the peril of practical atheism

Jay Leno has made “man on the street” interviews famous by asking people on the streets of L.A. simple questions about American history and politics. Leno asks questions like, “Can you name our Vice President?” The blank stares and hilarious answers make great comedy, but say something really scary about American culture.

According to Michael J. Flack, Phd:

"A crisis of basic biblical and theological knowledge exists in America’s churches, and church leaders must do all they can to address this growing problem, so say experts monitoring the beliefs of people in Christian churches across the United States.“The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm?”[1]

Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack of knowledge among churchgoing Christians include the following:

• The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.

• Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.• When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.[2]

Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, asserts that biblical illiteracy is at a crisis level not just in our culture in general but in America’s churches.
“If it is true that biblical illiteracy is commonplace in secular culture at large, there is ample evidence that points to similar trends in our churches,” he says.[3]

Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which the biblical and theological literacy of incoming freshmen have been monitored. These students, who represent almost every Protestant denomination in the United States from every state in the country, have returned some “surprising results”:

• One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.

• Half could not sequence the following: Moses in Egypt, Isaac’s birth, Saul’s death, and Judah’s exile.

• One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names. • When asked to locate the biblical book supplying a given story, one-third could not find Paul’s travels in Acts, half did not know that the Christmas story was in Matthew, half did not know that the Passover story was in Exodus.[4]

Like Burge, George Lindbeck, the famous Yale theologian, has commented on the decreasing knowledge of Scripture from a professor’s perspective.“When I first arrived at Yale, even those who came from nonreligious backgrounds knew the Bible better than most of those now who come from churchgoing families,” he says.[5]

This is also the view of theologian and author David Wells.“I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy,” declares Wells in his book No Place for Truth.[6]

Biblical illiteracy is not just a problem for American churches. A scientific survey called PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tested the knowledge of people in thirty-two industrialized countries.

The results of the study show an “insidious biblical illiteracy” even in Christian circles, says Volker Gaeckle, dean of studies at Albrecht Bengel Center in Tuebingen. “Churches should heed the PISA warning that text comprehension is a major problem.” [7]

There is a huge gap in American Christianity between what we profess to believe, and the way we actually live our lives. While professing Christianity, many people who are moderately or even heavily involved in the life of the church are essentially “practical atheists”.

Are we okay with this? Is it acceptable to us that people can attend church for years and never actually change or be challenged or even learn to embrace the essential doctrines? Is it okay that there are people in our church who live in anger, or addiction or live in varying stages of abuse, and are perfectly comfortable with their church life without making any kind of advancement in their spiritual life?

We are dreaming of a church that will not accept this as normal. We are dreaming of a church that sees life change and genuine biblical community in which people are really loving and caring for each other, doing mission together and challenging each other to be drawn into Christ as a normative part of their life together. We are dreaming of a church that measures itself by the actual standards of biblical fellowship, discipleship, service and evangelism and that actually knows and believes the essentials of the faith.

1] Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination,”www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=92&Reference=B,June 25, 2001.
[2] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New Bookby George Barna,” www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=76&Reference=E&Key=bible%20knowledgeNovember 28, 2000.
[3] Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering biblical literacy in the church,” www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9t9/9t9045.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] George A. Lindbeck, “The Church’s Mission to a Postmodern Culture,” Postmodern Theology: Christian Faith in a Pluralist World (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989), 45.
[6] David F. Wells, No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 4.
[7] “Biblical Illiteracy Spreading Among Christians,” http://news.crosswalk.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID74088%7CCHID194343%7CCIID1138212,00.html.