This is funny. It is an assessment of the christianity of the average american, from a holier-than-all-of-thee-is-our-way website.
Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments,
(That is convenience, not ignorance)
..and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels.
(Can christians have bad literary memories? Apparently not
Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.
Now I kinda thot she was too. Funny about these name mix ups. Joan of Ark, get it?)
This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage
(They aren't the specifics of our heritage, now, they are the specifics of the tomes and tenets of the religion.. to pick a gnat ..)
.. may be further evidence of our nation’s educational decline, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much in spiritual or political terms.
(No, it probably doesn't ..)
Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves."
(Well actually, holy guys, it does, maybe not in so many words .. but in many places .. Read the parable of the prodigal son, who buries his gold .. and.. "If any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thess. 3:10) "One who is too lazy to work or who otherwise refuses to provide for his family hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel" etc etc..)
That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical.
(Well, there goes the whole idea of having wisdom and being Christian.. darn just when we were beginning to think we could outsmart those godless folk ...)
Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor.
(Lemme see, the gospel is dangerous.. or merely dangerous to those who would disagree with you?)
On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.
(As if they do indeed! don't they believe apples "fly up".. no, it's fly down, more properly. down, up, what does it matter, as long as you can catch and eat them.. I am glad Newton proved that or thousands would be perched in trees waiting for apples to ripen and take off. )
Asking Christians what Christ taught isn’t a trick ...
(I guess it matters who is marking the answers
.. unless When we say we are a Christian nation — and, overwhelmingly, we do — it means something.
Well, I guess that is the trick ... it meaning something
People who go to church absorb lessons there and make real decisions based on those lessons; increasingly, these lessons inform their politics. (One poll found that 11 percent of U.S. churchgoers were urged by their clergy to vote in a particular way in the 2004 election, up from 6 percent in 2000.) When George Bush says that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher, he may or may not be sincere, but he is reflecting the sincere beliefs of the vast majority of Americans.
hmmmmm, and how do we know they are sincere?
And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior.
New idea.. new paragraph.. or was I not listening.. I thot you were talking about dumbness.. wasn't that supposed to be Christian.. or was it American? Hard to keep up here..
That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.
The culture does appear to lean abit (careen) and perhaps it careers too, (wavers dangerously at a brisk rate).. but French women.. is thinking about that and chocolate too, not the essence of sin? Who is touting these babes anyway? .. la Femme Francais du Monde.. or some such seedy periodical? .. we never believed it for a minute.. we take our chocolate in church, not in some brasserie..
*********
Ours is among the most spiritually homogenous rich nations on earth. Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian.
really? A Gallup poll no doubt)
Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans — about 75 percent — claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week.
these must be man in the street interviews.. 75% sounds high.. if not outright mendacious..
Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice,
(glad you have a level head about it..)
.. it clearly represents aspiration.
(not inspiration, as if yourself )
In fact, there is nothing else that unites more than four fifths of America. Every other statistic one can cite about American behavior is essentially also a measure of the behavior of professed Christians. That’s what America is: a place saturated in Christian identity.
Whew! dumb, forgetful, hypocritical and too wise too boot.. but saturated with Christianity.. who could ask for more! |
