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Religion and National Security
On the TS Show last week Professor Stephen Prothero (Boston University) argued that all Americans - from our public school youngsters to national security leaders - need to know more about religion. He has written a very informative and provocative book: Religious Literacy. The book is one historical view trying to explain why we Americans, are on the one hand very religious but on the other hand very ignorant about basic religious facts. Despite its very general title, the book focuses on Christian Americans' lack of Biblical knowledge and complete ignorance about other religions.
The book has some education policy recommendations that will make many nervous about the First Amendment doctrine separating church and state. However, Prothero hit one nail completely on its head in his appearance on the show: religion education is vital for our national security.
For US national security - we need stronger education for soldiers and diplomats alike, not only on religion, but in other cultural topics too. Studies show that we must focus attention on "superhard" languages for our diplomats. We also need to train people for more team work between our soldiers and diplomats, so the government's internal squabbles are not harming our global communications.
When we talk about national security and education, cultural and historical education programs never get the same attention as math or science programs. While expending resources in the next budget, our Congress should invest in educating the human resources that actually do the work of national security.