What color is the cover of the Bible?
How many books are in the Bible?
Who did Jesus raise from the dead, and which book can you find it in?
These questions, among the nearly 20 questions in CT’s quiz below, have been asked of Christian converts from Islam who are applying for asylum in the United Kingdom. Wrong answers put them at a high risk of deportation. [Take the quiz yourself and see if you’d face the same fate.]
Such questions are unfair, according to a new report released today from the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom or Belief and the Asylum Advocacy Group (which includes organizations such as the Evangelical Alliance UK, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and Release International).
“The problem with those questions is that if you are not genuine you can learn the answers, and if you are genuine, you may not know the answers,” Elizabeth Berridge, who chairs the group, told the BBC.
Another problem: the case workers determining whether a refugee deserves asylum don’t necessarily understand Christianity, Mark Miller, a pastor of Iranian converts in a church in northern England, told CT.
“Why did God send Jesus to earth?” he said. “The HO [Home Office] said the answer ‘to wipe out the sins of all humans’ was wrong, and that ‘Jesus came to teach us how to behave’ was the correct answer.” . . .
“Christian convert asylum seekers are still being asked detailed factual ‘Bible trivia’ questions, which is too simplistic a way to judge if an individual is, for example, a genuine convert,” the report stated.
For example, Mohammed, a Christian convert from Iran, was asked what color the cover of the Bible was.
“I knew there were different colors,” he told the BBC. “The one I had was red. They asked me questions I was not able to answer—for example, what are the Ten Commandments. I could not name them all from memory.”
Mohammed’s application for asylum was rejected. So was a convert who didn’t know that Catholics abstained from meat on Friday. So was another convert who correctly named the last book of the Bible but did so in Farsi and was misunderstood.
It is better to ask how a convert feels about Jesus, what being a Christian means to that person, and how being a Christian had affected his or her daily life, Miller told CT. . . .
Can you answer these actual questions asked by UK immigration officers?
- How many books are in the Bible?
- How many books are in the New Testament?
- How many chapters are in the book of John?
- What are the 10 Commandments?
- Which gospel relates the story of Jesus’ birth?
- Where was Jesus born?
- What were the names of Jesus’ earthly parents?
- What was his earthly father’s occupation?
- How many disciples did Jesus have? Name them.
- Where did Jesus become angry with the money lenders?
- Who did Jesus raise from the dead? Which book is this miracle in?
- Recite the Lord’s Prayer.
- What happened during the Last Supper?
- Who betrayed Jesus to the Romans?
- Where was Jesus arrested?
- What is Ash Wednesday?
- Is Easter celebrated on the same date every year?
- What is the date of Pentecost?
- What is the meaning of Lent?
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