call crapaud on the wonkette thingy

Post #278,675 by boxley 3/18/07 11:17:43 AM Reply	call crapaud on the wonkette thingy The decline of religious literacy in America began with the \ufffdSecond Great Awakening\ufffd of the 1800s \ufffd a rejection of the Founding Fathers\ufffd Age of Reason and theological knowledge in favor of \ufffdpersonal relationship with God\ufffd quackery that led to today\ufffds brain-dead born-agains. most of the evangelicals spend at least 2 days a week studying the bible (whatever flavor version of the month) to ascribe to them biblical ignorance is ignorant itaself. thanx, bill Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep reach me at [link\|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net\|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
Post #278,693 by Another Scott 3/18/07 12:28:49 PM Reply	Careful. She, and the story, lump too many groups together while talking about the characteristics of smaller subgroups. It's easy to do. While I wouldn't doubt that 90% or so of Americans say they believe in a God (of some sort), that doesn't necessarily mean they know the Bible. They're completely different things. And, in my past experience, attending Bible school and church for a couple of hours a week doesn't mean that you know the Bible any more than anyone else. You might know specific passages well, but the services and classes at most of the churches I attended involved building a sermon around a very few passages and telling stories about them. It certainly wasn't "Oprah's Book Club" or similar applied to the Bible. There's no doubt that many evangelicals (and enthusiastic Christians) can cite Bible passages until the cows come home and would do well on these surveys, I wouldn't be surprised if most of those who put themselves in those groups wouldn't do quite so well - simply because many people don't take the time to read it. One of the things I take from the BU story is that religion in America is a cultural thing like Jamestown and "Remember the Maine!". Most people couldn't tell you the details of what happened, but that's what they believe because, well, that's what they believe. Even if what they believe has nothing to do with reality or orthodoxy. Cheers, Scott.
Post #278,729 by JayMehaffey 3/18/07 4:03:34 PM Reply	Re: call crapaud on the wonkette thingy The decline of religious literacy in America began with the \ufffdSecond Great Awakening\ufffd of the 1800s \ufffd a rejection of the Founding Fathers\ufffd Age of Reason and theological knowledge in favor of \ufffdpersonal relationship with God\ufffd quackery that led to today\ufffds brain-dead born-agains. She may be right in dating the decline to the "Second Great Awakening," but is sorely misguided in connecting it to "personal relationship" religion. Historically personal relationship was the norm in the US, with most Christian worship being private. In fact, it is probably the reverse. As people started going to church and looking to preachers as speaking for God, they had less reason to personally know the bible. most of the evangelicals spend at least 2 days a week studying the bible (whatever flavor version of the month) to ascribe to them biblical ignorance is ignorant itaself. There is a big difference between reading the bible and actually understanding it. A lot of fundamentalist Christians are like Muslims in that they have memorized large sections of their holy book by rote repetition even though they may not know the language it is written in. Jay
Post #278,732 by Andrew Grygus 3/18/07 4:15:26 PM Reply	But to read and . . . . . understand could conflict with the preconceived notions they are using their religion to justify and support. That would be counterproductive now, wouldn't it? [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #278,785 by tuberculosis 3/19/07 2:01:51 AM Reply	Yeah right I've had various evos show up at my door off and on and I, raised as a presbyterian who rejected Jesus Christ as my own personal savior long ago, wiped the floor with them in terms of biblical literacy. I guess the old confirmation classes were good for someting. They don't know their own stuff. FWIW, the same point was made by some evo in some newspaper - his solution was to require bible study as a topic in high school. I4 NOW! Impeach, Indict, Incarcerate, Inject Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice

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