What other nations do a good job teaching religion in an objective way?
European countries do a much better job. … And not just about the state religion. You don’t only learn about Lutheranism in Sweden or Anglicanism in Britain. Is it possible that religious illiteracy makes for relative religious tranquillity? You could say that if Americans knew nothing about politics, then they wouldn’t get angry about politics. If they never went to movies, they’d never argue about movies. So while this is also true about religion, the cost of not knowing about religion is too high in a world in which religion is so volatile and so influential. How should America address religious illiteracy? I think we need to have courses about the Bible and world religions in middle schools and high schools, and I think they should be mandatory with an opt-out provision. One course would cover the five or seven great religions. The other would be about the Bible. Students would learn the basic stories and characters, but they would also learn about the uses of the Bible in world
