There a couple foundational documents that many Americans cite as absolute truisms. One is the Bible, Old and New Testament. The other is the Constitution of the United States. Yet when you get to quizzing folks, the actual count of who has read either one of these documents in totality is not staggeringly impressive.
According to one survey, Americans Love the Bible but Don’t Read It Much , showed only 20 percent read the Bible regularly.
“Results of a nationwide survey released Thursday by the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier show 86 percent of respondents recognize the importance of the document, the 223-year-old framework for American government. Thirty-one percent say they think they understand the Constitution “a lot” and 48 percent say they understand “some” of it. But only 28 percent say they’ve read all of the document, and 14 percent say they’ve read most of it, according to a report by Sean O’Brien, executive director at the Orange, Va., center.”
I can understand the Bible to some extent. It is long, dense and arcane. I once had very “religious” person tell me that he did not need to read the Bible. If there was something in there he needed to know his preacher would tell him. Okay.
The United States Constitution is not long, dense or arcane. It is not any more a perfect document than is the Bible. If nothing else counting people of color as three fifths of a person for the purpose of congressional representation would toss the Constitution from that category. Continue reading “US Constitution – Links to document and audio book – Less than one hour of your time”