Posted on 09/29/2010 3:05:05 PM PDT by zippythepinhead
Atheists and agnostics know more about major world religions than many people of faith, while Mormons can answer more Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant counterparts.
Those are among the somewhat startling conclusions about religious literacy in America the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life drew after surveying 3,412 Americans.
Some of the multiple-choice questions were relatively simple: Where was Jesus born and who led the exodus from Egypt? What religion was Mother Teresa, what day does the Jewish Sabbath begin and what is the name of Islam’s holy book?
Others were more obscure: What is Indonesia’s dominant religion? Which Christians teach that salvation comes through faith alone?
About half the Protestants (53 percent) couldn’t correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation. Fewer than half of Americans (47 percent) knew the Dalai Lama is Buddhist and only 38 percent correctly associated Vishnu and Shiva with Hinduism.
John Morehead, director of the Western Institute for Intercultural Studies in Salt Lake City, had already noted religious illiteracy in the general population as well as in the evangelical community. But he did not expect Mormons to top them in their biblical fluency.
“Mormons tend to emphasize Mormon scriptures like the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible in their devotional life,” Morehead said in an e-mail.
Even some LDS scholars were surprised to find Mormons at the top.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
That sounds a little defensive, and reactive, it does not sound confident.
Mormons, black Protestants and white evangelicals are the most frequent readers of materials about religion. Fully half of all Mormons (51%) and roughly three-in-ten white evangelicals (30%) and black Protestants (29%) report that they read books or go online to learn about their own religion at least once a week. Only a small fraction of all religiously affiliated Americans – 6% of the general public and no more than 8% of any religious group – say they read books (other than Scripture) or visit websites to learn about religions other than their own at least once a week.
Those are very sad and low numbers. How can you not read about your religion at least on a weekly basis? How can you "practice" your religion without knowing it?
The studies conclusions aren't clear and possibly they're not meant to be. PEW likes contention, destroying/undermining Western Civilization, and garnering headlines. They've obviously succeeded here.
Tell me more about this, please.
100% here. Ridiculously easy.
Imagine that we're there. Matthew fumbles it, Jesus rebukes, but gently and then turns it into a lesson, right. King's sons don't pay for what is rightfully theirs. Then Jesus to avoid offense calls for a miracle. Peter goes fishing with an unbaited hook. That's something to see and we expect failure, no?
Next he gets a bite and we're surprised and impressed. The fish he lands is a carp, not Kosher and we laugh at his apparent good luck/bad luck classic Hebrew story. He's failed at succeeding, but that's not the end of the story.
He reaches into the fishes mouth and pulls a tetradrachma out. The temple tax is 1/2 Shekel and for two it would be one Shekel. What a miracle and being there we'd experience it in all the emotion it evokes. Jesus doesn't pay the tax at all, it is provided miraculously for him and his disciple.
Now, getting back to the thief on the cross the story is given to express something important to believers. What is it? Jesus says, "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise." He uses paradeisō (paradise - a park, an Eden, of Persian origin meaning an enclosure - obviously a positive/good place), but he doesn't use ouranois. Why?
When Jesus's body was finally bathed and wrapped and left in the tomb and a guard placed there at the huge stone which had been rolled into place shutting the opening, the disciples acted like they believe the Romans and Sanhedrin would be hunting them down.
They were in deep sorrow, despite all the teaching Jesus had been giving them for the weeks leading up to entering Jerusalem. These men who had witnessed astonishing miracles at His hand were defeated by death.
He must have been expounding for them from the Jewish texts and had given them strong hints that He would be delivered up for death and three days later arise, He even cited Moses lifting up the serpeant in the Desert and Jonah three days in the belly of the fish.
Yet these men were huddled away and didn't believe it when the women came back to tell them He Is Risen! To his credit, Peter did hurry off to the tomb to check their stories, and young John run on ahead to reach the opened tomb first. But then we have the two on the road to Emmaus who were not in belief that He had risen, not accepting the women's story. And when He joined them on the road they asked if He was new in Jerusalem and didn't hear about the big commotion over the weekend. To these He also opened the scriptures, enumerating all from Moses to the end of books what was written about Him.
I believe it was what He said right before giving up the ghost that put them into such a funk. He called out in Aramaic (from his man self void of the Holy Spirit so he could die), 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani' which is interpreted, 'Lord, Lord, why hast thou foresaken me?' Jesus, Who had known no sin in His life because His seed of the Holy Spirit remained within Him constantly was suddenly without the God Spirit in Him and He died! Even members of the Sanhedrin came by while He was dying ont he cross and shook their heads, saying 'He saved others but cannot save himself.' There was a tremendous secret being worked out!
That must have devastated these men who had come to believe He was God with them and was about to found the New Jewish Kingdom. He was God with them, while God Spirit/Holy Spirit remained within Him. But he died as a man, weighed down with the sin of our transgressions. THAT was the part the disciples did not anticipate.
BTW, we must have been typing our responses at the same time. You have started it, and I am enjoying it very much.
>>but one thing that they all agree on is, MORMONISM IS NOT CHRISTIAN.<<
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, the MAIN thing they agree on is that Jesus is fully God and fully man and he died once for all. That his blood is a complete and total atonement for ones sins if one simply believes in and on Jesus as their personal savior.
Mormonism teaches something else. And the whole personality of God is very different with Mormonism. Christian churches teach Satan is a created being. Mormonism teaches that he is Jesus’ brother.
And that’s just for starters.
>>How can you dislike any religion, but are okay with it’s members (which constitute that religion)?<<
I hate Islam and consider muslims its primary victims. Mormonism and Islam are belief systems. The members are people that can be turned around.
Well, we agree on this. 100% for me also.
"Paying the price for our redemption in the garden of Gethsemane ..."
Multiple choice. How hard can it be?
I think it goes off the rails on the second line of the Apostles Creed.
Well, think of it. 15 questions...each (right) Q worth 6.7 % points.
And, because on average, Lds answered 1/2 question more right than white Evangelicals, they get lauded as game-show Bible trivia champs!
(Yeah, right...so if I prophesied you'd be born in the "Zion" state of Utah in a town called Hildale...and you were actually born 8 miles away in the town of Colorado City, AZ, that'd be "close nough" eh?)
Or, if Mormon Christmas carol writers started writing about how Jesus was born in Jerusalem, that'd be OK with you?
Or if Mormon leaders started crossing off Bethlehem in their carols and Christmas cards, and started inserting "Jerusalem," that'd be OK?
Or, are you now telling the Pew Forum folks who did this survey that if anybody answered "Jerusalem" as Jesus' birthplace on this survey, that their answer was correct, too??? [Jerusalem was one of the multiple-choice options on this quiz]
To answer your Q, all you have to do is to be familiar with the New Testament and know that Christians teach we do have a Living Prophet. (His Name is Jesus Christ)
But, of course, this is a "good example" where the Mormons pick and choose which verses they want to honor from the Bible -- and which they choose to ignore or have the Book of mormon or D&C trump.
Hebrews 1:1-2: 1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Tell us, MissesBush. Just how long have you and other Mormons flunked a quiz on Hebrews 1:1-2 and have had major issues with defining words like "past"??? (And here we have such great irony where the writer of Hebrews uses the term "last days" -- and we have "latter-day" Saints who choose to ignore express Biblical passages about the "last days" and usurp Jesus as the Living Prophet with a mere man who HAS to reside in Salt Lake City!!!)
I suppose that's just one of the inaccuracies they would claim are wrong in the scriptures. Amazing how all the cults and false religions attempt to re-write history...they do have that in common with Progressives!
Isnt that what most Christians believe, that Jesus saved us, but we have to follow his laws to accept it? Or can you do anything you want, murder, rape, steal, and still get to Heaven because Jesus died for everyone’s sins?
"I happen to believe the place where Jesus took the thief is the same where/when from which He reached out to write on Belshazzar's wall..."
Maybe the same place He took Enoch and Elijah? The same place they will step from and onto the temple mount during the AC's reign?
Great little sidebar you have going,would make a great thread.
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