Wednesday, October 08, 2014

The devout are deficient: Study shows Christians are bereft in Bible knowledge


The majority of Americans claim to be committed to their faith. Nearly three out of every four individuals identify themselves as a “Christian.” That said, perhaps it’s time they start reading the Word of God. A study, conducted initially in 2010 and recently updated, shows the devout are rather devoid when it comes to Bible 101.

The study, conducted by the Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project and reported on by the Pacific Standard magazine on Oct. 6, asked over 3,400 Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons and Atheists / Agnostics a total of 32 questions regarding elements of their own faith, knowledge of world religions and the role of religion in public life.

While Jews, Mormons and even those who profess no belief in God all individually answered at least 20 of the 32 questions correctly, Christians came in well under – flunking out with answering only 15.7 questions correctly on average. Catholics were one of the worst performers when it comes to religious academia, scoring only 14.7 of the questions correctly. Read more
Pew's findings regarding the Bible illiteracy of Roman Catholics comes as no surprise.The Roman Catholic Church to my knowledge has never set great store in a Bible-literate laity. What matters to Roman Catholic Church is not their knowledge of the Bible but their acceptance of its teachings. A Bible-literate laity might question those teachings.

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