Lack of Knowledge, continued...

This Pew Forum study just gets more and more heartbreaking the closer I look at the results:

Only 19% of self-identified Protestants knew that salvation by faith alone was a tenet of their own faith. Only 9% of Black Protestants knew this.

Only 50% of Christians could correctly name Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, and only 60% knew Genesis is the first book of the Bible.

43% of Christians did not know that 'the Golden Rule' is NOT one of the Ten Commandments.

On 12 questions specific to Christianity and the Bible, Christians got an average of 6.2 correct answers, and atheists and agnostics got an average of 6.7. How can we "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have"[1 Peter 3:15] if those we would witness to know God's Word better than His own followers?

Every Christian teacher and pastor in this country should hang their heads in shame! What are they teaching from the pulpit if their sheep do not know even these basic facts???

Religious commitment level [how often one attends services and how important religion is in one's daily life] did not make a significant difference in the scores, which surprised me. The only variable that made a big difference was educational level. When all other factors were statistically removed, a subject with a college degree answered an average of 7.2 more questions correctly out of the total of 32 than a subject without a high school diploma. This included questions on world religions and geography, so doesn't necessarily mean the same results would hold true if questions were limited to those about Christianity.

I have often taken the 'lazy way out' in my faith, believing that just having the faith of a child was what God desired. That allowed me to feel that increasing my knowledge of scripture and the world around me wasn't very important. After all, a child doesn't have a lot of knowledge, just trust, right?

Today I realize how wrong I have been. Funny how the Lord was already convicting me of this, BEFORE I saw the results of this study. I guess He really wanted to get my attention! Clearly I need to be better prepared, and this study suggests I am not alone.