>At the next class session, I put the entire Matthew
>6:24 quote on the board ("you cannot serve both
>God and mammon") and asked the class if they had
>ever read or heard that before. Two students had.
>"How many of you consider yourselves Christians?"
>Every hand goes up.
>
>I was astounded.
I had a similar experience in 1979, when I was teaching 20th century American lit to undergrads. None of them recognized the original biblical reference for The Sun Also Rises, though most were Southern Christians. Me, the godless Yankee pinko, knew the bible better than they did.
I think Dan Lazare was right to say that Americans aren't religious so much as they are pious.
Doug