Religious knowledge

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published results of its U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey.  On average, Americans correctly answered half of the questions about basic religious knowledge.

Think you can do better? Take a short version of the quiz here.

Misleading headlines

The quiz made headlines because atheists/agnostics scored highest and Jews and Mormons also scored higher than Protestants of all varieties and Catholics.  Results like that are a headline-writer's dream.

But, as Jim Denison, president of the Center for Informed Faith and theologian-in-residence for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, correctly notes, the broad results are misleading.

For example, white evangelical Christians scored  higher on questions about the Bible and Christianity (an average of 7.3 correct answers out of 12 questions) than did atheists and agnostics (6.7 correct answers). However, Mormons—whom most evangelicals don't consider Christians—scored the highest in this category, with an average of 7.9 correct answers.

Atheists and agnostics made up for lost ground in the other categories. They earned the top scores on questions about world religions and religion in public life. They significantly out-paced both Protestants and Catholics.

Excuse; no reason

As Denison accurately reports, the vast majority of people actively affiliated with a faith rarely, if ever, read about other faiths. That's a valid reason for Christians' poor overall score, but it's hardly an excuse. And Denison would agree.

The Pew survey illustrates the fact churches need to do a much better job educating Christians—not only about the Bible and tenets of our faith, but also about the beliefs of others. If we want to be effective at reaching others with the gospel, we must know and understand them. We can't expect to convince Muslims, atheists or agnostics about the truth of our faith if we're ignorant of theirs.

So, take the test and see if you need to brush up on your knowledge of religion.