, Books and The Book

I teach Sunday School to middle school students - grades 6 to 8 - and when I talk to them about books, they just blink. I know that they're forced to read a few in school, but as one student told me bluntly, "No one reads books." It made me realize how hard it is to teach about religion when they don't read the Bible, think about it or talk about religion to each other at that age at all.

Not to say that they aren't curious. Their questions are sometimes precious, sometimes shocking in the ignorance they betray. And these are the kids who come on a regular basis. That's why I put together a hand-out with an overview of why I think they should learn about religion, based on the tenets of the book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero. The quiz he gives his students to ascertain how much, or little, they know about religion follows my comments. I'll put the answers in the next post. The glossary and summary information on major tenets of other religions was particularly enlightening for me. I tried to read the Bhagavad Gita once, and couldn't do it, so this was just enough. I imagine the experience for me is not dissimilar to a Hindu trying to read the Bible without any background on its meaning.

Religious Literacy

According to the book, “Religious Literacy,” by bestselling author Stephen Prothero, in the years since prayer was banned from American schools and teaching about Christianity in general fell out of favor, we have become what pollster George Gallup called “a nation of biblical illiterates.”

Why is it important to understand the basics of the Bible, one might ask?

1. Understanding Culture
Try sitting through a Shakespeare play without any grounding in Christianity, and you would have a hard time grasping a lot of ideas that are discussed. Or if you read the current bestseller “Water for Elephants,” you might enjoy the story, but you would miss the entire subtext of the story of Jacob. Or meaning in films, music, etc.

2. Understanding History
Religion has played a central role in European wars, world customs and the creation of our own country from its Puritan roots. The Civil War was a battle over slavery which only makes sense when put in context in the Biblical arguments. The Civil Rights movement was led by ministers and churches. The 9/11 attack was a strike by radical Islamists against a Christian nation.

3. Understanding Politics
Many of our political issues are grounded in theology and morality derived
from the Bible. Our representatives in Congress, the Courts and the White House
speak the language of the Bible in many of their speeches and in their legislation.

4. Understanding World Events
The actions of nations and the reactions of churches and leaders are incomprehensible without some grounding. Israel, for instance, is a country considered holy by three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is a historical, political and media center of religious interest.

Becoming a Biblical literate requires learning about Jesus, learning the Gospels, understanding the Pentateuch or first five books of the Old Testament (including the Ten Commandments) and putting it all in context. Prothero, a college professor who teaches religious studies at Boston University, gives his students a religious literacy quiz to find out if they know essential facts to be able to follow his lectures. The quiz includes questions that pertain to Christianity. The questions about other religions will follow in a separate quiz.

Christian Literacy Quiz

1. Name the four Gospels. List as many as you can.

2. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born?

3. President George W. Bush spoke in his first inaugural address of the Jericho road. What Bible story was he invoking?

4. What are the first five books of the Old Testament?

5. What is the Golden Rule?

6. “God helps those who help themselves”: Is this in the Bible? If so, where?

7. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” does this appear in the Bible? If so, where?

8. Name the Ten Commandments. List as many as you can.

9. What are the Seven Sacraments? List as many as you can.

10. The First Amendment says two things about religion, each in its own “clause.” What are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment?

11. Match the Bible characters with the stories in which they appear. Draw a line from one to the other. Hint: Some characters may be matched with more than one story or vice versa.


Paul....................................Binding of Isaac

Moses.................................Exodus

Adam & Eve.......................Olive Branch

Noah...................................Garden of Eden

Jesus...................................Parting of the Red Sea

Abraham.............................Road to Damascus

Serpent................................Garden of Gethsemane

Other Religions

1. Name a sacred text of Hinduism

2. What is the name of the holy book of Islam?

3. What are the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?

4. What is Ramadan? In what religion is it celebrated?

Time to Start

I've been contemplating doing this for a long time, and it never seemed the right time. Today is the day.

For the past year my brother has been challenging me about religion, specifically why I believe in God. Forget about Christianity specifically. He's been watching those YouTube videos from virulent atheists who doth protest a little too much, methinks, about the nature and structure and history of Christianity, so much so that he thinks it's funny to taunt me with the links. When I reply, it's like adding fuel to the fire. (Inferno, really.)

So I sent him a shipment of books and films from Amazon, and challenged him to read them and have a real discussion with me. Not surprisingly, that shut him up. I have no idea whether he's reading or watching any of them, but a lack of knowledge makes for very stupid arguments, so I thought he should at least know the basics so that we could have a semi-intelligent conversation on the subject. Mostly I think he enjoys being a nudge, crank, gadfly, shit-stirrer, or whatever you want to call it. It amuses him. Next time I go home, if he doesn't have some religious literacy going for him, I will be quite disappointed.

In any case, I drew from my years of being an avid reader, as well as from that of friends and my Rector, so that I have a cross-section of books and films on religion and Christianity. I figured it would be a good idea to share them with others, and maybe get something positive from it. On that note, I have to go and do some work. I'll post my first book review/outline tomorrow.

The name of the blog comes from the gospel of Matthew, book 10, verse 16, in which Jesus is speaking to his disciples: "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." It's also in the apochryphal gospel of Thomas in a slightly different version: "Be shrewd as snakes...innocent as doves." In other words, seek knowledge, but be thoughtful about it, and be careful about the interpretations by other people and in what you believe. The subtext is to believe in what Jesus says, and you should be in a good place.

Cheerio and God Bless You!