Sodom and Gomorrah Were Married????
Friday, March 16, 2007 at 03:07PM 
It certainly comes as no surprise that people don't know much about Christianity, or even religion in general. According to a recent USA Today article (Click here: Americans get an 'F' in religion - USATODAY.com), when asked, 50% of high school seniors thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple! 60% couldn't name even five of the Ten Commandments.
As to the latter, that's actually better than the results White Horse Inn producer, Shane Rosenthal got when he asked these same questions at the Christian Bookseller's convention some years ago. My guess is that those who could name only some of the commandments, named only "second table" commands, like those prohibiting adultery, theft and murder. They probably don't know enough about God to know any of the first four commandments.
OK, so we all know this is the case. Why another article (or post) on this? The author of a new book addressing the topic of the general ignorance of religion in America (Stephen Prothro, from Boston University, who describes himself as a "confused Christian" -- of course, he was raised Episcopalian), makes an important point. Ignorance of these things is not just sad, it is dangerous. His solution is to sell his book (Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know)! That's not quite mine.
Prothro does make the important point that ignorance of Christianity and other world religions is no longer an item of trivia or a sad commentary on American morality. It is now a dangerous thing when most people don't know even the basic differences (doctrine, history and culture) between Christianity and Islam, or between Islam and Judaism. Not knowing these things, how then can they understand why the Shias and Sunnis are fighting over Baghdad? Why are Muslims so dead set against Israel occupying Palestine and especially the city of Jerusalem? And what about all the religious images invoked on the evening news from the apocalyptic zealot who runs Iran (and may soon have the bomb), to something seemingly mundane, like Bush misquoting the Bible to make a political point?
While the debate rages about how to teach religion in the public schools--a sign to me that we are deeply in trouble--Protho's thesis is important. For the well-being of the American republic, people need to know these things! People who don't know these things, nevertheless still vote and determine public policy as well as foreign policy.
Meanwhile, it is vital that churches get to work. We must do our best to ensure that Christians know the Scriptures, that they are catechized in the great doctrines of the faith, and that they are taught basic apologetics along with the tools of evangelism. But churches should also be equipping their members to know the doctrinal, historical and cultural differences between Islam, Christianity and Judaism! The secular public has an excuse. We do not.
So, when 50% of high-schoolers think Sodom and Gomorrah were married, its more than a sign of ignorance--it is a warning. Especially, when I notice the new Mosque down the street is packed out on Friday afternoons and I know they are not taking these matters lightly.
Your thoughts?
Reader Comments (47)
"So one important question to consider at the outset of this diablog is this: to what extent does eschatology determine one’s understanding of the relationship between church and state? Is the idea of a Christian America a hangover of postmillennial optimism (with premillennialism being the pessimistic flipside)? In other words, is the spirituality of the church (a topic to be discussed more fully in later weeks) merely the logical consequence of amillennialism?"
obviously, the question proper is getting to another topic altogether, so i do apologize if this tempts some to get off topic, but what he suggests seems relevant. again, what i discern in comments by good presbyterians like hart is a view of premil being pessimistic and postmil being optimistic, while a good amil view leads us to take another, more sober tack as we examine and consider our world around us, one that is not necessarily given to undue pessimism nor optimism.
zrim
The amill position is: "The ship is sinking, but polish the brass anyway."
The amill position does keep you from making predictions, but that comes from the "nobody knows the day or the hour" aspect. Jesus other statements definitely leave you to believe that the church age will be marked by increasing evil. Also, the binding of Satan relates to allowing the spread of the Gospel, not the amount of evil on earth.
yes, that comports with understanding of amil eschatology as well. i am usually tempted to add to that, "...but not because your polishing will keep the boat afloat and we will get to shore on it somehow (contra postmil implications))...put on your lifejackets (which is Christ) because that is the only way to get to shore. in the meantime, take care of this ship because it matters because God has pronounced it very good, while also doling out as many lifejackets to those around you as possible (contra more gnostic premil implications)."
i am still not persuaded that your take on "increasing evil" comprts very well with what i read in amil models. "not knowing the hour" is certainly an aspect i certainly always see comporting under the amil position, a piece of the whole, if you will. i find it more in keeping to speak in terms of whole systems rather than plucking out verses here or there (which tends to seem just more biblicistic--is that a word?:)).
also, how will we know what "increasing evil" is since down through history we have seen relative give and take, which is relative also to time and place? that "increasing evil" notion seems highly subjectivistic and vulnerable to sinful human interpretation, which is unreliable.
zrim
zrim
I don't think we will know. But before the flood, there was increasing evil on the earth. "God was grieved he made man." Increasing evil is still not a reliable predictor of anything. There's still no basis upon which to make any predictions. Where in Scripture does it give us any metric of how evil is evil enough?
now you are sounding like me!
yes, exactly. how will we know? it seems to me that when folks want to argue this notion that "evil will increase" it seems to be whatever pet issues they have which are pointed to in order to us to make the case. i hate using the the term 'pet issue' since it can trivialize someone's legit concern for our world. but it always seems very predictable that when a sort of doom's day tone is invoked what follows as the "case in point" concrete is whatever is on the person's particular radar screen (rise of islam, terrorism, etc.). again, it's not that any specific concern is not legit per se, but to point to it to suggest either directly or indirectly that the sky is about to fall just doesn't seem in keeping.
my premil MIL, who predictabley takes a doomsday tone, likes to point to all the "sex, drugs and rock and roll and fractured families" and how things were so much better "in her day." ok, so families are more fractured these days--doesn't mean His return is around the bend. but to believe things are going to pot not only tantalizes our prediliction for drama, it seems to be in a premil view's best interst to suggest such things since it may mean ours is the last generation on the brink of the new age. premil worries tend to forget any advancements or things that point to betterment.
at the same time with postmilers, as i discuss these things with postmilers in my own church, they love to point out how we live in such a great age, how christendom is a good thing, etc., etc. this tends to breed an arrogance about people from another time and place. i will be aksed, "are you seriously suggesting that things are NOT now better than in jesus' time?" i say, "of course. to believe that our time and place is better is just plain arrogant." "well, are you saying you wouldn't mind living back then as opposed to now?" "of course not! i would rather live in my time and place *because it's my time and place*, but not because it's better." as with premil worries, postmil fantasies seem to revolve around what the speaker thinks are advancements and forgets about things that have broken down in the modern time.
zrim
Personally, I don't think they were ever married ... but it sure looks to me like Echo-ohcE and the Roman Catholic Church are divorced!
For western civilization, the sky is pretty clearly falling. Recall, it's been around since 500 BC. Before that ancient NE civilizations were dominant. It's not real clear what will take its place. I'm not quite sure why making predictions about the future by looking at relevant cultural data are not in keeping with reformed confessionalism. Schaeffer and Machen were very good at such things. I would argue that it's very healthy.
i think that is a matter of interpretation, but the case can be made compellingly, sure. yet at the same time, if so, we do well not to pin our hopes on the republic, wouldn't you say? i do not mean to unduly diminish the importance of any aspect of our world of course, but at the same time we are pilgrims whose home is not here; our trust is not placed in the fading ways of this world, good as it may be. it is passing away.
"I'm not quite sure why making predictions about the future by looking at relevant cultural data are not in keeping with reformed confessionalism. Schaeffer and Machen were very good at such things. I would argue that it's very healthy."
i am not at all suggesting there is no place for making predictions. that would be rather absurd, i agree. but to interpret certain indicators as to perhaps suggest our time is unlike any other is where i furl my brow (unique, yes, but surpassing others, no) .
i am also not sold on the idea that the stuff of USAToday is a tool of relevant cultural data--it has more of an entertainment value, i think. like i said, it's about two rungs up from leno's man on the street routine. and we do well not to let info-tainment be our guide, that's all.
zrim
With Radical Islam getting its hands on nuclear weapons it may very well be unlike any time in known history.
If our good friends Russia and China (double barf) turn out to still be evil enemies ( hint...who exactly supplies Iran with virtually everything nuclear), we may see them plus Islam take on the west together to divide up the spoils.
I am amil, and I believe when satan is unloosed at the end of the age it will be worse than what we've seen with guys like Hitler,Stalin, Khan, Pol Pot, Mohammed, etc. What makes the most sense to me is the unleashing of nuclear weapons. I coulds of course be very wrong.
Also, if you track the development of modern agriculture and hybrid crops dependent on heavy use of fertilizers and Montsanto seeds ( grown primarily outside the USA,) it is- apart from trust in God's sovereignty- terrifying. It would be so easy to lose an entire harvest. Our grain stocks used to be a few years, under Clinton it was reduced to a couple months. Increasingly the third world is using hybrid seed too.
NEVER in known history have we had nuclear weapons available to Muslim fanatics, or the loss of seed grain in the hands of every farmer from harvest to harvest, on such a global scale. I would not be surprised if we are close to the end of the mil ( much as I hate to agree with the dispys about anything, I think we could be near the end)
"In other words, we had already taken one giant step toward the contemporary era in which morality is the essence of religion and the term Christian connotes opposition to abortion and gay marriage rather than faith in the incarnation and the redemption-an era in which having a relationship with Jesus is more important than knowing what he actually did, in which believing the Bible matters more than knowing what the Bible has to say. More than the forces of secularism, it was this sort of religion that would do religious literacy in."p.86
I'm only about half-way thru the book but I can't help thinking he might be listening to the WHI.
carolyn, i think you are missing me when i try to make a distinction between uniqueness and absolute, unparalleled phenomenon. of course "radical islam has never had its hands on nuclear weapons." but there was a point in time when *nobody* had their hands on them! in every point in history any generation can say "this unlike any other" due to its being a unique time. we could say our time is unlike that of the 30's and 40's in that we *don't* have a third reich; before the third reich we could say the same thing.
"What makes the most sense to me is the unleashing of nuclear weapons. I coulds of course be very wrong."
nuclear weapons are what seems the worst to you because that is your present template for world catastrophe (like every other modern person). don't you think something can supercede nukes? at one point in time nobody could fathom anything worse than the roman army devastating the world.
your last paragraph seems to help make my point, carolyn. that little bit of speculation on your part about what would constitute "hell on earth" presses you to say you think "we are close to the end of the mil." true, the end is at hand and always near, but that has always seemed to me to be a commentary on our absolute ignornace of these things to come. when we are ignorant and we don't know what's behind the door that is sure to open eventually, we do well to go about our tasks as if it's about to open, even if the one who is going to open it is yet 10 miles across town. i don't mean this to provoke you but to make a point: your speculation sounds a lot like a spooked person who stops everyone from doing their tasks saying, "what was that? did you hear that? i think the door is about to open. i heard something." maybe you did, maybe, as you say ("i could be wrong"), you didn't. but likely, you didn't. and besides, it is keeping the rest of us from our tasks. the door will open. but the creaks you hear have always been creaking, it seems to me. maybe they are a higher pitch or whatever. but don't get too distracted with them.
zrim
HAHAHAHA
E
hope you are right :)
But think of this one word:
Electricity.
The entire western world....refineries, gasoline and diesel for trucks that bring us food and for farm machinery, pharmaceutical labs to make medicine.
Water out of the tap, sewers to carry away the waste, lights and refridgerators and hot water heaters and washing machines.
Food, pampers and formula and vaccinations and crayons and shoes. Hospitals, dentists, advil, bandaids.
All it takes is a couple mid air bursts and the entire continental USA will go dark...for months, maybe years. Nearly every appliance, most cars and trucks....after the EMP its all over. (A few in Europe and South America, and a retaliation on our part....the globe goes dark.)
Even the Amish depend on propane and hardware stores.
This is unlike any scenario in history. This will make Lamentations where women ate their babies look like a picnic in the park. I would guess you and I might well end up in somebody's stewpot.
Personally, with nuclear proliferation and the rise of Islam, I see it as a question of when, not if.
Thanks for the references! I really appreciate it.
They ought not to shake my faith, but if it is all the same to you (and I know it isn't) I'll turn to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions! :)
Thanks again!
They're not smart enough to make those.
Even though I'm agnostic, I recognize that I *should* pass on some measure of religious literacy, but for those of us who don't believe the stories, it's hard to pass them on while trying to maintain a distance from the religion the stories represent.
http://whatthewestneedstoknow.com/
That video looks pretty interesting. I have long thought that the notion that Islam is a religion of peace is a misnomer. But it turns out, even Muslims know this is not true, but say so anyway. That's outrageous, especially when they say that it's ok to lie to advance the cause of Islam. Crazy!
How long, sovereign Lord?
E
As an agnostic, I'd be interested in what you have to say about this question. Do you say that you simply don't know if God exists, or do you say that you cannot know if God exists? I'd like to know what you mean by agnostic.
E
How long, sovereign Lord?
E"
It's getting to be pretty important that every Christian know what they believe. Start here: http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Islam-Crusades/dp/0895260131/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-6312578-8443231?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174365383&sr=8-2
I know KR will give a hearty enorsement to Robert Spencer. www.jihadwatch.com is good also. Or just read chapter 9, verse 29 of the Qur'an. It abrogates earlier teachings on jihad.