Chapter 5
Summary by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Chapters 1 and 2
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3 and 4 | Chapter 6
Chapter 5: Redemption (What to Do?)
Religion underlies, controls, or permeates the majority of the stories in the news. Iran, Iraq, and Israel are all religion stories. Learning about Islam can help us become less reliant on the so-called experts on the Middle East who have a political or theological ax to grind. However, religion is rarely taught in public schools and many public school teachers are afraid to even mention the subject at all.
Is It Constitutional?
The answer to the question of whether it is constitutional to teach about religion in the public schools is an unequivocal yes. Numerous Supreme Court cases have established that the study of the Bible and of religion when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education is consistent with the First Amendment.
Teaching Around Religion
The distinction between teaching about religion objectively rather than the teaching of religion confessionally is the key that most teachers don't seem to understand. The distinction is teaching versus preaching religion. Instead of teaching or preaching religion, most teachers teach around religion to be compliant with what they perceive to be the law. They are essentially silent on religion and the implication is that religion doesn't matter. Conservatives argue that this actively promotes a culture of disbelief and indoctrinates students into a secular view of the world.
New Consensus
A new consensus is the view that the civic public school should foster objective teaching about religion while avoiding either denigrating religion or promoting religion. The question has changed from whether to teach about religion to how to teach about religion?
Bible 101
Public schools should include one required course on the Bible for all high school students. However, Bible courses should not bolster or undermine religion, or be religious or irreligious. The Bible should not be taught as if it is a repository of historical and scientific facts. But it should be recognized as having a force in history that motivated adventurers to explore new lands, and politicians to create new governments. The job of public schools is to help students become more knowledgeable and effective citizens, but it does not include converting young people to Christianity.
World Religion 101
In addition to a required Bible course for every U.S. public high school student, there should be a mandatory course in the religions of the world. The course should cover the seven great religious traditions of the world including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It should be tailored to local circumstances, e.g., include Native American religions in New Mexico and Arizona. Students should learn about the founders of the various religions such as Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Jesus, and Muhammad, and learn that some religions have no founders, e.g., Hinduism and Judaism. Teachers should not promote one religion over another, but also not imply that all religions are essentially the same. These courses should be taught only if there are teachers trained to teach them. Parents should be given an opt-out provision, and they should be about religion, not a devotional course in religion.
Constitutionality, Controversy, Cost
There are three main objections to the religious instruction proposed above: That it is not constitutional, that it is too controversial, and that it is too costly. The constitutional objection is misinformed as previously mentioned. Of course teaching about religion is and will be controversial, but surveys show roughly three-quarters of Americans do not object to teaching about the world's religions, and allowing parents to op-out of these courses should minimize the contention. The cost involved and where to find the space for these courses is another issue that can be addressed by each local school district. Perhaps the removal of some math courses that most students will never use could be the answer, e.g., trigonometry or calculus. American political life is awash in religious reasons, religious arguments, and religious motivations. How could anyone justify American citizens being ignorant of all this?
Religious Studies in Higher Education
At least one course in religious studies should be required of all college graduates. For this to succeed the distinction between religious studies and theology, or teaching and preaching should be maintained in required courses.
Beyond Character Education
Religious studies should not be focused on character education or moral instruction. These studies should not be about inculcating particular values. The purpose of these courses should be to produce literate citizens, not ethical citizens. Courses in religion should allow students to decide moral and political questions for themselves.
A Modest Proposal
The authors view is that Americans are not equipped for citizenship without a basic understanding of Christianity and the world's religions. Ignorance of religion and the replacement of morality for theology has been fueled by a commitment to religious tolerance for different Protestant denominations, then for Catholics, then for Jews and more recently Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus. However, Americans of all stripes including liberal, conservative, believers, and nonbelievers need religious literacy to understand a world where faith moves elections and armies.
The Mother of Devotion
The author brings up an interesting question of whether American religion is thriving precisely because of American's religious illiteracy? As one observer stated "the reason everybody in the United States believes in the Bible is that no one actually reads it." Either way, faith without knowledge is dangerous. Politicians and pundits eager to exploit American religious illiteracy for partisan purposes frequently use God, Jesus, and Muhammad as pawns in their political and military games. To defer to demagogues on the political theology of Islam, the biblical view of marriage, or what Jesus would do about the environment is to recuse ourselves from democracy. The alternative is to develop in our selves and our children basic literacy about the Bible and the world's religions.
The Secular Left will need to yield on the view that religion has no place in public education. The Religious Right will need to give up its desire to use the public schools to promote religious views. The solution is teaching about religion, but not the teaching of religion, i.e., teaching but not preaching religion.
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Go to the next chapter: Prothero, S. 2007. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't. Harper San Francisco. Chapter 6: A Dictionary of Religious Literacy.
Related summaries:
Dawkins, R. 2008. The God Delusion. A Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company. (Summary).
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Religious Affiliations Surveys 1972-2018 (Summary).
Martin, M. and K. Augustine. 2015. The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death. Rowland & Littlefield Publishers. (Note and Contents).
Miller, E. L. 1992. Questions That Matter: An Invitation To Philosophy, Third Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc. (Summary).
Shermer, M. and P. Linse. 2001. The Baloney Detection Kit. Altadena, CA: Millennium Press. Ten questions to ask when examining a claim. 1. How reliable is the source of the claim? 2. Does the source make similar claims. 3. Have the claims been verified by someone else? 4. Does this fit with the way the world works? 5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim? 6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point? 7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science? 8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence? 9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory. 10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim? Baloney detection kit