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Can you disciple without the Bible?

by: Rebecca Barnes, editor

I only scored a 62 percent on the religious literacy quiz that Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department of Boston University, has been giving his undergraduate students for the last two years. Knowing that the college students consistently fail the quiz, I feel okay about that. Of course I don’t know what percentage Boston U. considers "failing." 

Prothero appeared this month on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, promoting his new book titled "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t" to highlight this ignorance. In a recent LA Times editorial, he claimed this is a civic and political issue, simply a religious problem. Since debating moral issues in politics is all the rage, Prothero’s point seems strong: various sides of these hot-botton topics should at least be able to understand what they are saying to one another.

By the way, the professor's point is statistically sound, as he points out in his editorial that pollster George Gallup has come up with similar results pointing to Americans’ ignorance of the Bible. By way of solution, Prothero recommends teaching the Bible in public schools.

This may be hard to believe, depending on where you live, but we had a Bible class elective at my public high school. I didn’t take it. In view of my poor quiz results I probably should have. Classes, such as the ones highlighted in this recent issue of Time magazine, are focused on the Bible as literature and as a foundational document for understanding Western culture.

Here’s my question: Should we teach the Bible the same way we teach Shakespeare and decimals, the scientific method and phonics? I don’t mean should we teach it using the same methods, but should we offer it on the same curriculum plane with other subjects and studies?

Of course Prothero's objectives are rooted in a desire to educate—he’s a college professor. I think Christian objectives are different. We often confuse ourselves with educators. Churches often view making disciples as a matter of educating people, using the Bible as the textbook. Yet teaching people to follow Jesus is so much more than giving them an understanding of foundational Bible stories, characters and key tenets.

Here’s what Eric Geiger said in the Simple Church conference I attended last week: "We have made discipleship information and not life transformation."

Ideally, if it is important enough, information will transform. And most Christians believe the Bible to be powerful enough to stand on its own. But too often I see how the influence of learning a written text misshapes the mission of the Church. Ultimately, I won’t be asked by God to name the Ten Commandments or differentiate between Moses and Paul. I will be asked to account for my life, words and deeds. I would probably perform poorly on that quiz, too, except that I know a gracious guy who will forgive me and let me be a part of his kingdom anyway.

Let me know how you do on the quiz. And what you think about teaching the Bible in public schools. Blog here.