January 18, 2010
Ignorance allows certainty, but punishes with narrowness. Ignorance grants ease of mind, but produces costly errors.
No place is this more evident in American culture than in those ignorant of Christianity. They think they know what Christians believe, but do not. They cheerfully dismiss with almost no thought serious truth claims made by religious thinkers. They revel in the writings of religious know-nothings who reinforce a smug and complacent set of stereotypes.
Like racists in the Old South, they look for confirmation of their opinions and avoid anyone who would challenge them. They know the names of fallen or foolish television evangelists, but not the works of serious thinkers like USC philosopher Dallas Willard.
I have met college-educated Americans who could not recognize the Biblical language or Christian arguments in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. They knew so little about the Faith of the vast majority of Americans who have ever lived, that when Abraham Lincoln spoke of a "house divided" in yet another speech, they did not recognize the Biblical reference.
I know students who are given copies of John Locke's political writings that have most of the Biblical arguments or religious language carefully removed. They don't know he was a Christian apologist. He was one of the chief intellectual sources used to defend the American Revolution and form our new government and so he must be secular. It is as if we hope that John Locke were really David Hume!
The recent tempest over Sarah Palin saying she felt God had called her to run for office and Britt Hume having the temerity to say that Christianity could help Tiger Woods is a great example. Most Americans are not disturbed, but more insular worlds such as education or mainstream media, are consumed with horror.
Like segregationists shocked to discover that not all their neighbors of color are happy being bearers of wood and carriers of water, the religiously ignorant man cries, "Who are these people?"
They are millions of your neighbors, some saints and some cads, some smart and some ignorant. They are Christians.
Sarah Palin and Britt Hume think Christianity is true, not just a cheerful private opinion. This may be wrong, quite wrong, but it is not obviously wrong. Alvin Plantinga, Notre Dame philosopher, agrees; along with Arizona Cardinal's quarterback Kurt Warner, and a billion other people on the earth.
The vast numbers don't prove Christianity is right, but it shouldn't strike us as odd when one member of the billion strong cohort believers happens to express their belief in public. It might be a good idea if more of non-Christians knew why philosophers, quarterbacks, plumbers, and priests all think that Jesus should run your life.
We separate church and state-not church and life. Christians think their belief system is correct and it would be weird if they didn't make this obvious by their behavior and talk.
There are so many millions of believers in the United States that it is a sign of their manners that religion does not saturate even more of American life.
Religious education for those outside of a religion in this nation is a joke. Where it exists, it consists of dry descriptions and believers are treated as exotic objects of study. This is despite the fact the majority of Americans and human beings in the world have these beliefs.
Students aren't taught why people (in fact as much as one out of every six living human beings), would choose to be Christian. They don't even know most Christians are in the "third world," and that the faith is booming in China.
This education should not be limited to Christianity, of course. I don't think Islam is generally right, but at least I should know why some of my smart friends think it is. Any educated person should read the best advocates for the world's great faiths. All of us should take a hard look at the writings of those who think we can live without faith.
