The religious history of Christianity the US is a long and proud tradition of people who have a "personal relationship with Jesus" and little or no knowledge of the Bible or the practices or a particular Church.

This is very true. An overwhelming number of Americans believe in God (something like 90%), but they don't necessarily identify with a religion, whereas in a place like France, an overwhelming number of people will self-identify as Catholic but claim not to believe in God.

in a place like France, an overwhelming number of people will self-identify as Catholic but claim not to believe in God.

So it's more of a cultural marker, then?

There's also the American tradition of holding X, Y, or Z religion because that's what your parents were, or that's what your spouse is. It isn't even a matter of selection, just taking the path of least resistance.

What makes American Christians unusual is that this is much less true here than in Europe (where people tend to belong to the state church by default but not actually give a crap about it). Having no state religion has led to a culture in which people take their religion much more seriously. (The theory I've read regarding this is that people don't tend to respect or trust their governments. So if the government is also the church, this leads to an eventual decline in religiousity. This never happened in the US.)

Yeah, the Pew online quiz isn't loading for me, either. Maybe it got bOING bOINGed?

Another tornado watch for NYC!

The quiz loaded fine for me. 15/15, btw.

Yikes on tornados!

Full-scale, fetishtically detailed driveable replica 1966 Batmobiles

Mark Racop works out of a shop in small-town Indiana, turning out incredibly accurate, driveable 1966 Batmobile replicas. The bodies are modified castings from an old Futura and all the fittings and parts are functional and styled to match the prop Batmobile from the series (you can also buy these individual fittings -- "Bat Parts" -- for your modern car). The sell for $150,000, and you can choose between a rebuilt Ford 460 motor, or a new GM 350 crate engine.

Jess, I've read the same theory. And I've also heard Catholic theologians say, over and over, "Separation of church and state was the greatest thing ever to happen to the Church." At least in the US, the thinky Catholics have spent the last half century in a constant state of bogglement at the far right fundamentalist/evangelical movement that wants a churchy state; have these people never cracked a history book?

Of course, the Catholics are now being overrun by the exact same sentiment, the idiots.

I finally got into the quiz, and managed 100%. It was weird to read through it and think about exactly how I came to know the various items. Ramadan? The Marguerite Henry book about the Godolphin Arabian, and the awesomely snarky Muslim guy in my college dorm who would hang out in the lobby waiting for his pizza to arrive after sunset. Buddhism? My freshman year best friend who abandoned college to join the Zen Mountain Monastery. The Sabbath starting on Friday night? My mom's huge collection of 20s-50s paperback quirky comic novels about growing up Jewish in the various boroughs. Shiva? Studying the Cold War and Oppenheimer in AP US History.

George W. Bush doesn't go to church.

I've only gotten to 7 of the questions, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten them all right, thank goodness.

I'm pretty sure the Buffistas are going to average 100% on that quiz, if not higher.