[dayglored]

In my opinion, no English speaking person, especially Americans and British, can be said to be truly literate, unless they have read the KJV Bible (Old and New Testaments) and Shakespeare. Or at least large percentages of the more common parts. Otherwise, a good percentage of the interesting phrases in the language will go sailing right past and not make any sense.

[dayglored]

... not to mention that they’ll also miss a huge number of excellent jokes based on puns on common Biblical and Shakespearean phrases!

[Huck]

My mom used to drill that into my head when I was growing up, in almost the exact terms. Mom, is that you?

I can still hear her saying, "Son, this is something every educated person should know."

[RegulatorCountry]

There are a lot of people who are completely unfamiliar with the KJV, who still attempt to use phrases from it, albeit badly. “Escape goat” is my favorite. I guess they could be described as being “on the lamb.”

[redheadtoo]

I am totally in agreement with you. It doesn't matter if you are a believer or not. Knowledge of the Bible is necessary to be a educated person in a Western society.

[NakedRampage]

I've found that, at college. In a peer review exercise, in an essay I made reference to the average worth of American households in relation to location and other factors. My "peers" were asking why I suddenly started talking about how much houses cost.

Sigh. Our society is illiterate.

[Chickensoup]

Back a few months ago I began listing book titles, that had names that were Biblical in nature. I was surprised at how many there were, of course if I could think of even one, now, I would be vindicated. But of course, brain cramps are more evident with age.

[SuziQ]

In my opinion, no English speaking person, especially Americans and British, can be said to be truly literate, unless they have read the KJV Bible (Old and New Testaments) and Shakespeare.

Our #1 son was an English major at UMass Amherst, and IIRC, one of his classes was a study of the Bible as Literature. So someone recognized its importance to the English language.