Please fill in the blank: "Our Father, who art in heaven, ____ be thy name."
This month, that question came up on the television gameshow "Jeopardy," and none of the otherwise smart contestants could answer it.
The social media universe exploded with indignation. (In case you are wondering, the correct word is "hallowed.")
The Rev. Franklin Graham said, "We have lost so much biblical literacy and basic awareness of the things of God's Word. This moving away from biblical values will equal double jeopardy for our nation."
I admired Graham's father, Billy, but after several years of listening to Franklin Graham bow before the altar of Donald Trump, I've come to the conclusion that the Graham gene pool might need a new lifeguard.
But even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and Graham is on to something here. In many ways, our society is becoming increasingly ignorant of scripture.
For centuries, the Bible has been a common cultural reference point that bound our nation. When Abraham Lincoln gave his House Divided speech, he was quoting from the book of Matthew.
When Ben Franklin sent his "olive branch petition" to King George III, it was a was a plea from colonists to avoid war with Great Britain. But its name came from a biblical reference. (A dove bearing an olive branch returned to Noah's ark and it has become a symbol of peace.)
When I was in high school, the rock group Iron Maiden came out with the tune, "Hallowed be thy name," proving that scriptural knowledge can give insight into heavy metal music.
A few years ago, I interviewed Gwen Jordan, who was then an associate professor of legal studies at University of Illinois Springfield.
In a class Jordan was teaching at UIS, she discovered none of her students in the law and society class knew who Pontius Pilate was. (In case you need a reminder, he was a really bad governor – almost as bad as Rod Blagojevich and Bruce Rauner.)
Jordan was teaching from Rosco Pound's tome, What is Law, where Pound ponders: "What is truth?" That, of course, was the question Pilate asked Jesus shortly before he ordered his crucifixion.
In case you think Jordan is a religious zealot, think again. She grew up Presbyterian in Peoria, later dabbled at being a Unitarian and now just calls herself "spiritual."
What Jordan experienced in the classroom is what my college civil liberties professor, Donald Boles, warned of more than 35 years ago. Boles was one of the foremost experts on the intersection of religion and public schools.
He agreed with the 1963 Supreme Court decision, Abington Township v. Schempp, which prohibited mandatory recitation of Bible verses in public schools. But he feared school administrators would use the ruling as a legal pretext to eliminate classes dealing with religion.
But the high court said just the opposite in its landmark ruling:
"In addition, it might well be said that one's education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization. It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment."
In other words, public schools should not be in the business of proselytizing. But they should be educating about religion.
Sadly, Professor Boles was prophetic. Schools have cut back on religion courses during the past half century. And it has resulted in a growing ignorance of even the most basic biblical references.
This has had a corrosive effect on our society. Common touchstones are disappearing that once bridged the language gap between those active in a church or synagogue and those who are not.
Abraham Lincoln was keenly aware of the shared cultural reference the Bible represented when he quoted the Gospel of Matthew in the period leading up to the Civil War by saying, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Could an American leader use such a biblical reference today and be understood by all?
Probably not. We are losing the common reference point the Bible has brought our culture.
It seems we, too, are becoming a house divided.
