2008 Woodie Awards
Lecturer shares opinion on state, church
Jenna Darling
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Lifestyle
Stephen Prothero, chair of the department of religion at Boston University, is an advocate for religious studies in public schools. Prothero gave a lecture on Feb. 13 in the Young Auditorium on his 2007 New York Times bestseller "Religious Literacy."
"My motivation for my last couple of books has been to start conversation with general readers," Prothero said.
Prothero has always been interested in religion. In college, he learned to talk about religion in an academic way. Prothero thinks every person should be familiar with religion to understand areas of everyday life.
"Business has become increasingly global and reaching into other religions. It's important for nurses, doctors and any health care providers to know the religious practices of their patients," he said.
Prothero hopes students who attended the lecture took away the appreciation of how important it is to know something about religion by getting his thoughts and opinions across to students.
"I'm not the kind of academic that says both sides of an issue. I have a view and I'll make it clear of what that view is," Prothero said.
Students on campus also have their own personal opinions on religion and religious studies. Cal Mark, president of Jewish Student Organization, became involved with religion as soon as he decided to come to UW-Whitewater.
"Once I found out I was coming here I looked online for any organizations that dealt with Judaism and e-mailed the president to ask her about joining, and I started attending meetings," Mark said.
Mark thinks it is important to get familiar with other religions and to have a true understanding of what the religion that one practices is.
Matthew Gillmore, president of Campus Crusade for Christ, thinks knowledge of different religions can be useful.
Gillmore mentioned he would be open to seeing more religious studies classes but it would depend on the class.
"My motivation for my last couple of books has been to start conversation with general readers," Prothero said.
Prothero has always been interested in religion. In college, he learned to talk about religion in an academic way. Prothero thinks every person should be familiar with religion to understand areas of everyday life.
"Business has become increasingly global and reaching into other religions. It's important for nurses, doctors and any health care providers to know the religious practices of their patients," he said.
Prothero hopes students who attended the lecture took away the appreciation of how important it is to know something about religion by getting his thoughts and opinions across to students.
"I'm not the kind of academic that says both sides of an issue. I have a view and I'll make it clear of what that view is," Prothero said.
Students on campus also have their own personal opinions on religion and religious studies. Cal Mark, president of Jewish Student Organization, became involved with religion as soon as he decided to come to UW-Whitewater.
"Once I found out I was coming here I looked online for any organizations that dealt with Judaism and e-mailed the president to ask her about joining, and I started attending meetings," Mark said.
Mark thinks it is important to get familiar with other religions and to have a true understanding of what the religion that one practices is.
Matthew Gillmore, president of Campus Crusade for Christ, thinks knowledge of different religions can be useful.
Gillmore mentioned he would be open to seeing more religious studies classes but it would depend on the class.
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