[lbo-talk] That shallow American religious piety

[Chuck0]

A couple days ago there was some discussion here about how many 
Americans say they are religious, but that they also are pretty ignorant 
about their own professed religions.

Right now there is this gigantic convention happening in Washington for 
Christian youth ministers and their young flocks. The subways are 
stuffed full of white teenagers and their parents. I say that this 
convention is gigantic because it is larger than any of the ones I've 
ever seen in Washington. Not only has it taken over the new Washington 
Convention Center, but also the MCI Arena as well.

My rommmate was bored yesterday, so she decided to infiltrate this 
event. When I asked her later if she had made it into the exhibition 
hall, she asked me, "Which one?" It seems that this convention has 3 
huge exhibit halls. We're talking lots of slick materials about Jesus 
aimed at American teenagers.

My roommate, always the social hacker and friendly person, decided to go 
around and interview some of the teenagers. Part of this was to actually 
engage them in interviews for a later story, but she was also interested 
in doing a little subversive meme spreading. She told me about talking 
to several teenagers who had been homeschooled their entire lives. They 
were pretty clueless about the real world--they didn't even know what 
Enron was, for example. My roommate also reports that many of these 
teens were pretty ignorant of their own religious tradition, including 
some of the more obscure stories from the Christian bible.

My roommate also reports that the teens she talked to were very open to 
new ideas and weren't hostile to somebody who talked to them about activism.

Chuck0