In 2010, Pew Research on Religion & Public Life published the results of a survey that had one very clear finding: Americans, for all their religiosity, know very little about their own religions, and even less about those of their neighbours’. While more than 70 per cent of Americans surveyed could identify Mother Theresa as Catholic and Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, only about half of those surveyed could identify Ramadan and the Qur’an as the Islamic holy month and holy book, respectively. Fewer than half knew the religious affiliation of the Dalai Lama, the day of the week on which the Jewish Sabbath begins, and the names of the four Christian Gospels. The lowest scores came on questions concerning the American theologian Jonathan Edwards and the Jewish philosopher Maimonides – only 11 per cent of those surveyed could associate Edwards with the First Great Awakening, while only 8 per cent could identify Maimonides as Jewish. The average respondent answered 16 out of 32 questions correctly, for an average score of 50 per cent (see Pew Research, 2010).

How did such a deeply religious nation sink into such religious illiteracy? At least part of the answer lies in another question on this US Religious Knowledge Survey: while 89 per cent of those surveyed know that US law prohibits public school teachers from leading their classes in prayer – the question most frequently answered correctly – only 23 per cent know that the same public school teacher can read from the Bible as an example of literature. This ignorance of the US Constitution when it comes to religion in public schools no doubt contributes to religious illiteracy today, but its roots can be found in many other arenas of American life. Churches, voluntary societies, political organisations and public (state) schools have all played a role in the decline of religious knowledge in America. However, the irony is that each step taken toward the current state of ignorance was a side effect of efforts to strengthen the church. The cumulative effects of these steps toward religious illiteracy have been felt in recent years in the Branch Davidian fiasco in Waco, Texas, in 1993, and in attacks on Sikhs after 9/11.