christmas story - brits clueless

LadyDay · (#1 (**permalink**))

Brits Fail Christmas Test On Jesus' Birthplace |Sky News|UK News

Britons Fail Jesus Birthplace Test
Updated:11:45, Saturday December 08, 2007

A poll which quizzed Britons on their basic knowledge of the Christmas story has revealed more than one in four adults have no idea where Jesus was born.
Jesus: Know where he was born?The survey found 27% unable to give the correct location of Bethlehem - and the proportion rose to 36% among young people aged between 18 and 24.

A further 27% were unable to say who told Mary that she would give birth to a son - the Angel Gabriel.

And the majority - 52% - were unable to name John the Baptist as Jesus's cousin.

More than three quarters of people, at 78%, gave the wrong answer when asked where Joseph, Mary and Jesus went to escape from King Herod - Egypt.

Most thought they escaped to Nazareth.

Only 12% of adults could answer all four questions about the Christmas story correctly.

The telephone survey, which polled 1,015 adults, was commissioned by the public theology think tank Theos.

It is likely to reignite debate about the secularisation of Christmas.

Paul Woolley, director of Theos, said the findings showed the Christmas story, in its classic formulation, was still "very much" in the "cultural blood stream" of the nation, alongside the Christian story as a whole.

Church of the Nativity, BethlehemBut he said when probed in depth, this knowledge and understanding was "rather more shaky."

He said: "The fact that younger people are the least knowledgeable about the Christmas story may reflect a decline in the telling of Bible stories in schools and the popularity of Nativity plays.

"No one seriously thinks that being a Christian or a member of the established Church is the same thing as being British today.

"But, at the same time, if we are serious about social cohesion we can't afford to ignore the stories that have bound us together as a culture for a thousand years."

Justavoice · (#2 (**permalink**))

They don't embrace it, because it is not their story, really it is not even their history. For Europeans to have accumulated how they have in this world, they really would have had nothing to do with God. In the movie God Father part 3, the Arch-Bishop says a very powerful thing. He says "The same thing has happened to men in Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not penetrated. Christ doesn't live within them".

For it is hard to know God and live and be evil but some how this christian state of people manage it every day. However a tree is known by it fruits. They don't know the christmas story but is it really that shocking, did they really need a survey for this ? they are a nation of binge drinkers and homosexuals and the whole world is seeing them except they cannot see themselves.

meknow · (#3 (**permalink**))

I dare say that the numbers would be very simular in the US. A vast majority of believers are not into the study of the bible for themselves as God asked them to. Many sit in church every Sunday clock conscience and raring for the service to be over.

and many preachers are satisfied with that type of people under him. gives him less reason to know much about the bible himself. a song and a shout is what most look forward to.

God left nothing for conjecture for believers.

3 types of christians.

1. the babe in Christ - just saved and in need of the milk of the word

2. the spiritual man - a believer who gives himself to the study of the bible and prayer. his lifestyle shows it although he is not perfect,

3. the carnal man - a believer who does not submit to the word of God but induldges his flesh