Student Name Pradyumn Singh

Instructor- Kristen Elizabeth Gunther

Moves That Matter
23 June 2012
An opportunity in the land of opportunity!
Stephen Prothero in his article A Nation of Illiterates tries to gives his audience an estimate of religious
illiteracy in United States. Prothero gives a lot of statistical evidence for his audience of entrepreneurs to
try and make them convinced about the crisis of religious illiteracy in United States. Evidences given by
Prothero are good enough to convince the entrepreneurs about the business opportunities that come
with religious illiteracy in American Society. Protheros writing is worth a read for an entrepreneur to
help formulate a strategy for a successful business venture. Protheros writing certainly helps to
Prothero paints a grey picture about the structure of religious education in United States. Actually he is
implying that it practically dosent exist. For catholic schools, Prothero mentions, Today catholic school
courses are taught almost exclusively by laity and non-catholic students are a surging presence (202) .
This helps explain why Catholics in United States are not getting the religious education they used to.
The quality of education has gone down considerably. Catholic schools are no longer educating children
about Catholicism but are only indoctrinating by unprofessional and unskilled teachers. About religious
education in high school, Prothero mentions, In 2005 only 8 % of public school teens reported that
their school an elective bible course (200). This shows some of the core reasons why religious literacy in
United States is at all-time low. The evidences helps an entrepreneur to understand the business
opportunities offered from such a situation the opportunities that exist for entrepreneurs in religious
education are only going to increase if this trend follows.

Prothero tries to educate his audience about religious illiteracy in United States. He gives a literary quiz
(196) and then shares the result of the quiz with his audience to show the magnitude of the problem
.With the literacy quiz, Protheros audience can also judge their knowledge on world religions as well
which helps Prothero to make his argument more interactive and on a personal level. Prothero
mentions, In fact 10% of my class thought that Paul was one of the four Gospels (197). This is a
shocking finding for United States where majority of people are Christians and religious. Prothero
includes facts from other scientific surveys (198) to improve his statistical evidence for religious
illiteracy.
For an entrepreneur, its important to know which part of the society to target for a successful business
venture. Prothero gives plenty of examples to breakdown the society to help understand the religious
illiteracy among the people of various sects in Christianity and other religions present in the United
States. The list of biblical Bloopers from High school students (200) and the Literacy quiz results for
Protheros class suggests that the college students are probably the most illiterate about religion ie the
upcoming generation. Upcoming generations are certainly affected by their parents opinions and
therefore if the parents are targeted with advertisements so that they can convince their children to
read more about religion. For an entrepreneur this is sufficient evidence to which age groups should be
targeted and in what way.
Prothero mentions about annual giving to the house of worship is 88 billion $. This communicates to the
entrepreneurs that if people are ready to give 88 billion $ in donations, they will be more than willing to
spend money on educating their children or themselves about religion. Prothero also mentions that
about 34 percent of the people in United States are Bible Literalists. As an entrepreneur one will
surely deduce that it will be smarter to target the most religious part of the United States society which
is huge. Prothero certainly does a good job at giving an all-around picture of religiosity and religious
illiteracy with all the necessary evidence.
There have been many attempts at tapping the market of religious education from entrepreneurs.
Prothero gives plenty of such examples. Prothero mentions about how a series of Biblezines, which is
a reprint of New Testament to attract American teenagers (204). Another magazine for teenage girls
named Revolve has been published including beauty secrets and a feature called Are you dating a
Godly Guy?. Same as for girls, there have been religious magazine published for teenage men named
Refuel. To appeal to hip-hoppers, it includes a feature called Dope Christian Rhymes and articles
from ex-cons in a feature called Jail Aint a Joke . Refuel actually ended up becoming the most sold
bible in United States in only 3 months. Examples of all these commercial successes communicates to an
entrepreneur that successful business ventures in religious education are very much possible. The
success story of Biblezines also hints the age group that needs to be targeted. It also helps for an
entrepreneur to guess where he needs to start from when entering the sector of religious education for
the first time.