A new book on, The State of the American Mind, reminds us of the ignorance and anti-intellectualism on college campuses and in our popular culture. One of the editors of this work is Emory Professor Mark Bauerlein, who I have talked about before because he was the author of the book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. He was on my radio program recently to summarize what 16 different authors talked about in the book.

Mark Bauerlein and E.D. Hirsch in their chapters remind us that even in a time of unprecedented wealth and rising college enrollment, most students are functionally illiterate as well as culturally illiterate. It appears that the American mind has grown smaller and more selfish in its pursuits.

Daniel Dreisbach wrote about the lack of biblical literacy in our society. He tells the story of the media reaction to President George W. Bush’s address at his first presidential inauguration. Pledging a national commitment to serve the poor, Bush mentioned the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan. Media pundits wondered about this strange story. One CBS political commentator confessed, “There were a few phrases in the speech I just didn’t get.” One of those, he said, was this allusion to a wounded traveler on the road to Jericho. We might expect this level of biblical illiteracy when conducting a “man on the street” interview, but we should expect better from well-educated political commentators.

Dennis Prager recounts his experience when asking high school students if they would save their dog or a stranger if both were drowning. He sadly explains that, aside from some religious schools (Jewish and Christian), he received the same answer. One-third would save the dog; one-third would save the stranger, and one-third find the question too difficult to answer. When he asks why they would save the dog, the near universal answer is, “I love my dog; I don’t love the stranger.” There is no moral examination, no contrast between humans and animals.

These and many other stories and statistics remind us that we not only have cultural illiteracy but also have biblical illiteracy and moral illiteracy as well.