Are We Producing Biblically Illiterate People?

I just returned from attending the Baptist Association of Christian Educators conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The focus and theme of the conference was “Living the Truth”. We explored how well we, as Christian educators, are doing in helping people know and apply the Bible to their lives. The main speaker was Dr. George Guthrie, professor at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He just completed a new book, Bible for Life. Dr. Guthrie has developed a very basic 18 question test to determine how biblically literate someone may be. He has given this test to incoming freshmen at Union University. Union University is a conservative Southern Baptist university that attracts a lot of students who come from a conservative Christian background and who have been in church much of their lives. I was surprised when he announced that the average score of the incoming freshmen was 57%. I have seen the test and it is not very difficult. It has questions like, “Which of these books is from the New Testament?” This is a question that anyone who has been in Sunday School for years should be able to answer. Every Sunday we are teaching the Bible in our churches but are the people getting it? Do people actually see the benefits of knowing God’s Word and hiding it in their hearts? Are people living by the principles found in the Bible? What are we doing wrong? What can we do to change this trend of biblically illiteracy? Give me your thoughts.