Religious Studies
A survey showing that the U.S. is one of the most religiously ignorant nations on earth has prompted calls for a school religious education curriculum. Should that be a job for schools?
No one should have been surprised by a recent survey demonstrating that the United States — where religion flourishes as in no other developed country — is also one of the most religiously ignorant nations on earth. Predictably, the results have prompted a new chorus of calls, from people of many religious and political persuasions, for a public school curriculum that teaches children about religion and the role of religion in history — including non-Western religions. Nothing is more predictable in American life today than the demand that schools “do something” about problems that families and other institutions, like churches, are obviously failing to address.
