A religious knowledge survey conducted in the United States by the Pew Research Center was released September 28, 2010. While the survey reveals an almost-expected lack of knowledge about other religions of the world, it also shows that Americans don’t know much about their own, personally professed religion, either!

Thirty-two questions were asked in the phone survey. There is a fifteen-question online survey for curious people like me, which I took. I scored 100% – 15 correct answers on 15 questions. The average score for those surveyed was 50%. The fact that I scored 100% compared to professing observers scoring only 50%, to me, is a very telling one because I don’t attend church or Bible study. Yes, I have studied the Bible in the past and, on occasion in recent history, have read through sections searching for proof of certain claims being spouted by others.

My comparison, though, was not totally out of line. A number of questions were asked to identify the resopndent’s religious group, if any. That allowed the folks at Pew Research to break down survey results by "religiosity," if you’ll pardon me creating a word.

Correct Answers by Group

Atheists and Agnostics answered more questions correctly than people who profess religious affiliation. Can you name one of the most popular Christmas songs? How about O Little Town of Bethlehem? Yet, only 71% of those surveyed knew that Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, was born in Bethlehem. Every year, several times a year, a movie called The Ten Commandments is shown on television. The movie is based on the second Book of the Bible, Exodus. Yet only 72% of respondents knew who led the exodus out of Egypt. But that may not be suprising in light of the fact that only 63% knew what the first Book of the Bible is.

Thirty-seven percent read the Bible or other Holy Scriptures at least once a week. That might explain who it was that knew the first Book of the Bible is Genesis but, think about this; 63% of those surveyed do not read the Holy Scriptures of their own religion! Thirty percent of white evangelicals and twenty-nine percent of black protestants reported that they read books or went online weekly to learn more about their own religion. That low number is sad enough but when it comes to reading books or going online to learn about other religions, the national average is 7% with no group scoring higher than 8%.

Do you know who Joseph Smith is? 51% of those surveyed correctly identified him. Only 44% knew that the Mormon religion was founded in the 1800s and only 40% knew that the Book of Mormon tells the story of Jesus appearing to people in the Americas. For more information about Mormons, you might want to read, Mitt Romney Believes What?.

A Disturbing Religious and Political Reality

The Pew Report states, "Previous surveys by the Pew Research Center have shown that America is among the most religious of the world’s developed nations. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults say that religion is ‘very important’ in their lives, and roughly four-in-ten say they attend worship services at least once a week. But the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey shows that large numbers of Americans are uninformed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of major faith traditions — including their own."

Furthermore, the report states, "More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43%) do not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated rabbis in history, was Jewish."

The Religious Right wields a strong influence on the Republican Party and, thus, on politics and government in the United States. Their primary goals, it appears, are lifestyle in nature. They are behind the Pro Life (anti-abortion) movement, and gun ownership, among others. Politically, they speak of lassiez-faire capitalism, gun ownership and government support of non-public schools.

They sometimes claim elitism as Pat Buchanan did in a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, "Our culture is superior to other cultures, superior because our religion is Christianity." And, they preach fear. "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different…It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-biased media and the homosexuals who want to destroy all Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination are the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in our history." – Pat Robertson

"… those of the humanistic stripe want to see all Bibles banned in America." – Jimmy Swaggert

I mentioned Mr. Robertson and Mr. Buchanan because they have run for President of the United States. Mormon Mitt Romney and Baptist Mike Huckabee are considered to be presidential contenders for the future, as they were in 2008. Both Romney and Huckabee would like to see Roe vs. Wade repealed, and Huckabee would sponsor a Constitution Amendment to outlaw abortion in the United States.

So, What is Smaller government?

The Religious Right and ideas espoused by their political leaders shout for smaller government – in some instances. Huckabee had advocated doing away with the Internal Revenue Service. Others want to get rid of the Department of Education. Okay, that’s smaller in size. What about smaller in scope?

Should abortion, gay rights, legalization of marijuana, and other such issues be left to the states to determine, or should the federal government enforce a rule on the states? Currently there is such a federal law against marijuana use that will trump the state laws if the matter goes to court. When it comes to abortion, Huckabee wants a Constitutional Amendment that would take the issue out of state control. When governor of Arkansas, Huckabee signed into law a prohibition of same-sex marriage and stated his opposition to legal civil unions for gays and lesbians.

Having the federal government in the bedroom or den or listening on your cell phone or monitoring your computer usage is BIG government – in scope. In a land known for freedom, intervention by the government to limit freedom is BIG government – in scope.

I agree that the Second Amendment guarantees much to gun owners. But, shouldn’t government be big enough to outlaw guns and ammunition designed to be used against law enforcement officers and, yes, political officials?

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution greatly increased the Scope of Government. It states, in part, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…" In other words, if federal law grants a privilege or immunity to its citizens, no state can do otherwise. If the scope is limited on a federal level, then the states would be free to restrict privileges or immunities.

Religious Power in America

The question becomes this: Should power to influence both the size and scope of government be given to religious groups who know very little about their own religion and virtually nothing about the many other religions practicing in the United States?

It should be a rule (Bill Maher, take note) that you should, at the very least, know why you believe what you believe before forcing that belief on others. With 63% of you not even reading the Holy Scriptures you believe others should live by, well, it’s a little difficult to take you seriously.

You can correct that. And, in a way, I think the founder of your religion would really want you to know more about it. How can you evangelize or recruit others when you don’t know what it is or why you’re doing it? And, how do you know what you are supposed to be doing?

The survey shows that while American citizens claim we live in a Christian nation, we may not. Saying you are a Christian is not the same as being one.

For more information about the U. S. Religious Knowledge Survey, click this link.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

September 11, 2009 – America remembered the anniversary of events that sent the country into mourning the loss of some and resolve to seek retribution. The country was both stunned and united in spirit. Eight years earlier, freedom was assaulted.

Not far from the sixteen-acre site that was known as the World Trade Center stands the Statue of Liberty, a beacon to everyone, everywhere that America stands for freedom.

Americans are free to choose where they live. Americans can choose where they work. Americans can choose whether or not to participate in any of a number of religions. No terrorist group can take away those freedoms. They can knock down buildings; they can slaughter innocent American citizens, but they cannot destroy freedom.

Americans are free to argue among themselves about freedom, itself. How do we define freedom or, more importantly, how do we practice freedom? Freedom cannot be defined by any means other than how it is practiced by the population. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th Century French philosopher who was born in Switzerland, wrote, "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains."

No one would argue that certain freedoms must be sacrificed in order to participate in an organized society. No person is free to rape or rob or murder another person. Common sense causes us to put on chains that prevent us from doing certain things. But common sense does not always rule the day. Some might say that common sense rarely rules the day.

Americans have the freedom to choose other chains that restrict how they live. The unbridaled use of credit is one example of how many citizens chose to limit themselves. We are not free to do whatever we want when we are chained financially to someone or something else. And, of course, there are a number of citizens who want to restrict the freedoms of other citizens.

Don’t you find it interesting that we proclaim as shameful the way women are treated in some countries because of religious dictates while many Americans want to restrict others based on religious dictates? There can be no religious freedom if it must be based upon the interpretation of another religion.

Freedom is defined by choices. Freedom is chained when choices are chained.