Saving our Sacred Stories?

Interesting article from The Age this morning entitled, "An Easter miracle: children who know their Bible stories."

Here's a couple of quotes from it:-

"Young people no longer know their Bible stories - and our culture may be the poorer for it."

"Prime Minister Julia Gillard would agree. An atheist, Ms Gillard believes Australians need to understand the Bible because it 'has formed such an important part of our culture'."

"I think it is a pity that I didn't leave a Bible lying about the house; that my children didn't hear those stories. I ask myself now, have I deprived my children of some richness? Some important way of seeing and understanding the world?"

"Associate Professor David Tacey, of La Trobe University's English department, believes ''sacred stories'' are important in any culture, even a secular one. ''Without what the Greeks called mythos or story, we have no way of orienting ourselves in life, either as a people or as individuals …"

"He says the loss of biblical stories from the culture is a direct failing of the Christian churches, who have a responsibility to ''tell those stories in a way that is engaging today''.

I can't help observing that Australia seems to be entering a period of intense wrestling around the questions of who we are, what we believe, and who/what will set our moral/ethical/spiritual course. And it seems that Christianity and the Bible are right at the centre of the argument!