Photo credit: Ann Voskamp and aholyexperience.com. Used with permission.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center indicates that Christians are not as knowledgeable about world religions (including Christianity!) as are atheists. This is disturbing, but not altogether surprising. There have been several trends in evangelical churches during my lifetime. An emphasis on Biblical doctrine and understanding other religions has not been among them.
The Mansfield Group, run by my friend Stephen Mansfield is offering to help foster a “teaching revolution.” If you are a pastor or Christian educator, I strongly urge you to take them up on it.
Why do you think Christians know so little and what do you think the ramifications are?
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That depends. One of the main causes atheists, like myself, give for starting down the path to atheism involves reading and studying a lot of religious doctrine. If there is any truth to that at all (and that is a pretty good sized ‘if’), it wouldn’t be surprising that organized religion wouldn’t encourage their followers to read and study too much.
Thanks for your comment. And I applaud you for your study of religious doctrine. I suspect that the real reason that churches neglect fundamental teaching is because of distraction. We’re more interested in finding ways to be attractive to seekers than we are in instructing believers, or we’re busy being mean to folks who disagree with us. Both behaviors are to our shame if we aren’t teaching the “truth in love” (to borrow a biblical expression). Thanks again for the discussion.