FAIRFAX, Va., May 1 (UPI) -- A report by the Bible Literacy Project says that most of a group of top English teachers in the United States support teaching the Bible in high school.
A Gallup Poll released at the same time found that high school students appear to have spotty knowledge of the Bible's contents, the Washington Times reports.
More than two-thirds of the 1,000 students surveyed could not identify a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount, did not know that the Apostle Paul had his religious conversion on the Road to Damascus. More than half did not know that Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast.
Researchers interviewed 41 teachers from four private schools and 30 public schools. They found that 90 percent of the group believe the Bible should be taught as literature in school.
Laurance Levy, a teacher at the McDonogh School in Owings Mill, Md., called the Bible ""one of the basic pieces of literature that in Western civilization has influenced laws, morals, politics and other literature."
The report was funded by financier John Templeton. The Bible Literacy Project plans to release a textbook for public schools in September.
