I’m going to ask you a very important question right now, with a few follow up questions. Don’t worry if the first question doesn’t pertain to you — I still think you’ll get a kick out of this ?column.
Do you identify yourself as Christian?
Good, we’ve established that. Now on to the hard stuff. If you answered “yes” to the above question, name all of Jesus’ 12 disciples.
Too hard for you? All right, what books of the Bible make up the Gospels?
Still too hard? That’s fine, let’s really dumb this down. Without looking it up, what are the Ten Commandments? Not most of them, not the big ones about not killing people or cheating on your significant other. What are all 10 of God’s commandments that He handed down to Moses so that He may teach them to all of mankind?
If you answered “yes” to my first question but couldn’t completely answer the rest of them, congratulations. You are exactly what is wrong with Christianity in America right now.
At this point in my grandstanding, I should probably give you my religious background. Though I’ve never considered myself a Christian, I’ve read the Bible more times than I can count. Beyond being a gigantic cultural landmark that defined a vast majority of Western history, it actually does have some wonderful lessons between the homophobia and boring family histories.
That being said, I am consistently floored by the number of “Christians” I meet that not only don’t read the Bible on a regular basis, but have actually never read it in their entire lives.
Despite the fact 77 percent of Americans identify as Christian and 88 percent say they have at least one Bible in their house, fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels and fewer than 14 percent of Americans can name all Ten Commandments.
Think about that last statistic for a second. God Himself, the Alpha and Omega, the Father of all Creation, came down to one of the most important figures in Christianity and gave him a list of 10 things he didn’t want his followers to do.
And his so-called Christians don’t even have the common decency to ?memorize them.
Oh, but none of this applies to you, right? Sure you haven’t read the Bible cover to cover, and sure you can’t name any of those dumb disciples, but you have given yourself to Jesus.
You put your religious views on Facebook and now and again you tweet out a Bible quote about the power of your Lord and Savior.
You’re a good Christian, right?
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their ?reward.” Mark 6:5.
There it is. Jesus himself just told you how bad of a Christian you are. Not that crazy lady with the sign about the end of days, not your pastor, not even the jerk with the opinion article. Jesus Christ himself.
Let that sink in for a second. And if after some soul searching you still decide you want to actually follow the teachings of God, download one of the millions of free bibles online.
Trust me, it’s a pretty good read.
kevsjack@indiana.edu
