[Alex Murphy]

Only half of U.S. adults, for example, could name a single Gospel, and most do not know the name of the first book of the Bible. Even those sola scriptura Protestants who intimidate Catholics with chapter-and-verse recitations are not doing too well. According to a survey conducted in 2000, 60 percent of evangelicals said Jesus was born in Jerusalem, not that “little town of Bethlehem.” And despite all our bitter battles over posting the Ten Commandments, six in 10 Americans cannot name five of them, while half of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married. When a USA Today article on Stephen Prothero’s 2007 book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t, was titled, “Americans Get an ‘F’ in Religion,” the eminent historian of religion, Martin E. Marty, quipped that the newspaper could be guilty of grade inflation.

Moreover, while fewer believers know much about the Bible, one-third of Americans continue to believe that it is literally true, something organizers of the Synod on the Word of God called a dangerous form of fundamentalism that is “winning more and more adherents…even among Catholics.” Such literalism, the synod’s preparatory document said, “demands an unshakable adherence to rigid doctrinal points of view and imposes, as the only source of teaching for Christian life and salvation, a reading of the Bible which rejects all questioning and any kind of critical research”....

....The flip side of this embarrassment is the presumption among many Catholics that they “get” the Bible at Mass, along with everything else they need for their spiritual lives. The postconciliar revolution in liturgy greatly expanded the readings, with a three-year cycle in the vernacular that for the first time included Old Testament passages. Given that exposure, many think they do not need anything else. As Mr. McMahon put it, “The majority still say you go to Mass, you get your ticket punched, and that’s it for the week.”

[GOP Poet]

Cackie Upchurch likes that quotation. The Bible is a source of comfort, yes, and it should give us courage. But, she added: “It should also disturb us. It should also stir us into action. And if it’s not doing those things, and if it’s just in our heads, then I do not think we’re doing justice to the living Word of God.... If you read this stuff and really believe it, you might have to change how you live.”

Boy that is sure the truth! Great article! Thank you for posting.

[Natural Law]

Catholics are not bible literalists. Along with the bible, many contemporary works are studied for a more contextual understanding of the Word of God.

[Oratam]

<><><>Not true. Not true. The pre-Vatican II mass included the Introit, Offertory and often a Gradual which were all from Psalms. Every mass began with the Psalm 43 (Judica Me) and if you went to daily mass you would've gotten more Old Testament during the course of the year. Catholicism is liturgical in its communal worship.

[Salvation]

I’ve been telling posters for nearly six years that Bible Study is alive and well in Catholic Churches — so to me, this article is old news.

The blessing is that we have a Church to interpret the Scriptures and are not left to YOPIOS as many Protestants are.

YOPIOS = Your Oen Personal Interpretation Of Scripture — LOL!

[big'ol_freeper]

What? No naked priests?

Glad to see the compulsion is branching out.