A new Pew Forum poll quizzed Americans on religious knowledge, including a few questions about church-state rules.The good news is that 89% correctly say that teachers are not allowed to lead students in prayer, but on other religion in school issues most are mistaken (my emphasis):
The survey… finds widespread confusion over the line between teaching and preaching in public schools. … [A]mong the questions most often answered incorrectly is whether public school teachers are permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature. Fully two-thirds of people surveyed (67%) also say “no” to this question, even though the Supreme Court has clearly stated that the Bible may be taught for its “literary and historic” qualities, as long as it is part of a secular curriculum. On a third question along these lines, just 36% of the public knows that comparative religion classes may be taught in public schools. Together, this block of questions suggests that many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are.
If Americans think church-state separation is more restrictive than it is, I wonder how that squares with other polls that consistently show a majority wrongly believes the Constitution "establishes a Christian nation." Anybody got an explanation for that?
Read the full report (pdf) here. The NYTimes offers this coverage.
