Doc Bradley grew up in rural Oklahoma and finished his doctorate in Las Vegas before joining the University of Vermont as a professor of politics and religion. When he began teaching here, he was surprised to see that his students were unfamiliar with Christian concepts, like the Trinity or salvation, which seemed well-known elsewhere.

“I had to actually spend a couple of weeks explaining these and the purpose of these, because it’s just not ingrained in the culture,” he said.

His observation was backed up by recent data from Pew Research Center. It recently published the results of its Religious Landscape Study — one of the nation’s largest surveys of religious beliefs, identities and practices — which found 46% of Vermonters have no religious affiliation, the second-highest rate in t

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