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Illiterate America

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Submitted By locosmom77
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Pages 6
Amanda Miller
Gena Howard
ENGL – 111-04A
September 22, 2012

Illiterate America

Stephen Prothero, the author of “A Nation of Religious Illiterates” is a Professor of Religion at Boston University. He received his Bachelors’ Degree from Yale College in American Studies and received his Masters and PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. As a historian on American religions he has written six books since 1996 (Wikipedia contributors,"Stephen Prothero”). He is also a regular contributor to CNN’s Belief Blog. In his essay Prothero aims to convince the readers that although Americans are far more religious than Europeans, we know less about religion as a whole and aims to convey to us the importance of religious education to us. He also places blame on the educational system due to the First Amendment. Prothero’s work here left me confused due to his lack of facts and information as he seems like someone who is very well educated on the subject. Religion is somewhat of a hot topic to many Americans and brings much controversy with it. But, if we do not talk about it or read about it doesn’t that make us exactly what Mr. Prothero calls us? Prothero starts off by quoting sociologist Peter Berger “that if India is the most religious country in the world and Sweden is the least, then the United States is a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.” (Prothero, “A Nation”, p1). Prothero believes that does not hold true anymore and I would have to agree with him. At the time this article was written President George W. Bush, a born-again Christian was in office and we had “a faith-based party in control of both houses of Congress” (Prothero, “A Nation”, p1). In 2005 the top five religious affiliations in Congress were Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian according to adherents.com (“Religious Affiliates of

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