c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “You are the first American I’ve met who talks intelligently about religion as a dominant, shaping force in your nation.”

That’s what a businessman from Bombay told me 20 years ago while we stood chatting at the check-in counter at a hotel in Istanbul.

(And lest you think me big-headed, I’m willing to grant I may have been the only American he had ever talked to about religion!)

I was reminded of his remarks as I listened to the radio recently in my car. Religion seemed to be all over the news:

_ Pope Benedict XVI is here this week for his first visit to the U.S. Commentators weighed in on his pre-pope reputation as the rigorous and at times rancorous defender of historical orthodoxy, noting his shift to a more conciliatory approach in his first encyclical, “God Is Love.” They also observed that the pope remains resolute in combating relativism and secularism, choosing the name Benedict in admiration for an earlier pope known for preserving the faith through the Dark Ages.

_ In Seattle, there’s the trial of Muslim Naveed Haq. In July 2006, Haq forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and gunned down six employees. Prosecutors presented evidence that on the morning of the rampage, Haq _ raised Muslim but not particularly devout _ became convinced that God had sanctioned the attack to call attention to what he viewed as anti-Islamic U.S. policies in Israel and Iraq.

_ Reporters covered the visit of the Dalai Lama at a packed stadium at the University of Washington, where he delighted some 7,500 students by answering questions on everything from AIDS to the green movement. Meanwhile, several hundred protesters outside chanted and sang in the largest rally against the Dalai Lama’s five-day visit. Chinese loyalists showed violent images from Tibet on a large-screen TV as a plane flew overhead, trailing a banner: “Dalai: ur smiles charm, ur actions harm.”

_ South African Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu will join the Dalai Lama for a joint appearance later this week. Decked in a purple cassock, the man who helped end apartheid in South Africa said upon arriving in Seattle that he wished the United States and Iran would “defuse the tension” and resolve their dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambition peacefully.

_ Meanwhile, we were updated on the case involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where authorities took 416 children and teenagers and 139 adult women into protective care in a peaceful raid on the Yearning for Zion polygamous ranch.

This blitz of religion-related news stories indicates that Americans are talking about religion, or at least hearing stories about religion. But can we discuss religion intelligently?

The casual observer would agree that our Founding Fathers’ desire to assure free and diverse religious expression has been satisfied, but are we equipped to think about and discuss such stories intelligently? I think not.

Though a vigorously religious nation, whatever formal religious instruction most Americans receive is delivered via a local congregation and is designed to help them understand only their own tradition.

In reality, few Americans understand their own religion, and fewer yet know the distinctions between their religion and the other “major world religions” _ not to mention obscure sects like the polygamous Mormons.

Our instruction about other religions is woefully inadequate, coming as it does primarily through popular culture. We learned Catholicism from “The Godfather”; Anglicanism from “A Man for All Seasons”; Buddhism from Richard Gere; and Mormonism from HBO’s “Big Love.”

Weary of the news, I turned on my XM radio, where the first station that popped up featured gospel singer Beverly Crawford belting out, “If the Lord never does anything else for me, he’s done enough.”

This refrain was written by a devout believer to praise God, but it also captures the cynical conclusion of many religiously illiterate Americans. They believe if these religious news stories reflect the work of the Lord … He’s already done quite enough.

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com)

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