Kevin Drum points to an article in the LA Times that's well worth reading. The short version could be "Americans profess to be religious, but judging by surveys they're just as ignorant of Christianity (not to mention other religions) as they are just about everything else."
While I'm not surprised by anything in the article, it still saddens me. People ask "What would Jesus do?" but I suspect that many who pose the question lack even the most basic information about what he stood for to be able to answer the question without it simply becoming a reflection of their own values. Worse, the fact that we know so little about other cultures means that the most simple stereotypes take root and are impossible to dislodge.
Aside from the lack of knowledge of our own and other faiths, what particularly disturbs me is that most Americans have no sense of the historical evolution of religion. I would argue that there's a disconnect in most people's minds between the belief systems they hold on to and the human institutions that support them. More than anything else, I think that an awareness of how religion has evolved would take the edge off some of the tendency to think that these belief systems are fixed and immutable, and that (your) religion is by its nature a force for good.
Posted by Jason at January 12, 2005 02:21 PM