|
 A
best-selling author and professor calling for more teaching about
religion in public schools will headline a California State University,
Fresno forum addressing religious illiteracy among American college
students. The event is the annual Veritas Forum at 7 p.m. March 11 at
the Satellite Student Union. All events are free and open to the public.
Opening the program is Dr. Stephen Prothero, a professor in the Boston
University Department of Religion and author of several books on
religion in America, including the recent best-seller, “Religious
Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t” (HarperSanFrancisco).
Joining Prothero to discuss the importance of religion and faith will be
Mary Poplin, professor of education at Claremont Graduate University and
author of the just-published “Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa
Taught me about Meaningful Work and Service” (InterVarsity Press). The
book recounts Poplin’s work as a volunteer caregiver with Mother Teresa
and the Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Calcutta, India.
Prothero is a national advocate for required teaching on religion in
public schools. “How can [American] citizens understand the war in Iraq
without knowing something about Islam? Or debates about gay marriage,
stem-cell research and capital punishment without knowing something
about the Bible?” he asks.
“Religious Literacy” became a New York Times bestseller and was named on
the Washington Post’s “Best Books of 2007.” Prothero has discussed
religious-literacy issues on National Public Radio, CNN, NBC, MSNBC and
FOX networks and on numerous local radio and TV shows.
 Poplin,
following a life-changing faith experience in 1996 while a professor at
Claremont, took a sabbatical to serve the poor as a volunteer with
Mother Teresa. Partly as a result, she has focused her educational work
on merging social justice and accountability to decrease the achievement
gap between students in different racial and economic groups. Her most
recent research has focused on high-performing teachers in
low-performing urban schools.
At Fresno State’s Veritas Forum, Prothero and Poplin will share their
personal experiences and perspectives on the need for religious
understanding and on the value of faith as a basis for interpreting all
facets of academic, civic and personal life. Moderating the discussion
will be Dr. Honora Chapman, associate professor in the Department of
Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. Forum sponsors include a
coalition of student clubs and the university’s Associated Students Inc.
The Veritas Forum, from veritas, a Latin word meaning “truth,”
originated at Harvard University in 1992. A group of graduate students
hosted a weekend forum to address some of life’s hardest questions,
seeking answers relevant to everyday life and cast in light of the
teachings of Jesus Christ. Those teachings remain a source of context
for the forum, however, events typically encourage discussion of
different worldviews, faiths and beliefs that promote reaching the
ultimate goal of the forum: truth.
|
