The notion of “pretend pluralism,” as Prothero derides it, may be nobly intentioned, but it is “dangerous, disrespectful, and untrue.” It blinds us to understanding, and therefore solving, Islamic fundamentalist terrorism or Jewish-Arab disputes over Jerusalem or the contest for Kashmir between two nuclear powers with competing religious majorities (Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan), he writes.
“People are thirsty for information about this topic,” Prothero says. “We are in a post-9/11 moment. It became clear we did not understand what was going on in the world — ‘Oh my God, there are Muslims who want to kill us.’”
For many students, the first step to really understanding a biblical worldview is understanding that it matters what you believe--that all religions really do not fundamentally teach the same things. It's a challenge to teach on, but in my experience, high school students (both Christians and non-Christians) usually love diving into this stuff, perhaps because they've never been challenged to do so in other settings.
