Religious literacy - Lack of facts distorts opinions.

Chapter four

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts

So when I finished graduate school and became a professor myself, I told students that I didn’t care about facts. I cared about having challenging conversations, and I offered my quiz-free classrooms as places to do just that. I soon found, however, that the challenging conversations I coveted were not possible without some common knowledge—common knowledge my students plainly lacked. And so, quite against my prior inclinations, I began testing them on simple terms. In my world religions classes I told my students that before we could discuss in any detail the great religious traditions of the world, we would need to have some shared vocabulary in each, some basic religious literacy.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 4). HarperOne. Kindle Edition. 

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations but seem woefully ignorant about religious matters. How one is to carry out the third principle is a mystery without some basic knowledge of world religions.

Most of the Unitarian Univeralists I have met are from other faith traditions or none. Only a minority of current UUs were raised in the faith. The likelihood that a UU would be in a congregation of people who were raised in other faith traditions or none is very high. As Stephen Prothero mentions above about meaningful conversations with his students about religion is difficult, if not impossible, without a common vocabulary and some common knowledge. So to what extent are UUs hamstrung in carrying out their third principle without some degree of religious literacy? To what extent do UU congregations provide services and activities to enhance religious literacy in their congregations? To what extent are congregational members even interested? To what extent is enhancement of religious literacy ever stated as a congregational goal?

UUs seem to enjoy expounding and bloviating about religious and spiritual matters, especially the ministers, but without some basic religious literacy such speech is as, St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians, 13:1, a “resounding gong and a clanging cymbal.” St. Paul’s whole statement was, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” The point is that to speak in spite of  naive or willful ignorance is not loving.

Religious literacy - Is ignorance really bliss?

Religious ignorance was also rife after 9/11 in Washington DC, where, I soon learned to my dismay, hardly anyone spoke Arabic or understood the basics of Islam. And so the nation was treated for months to theology by sound bite. 

“Islam is peace,” President Bush stated repeatedly, as if that mantra were all Americans needed to know about the Islamic tradition. 

Meanwhile, the televangelist Jerry Falwell denounced Muhammad as “a terrorist,” and Paul Weyrich and William Lind, prominent voices in American conservatism, called Islam “a religion of war.”3 Who was right? 

Unfortunately, Americans had no way to judge, because, when it comes to understanding the Islamic tradition, most Americans are kindergarteners at best.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 3). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

When religious illiteracy is dangerous is when Americans who are thought to be knowledgable particpants in their government know nothing about world religions and their ignorance is used as a weapon against them by authorities who would manipulate them in cooperating with self serving and dysfunctional policies.

Most Americans know nothing about Islam, wouldn't know a Shite from a Sunni and yet support a trillion dollar war with their tax dollars against middle eastern countries. Is this kind of ignorance a sin?

So many times people say, "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it." The questions of course are "Why didn't you know?" "Should you have known?"

Americans have a responsibility as participants in their governmental operations, if by doing nothing more than voting, to know what they are doing. Is ignorance an excuse for consenting and supporting evil?

Consent, to be legitimate, needs to be informed. Consent and informed consent are often two different things. It is easy to manipulate ignorant people into giving consent for things they no nothing about. Who bears the bigger responsibility, the manipulator or the manipulated? This of course is an unfair dichotomy, because they both do.

Religious literacy - Names of scriptures of major world religions.

It begins with a paradox I had been wrestling with for some time when my Austrian colleague helped to clarify it for me. That paradox is this: Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion. They are Protestants who can’t name the four Gospels, Catholics who can’t name the seven sacraments, and Jews who can’t name the five books of Moses. Atheists may be as rare in America as Jesus-loving politicians are in Europe, but here faith is almost entirely devoid of content. One of the most religious countries on earth is also a nation of religious illiterates.1

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 1). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

What are the harms done in our society because of religious illiteracy? What are the harms done to Unitarian Universalists due to their religious illiteracy?

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the third of which is acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. How is this to be accomplished from a place of ignorance? It would seem that a basic course in faith development for UUs would be an overview course in world religions and how these religions have shared cultures and society and how cultures and society have shaped them.

It seems that most Americans which includes UUs can’t name the major scriptures of the major religions. Go ahead and give it a try. What are the major scriptures of  the world’s biggest religions: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, and here in the U.S. Mormonism? Answers are in the comments. Let us know who you did on the quiz.

Religious literacy - American ignorance - Six sources of UU living tradition.

A few years ago I was standing around the photocopier in Boston University’s Department of Religion when a visiting professor from Austria offered a passing observation about American undergraduates. They are very religious, he told me, but they know next to nothing about religion. Thanks to compulsory religious education (which in Austria begins in elementary schools), European students can name the twelve apostles and the Seven Deadly Sins, but they wouldn’t be caught dead going to church or synagogue themselves. American students are just the opposite. Here faith without understanding is the standard; here religious ignorance is bliss.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 1). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Stephen Prothero is his book Relgious Literacy observes how ignorant Americans are of religion. I have found this to be true especially of Christians in the U.S. and every more true of Unitarian Univeralists.

UUs state that they draw their "living tradtion" from many sources and commonly name six. If most UUs were asked what those six sources are they couldn't tell you and if they could name a few they couldn't tell you much about any of them.

That there is a clear weakness in religious literacy among UUs in general seems clear. Today, a new feature is being initiated on UU A Way Of Life which will deal with the religious literacy problem in Unitarian Univeralism and in the country. A good place to begin our study is to name the six sources of the living tradtion of Unitarian Univeralism. How many can you name?

Find the answer in the first comment.