Religiously Illiterate that is.

This week I have been reading Stephen Prothero’s masterwork Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know- And Doesn’t. Prothero’s “radical” idea that religion should be taught in public schools got a little play earlier this year when his ideas were featured in the April 2nd issue of TIME. In the article The Case for Teaching the Bible author David Van Biema quotes some staggering statistics from Prothero’s book.

According to Religious Literacy, polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the Bible holds the answers to “all or most of life’s basic questions,” but pollster George Gallup has dubbed us “a nation of biblical illiterates.” Only half of U.S. adults know the title of even one Gospel. Most can’t name the Bible’s first book. The trend extends even to Evangelicals, only 44% of whose teens could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.

As a minister I know that these statistics are sadly the rules and not the exceptions. I get frustrated very quickly when I find that I cannot lead a Bible class or a religious discussion very far or deep because students (and adults) have a very, very limited working knowledge of Scripture.

At the outset of the book, Prothero provides the reader with a copy of a Religious Literacy Quiz that he gave to his university students in the Spring of 2006.

I took Prothero’s quiz and scored a 45 out of 50.

Are you interested in how you would fare in this basic exam? Many of you that read this blog grew up in a conservative background where you were at church if the doors were open and many of you were leaders in youth group and at school and you have continued to lead in the workplace. I know that you take your faith seriously. I think that many of you can pass this quiz with flying colors.

I have provided the quiz below and I will post the answers in the comment section. I am interested in how well you fared taking the quiz so leave a comment with your score or with comments on what you think about the quiz or teaching religion in schools. Good luck.

Religious Literacy Quiz
1) Name the four Gospels. List as many as you can.
2) Name a sacred text of Hinduism.
3) What is the name of the holy book of Islam?
4) Where according to the Bible was Jesus born?
5) Pres. George W. Bush spoke in his first inaugural address of the Jericho road. What Bible story was he invoking?
6) What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament?
7) What is the Golden Rule?
8) “God helps those who help themselves”: Is this in the Bible? If so, where?
9) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God”: Does this appear in the Bible? If so, where?
10) Name the Ten Commandments. List as many as you can.
11) Name the four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
12) What are the seven sacraments of Catholicism? List as many as you can.
13) The First Amendment says two things about religion, each with its own “clause.” What are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment?
14) What is Ramadan? In what religion is it celebrated?
15) Match the Bible characters with the stories in which they appear. Some characters may be matched with more than one story or vise versa.

1. Adam and Eve
2. Paul
3. Moses
4. Noah
5. Jesus
6. Abraham
7. Serpent

a. Exodus
b. Binding of Isaac
c. Olive Branch
d. Garden of Eden
e. Parting of the Red Sea
f. Road to Damascus
g. Garden of Gethsemane