Religious studies professor Steven Prothero addressed an attentive crowd at the San Joaquin Town Hall Meeting on March 16, 2016. Prothero used clever wit and profound statements to provoke thought from his audience of more than a thousand. Onlookers laughed along with his jokes and learned from his insight into the tangled web of world religion. The speaker brought the fresh perspective of an educator to the religious discussion, taking on what he believes is the harmfully erroneous view of religious multiculturalism.

Prothero received his bachelor’s degree from Yale in American studies, and continued to pursue his Master’s and PhD from Harvard in the study of religion. Since then, he has been made a professor at Boston University, specializing in American Religions.

Besides his teaching job, Prothero frequents radio talk shows as well as TV interviews. In one of his most popular interviews on the Colbert Report he was able to talk about his beliefs. He has also flourished as an author, writing successful books such as God is not One, Religious Literacy, and Whose America is This? 

Andrew Moore shares his opinion on Prothero’s message.

Experiencing the opinions of a well-spoken religious expert helped me clarify my own beliefs. His words impacted me to become more knowledgeable about religions other than my own. I agreed with Prothero on many points, such as the fact that ignorance can lead to dangerous results in the global political environment. Prothero said, “Both tolerance and respect are empty virtues until we actually understand whatever it is we are supposed to be tolerating or respecting.” After listening to the Town Hall speech, I learned several instances where religious differences between groups ignorant of each other’s beliefs escalated in violence. Therefore, the more knowledgeable the populace becomes about each other’s beliefs, the more welcoming and understanding we will be, diffusing conflict before anyone is harmed.

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Prothero’s main point focused on how the common view of religion in America is harmful to the true realization of peace. He theorizes that those who claim that the beliefs of every religion are fundamentally similar halt the progress of cooperation between cultures. Just because people are different doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t get along. This religious melting pot takes away from the true diversity of the nation with the claim that everyone believes the same thing. My own thoughts reflect the views of Prothero on this subject. I agree that Christianity displays a strikingly different worldview from other religions. Furthermore, all religions contradict each other in some way, and it is by these differences that we can determine the objective truth.

Some of Prothero’s methods seemed less logical in my mind. He approaches religion from a purely analytical standpoint, where much of the meaning in religions, Christianity especially, comes from experiencing God. The experiential spiritual nature of religion is largely ignored in his presentation, which accounts for much of world impact of various faiths. Additionally, Prothero established a premise that people of the same religion of those who committed terrible sins should feel responsible for those sins themselves. For example, he claimed that modern day Christians should feel remorse and blame for the Holocaust because of many Nazis claiming Christian faith themselves. I believe that actions speak louder than words in these cases. A person’s true worldview comes from their own deeds, not those of evildoers continents away claiming the same title.

Justin Houts found Prothero’s ideas about world religion informative.

For most of Prothero’s message, I felt that he was doing a good job sharing ideas about religion. Prothero was very knowledgeable, and he provided insights into other religions that I hadn’t though of. At one point, he described an objective method he uses to analyze religions. This method included what the main “factor” or “problem” is with man, and then how each religion sets out to solve it.

Prothero also spoke of how Americans are often very ignorant to religions that are not popular within our own country. For these reasons, we experience many misunderstandings with one another, and can have negative connotations with certain nations hat practice religions that differ from our own. I believe that this is very true, and that as a society we should better understand religions as a whole so that we can be more informed about what people actually believe, not just what stereotypes suggest.

While I found most of Prothero’s speech educational, some of the things he said did bother me due to their flawed reasoning. As Andrew said, at one point Prothero said that since some Nazi leaders used the bible to rationalize their mass murders, Christians nowadays should not just disassociate themselves with those people, but rather take the responsibility for those people actions. I find this absolutely ridiculous. If a pregnant woman commits murder, should her child therefore be held responsible for the murder as well? The child may not have done it, but they as an individual are associated with the person who committed the crime, and by Prothero’s reasoning that would make them an equal party. Should all Muslims be held responsible for the recent Paris terror attacks? Of course not. This incredibly faulty thinking surprised me coming from someone regarded so highly for his intelligence.

I also found it quite interesting that Prothero didn’t talk about the way individuals are converted to their faith at all. Considering that for many religions, this plays a huge role and reflects not only how one attains salvation but also the ideas that said religion represents. For Christian’s, our salvation is a free gift that requires no more than for us to surrender our lives to God, since he has already paid the price of our sins. This is also reflected in the idea that our sins are forever paid for, and nothing we do can separate us from God.

Overall I did not enjoy Prothero’s speech as much as the last Town Hall lecture I visited, where Sir Ken Robinson spoke on the modern education system. Still, Prothero is a very respected man in his field, and I am grateful to have heard what he has to say on religion in the modern world.

For more SJV Town Hall articles, read Sir Ken Robinson speaks, shares message in Fresno.

For more information about Stephen Prothero visit his Twitter: @sprothero and Facebook: Stephen Prothero