American educators are scratching their heads over how to get screen-seduced students to read books (the paper kind). According to the latest national report card, reading scores are at an all-time low. Yet one trend belies this aversion to the printed page: Last year saw an unexpected surge in Bible sales, particularly among young people.
Sales of all religious books rose some 18% through October 2024, according to book tracker Circa Book scan. Yet Bible sales were up a popping 22%. Compare that with on a 1% rise for all book sales.
Among members of Generation Z, including college students, "You have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid," Amy Simpson, publisher of Tyndall House Publishers' Bible division, told The Wall Street Journal.
One explanation comes from a new survey by the Christian research group Barna: Some 52% of American teens--Christian or not--say they are "very motivated" to learn more about Jesus. Barna attributes this to an "openness and curiosity about spiritual matters."
The Bible has long dominated bestseller lists. It's appeal is perennial, always there with universal messages. According to a 2023 survey by the American Bible Society, more than half of Americans wish they had read the Bible more. Given the big bump in Bible sales, it is the children who are leading them to act on that wish.
A switch-up on deportations
During a tour of Central America in February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on tough solutions to the illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. In Guatemala, he heard of a wholly different solution. President Bernardo Arévalo -- whose career specialty is as a conflict conciliator--has begun a plan to invest in Guatemalans deported by the Trump administration, by tapping any work or language skills they acquired in the United States.
The plan called Return Home, would treat deportees as experts in individual agency and assets for the nation, not as victims of politics or of an economic system. President Arévalo called them worthy of a "dignified reception." If they have worked in construction or hospitality in the U.S., they could get skilled certification. If they are fluent in English, they could be directed to jobs in ecotourism. If they have been entrepreneurs, they might be eligible for a loan.
The president's plan is by no means a small venture. Paying for the plan may be difficult without foreign assistance. During the Biden administration, the U.S. deported more Guatemalans than any other group.
Mr. Arévalo has told potential deportees in the U.S., "We know that you are going through moments of uncertainty and concern, but we are with you and we will fight for you."
It was one way to take the fear and panic out of migration--either forced or voluntary--and perhaps change the debate over a very charged issue.
When dignity defines a people
Iraq will soon do something extraordinary in the Middle East where identities are often anchored by tribe, religion, or ethnicity. It will release detailed results of its first national census in decades--without any of those pigeonholing categories. In other words, data collated from a two-day, door-to-door survey conducted last November will not break down people by labels such as Shiite or Sunni, Kurd or Arab.
Aimed at simply helping officials divvy up elected seats and spread resource wealth equally to everyone, the census will not reduce individuals to demographic stereotypes."Iraqis should be citizens first and foremost and be treated as such by government strategy," Joost Hiltermann, an Iraqi expert at the Crises Group think tank, told Deutsche Welle.
Iraq has learned this lesson the hard way. For more than four decades, it suffered civil wars driven in large part by identity differences. When the current constitution was approved in 2005, it included the words "equal" and "equality" eight times. In 2019, student-led protests against corruption took aim at a governing system that ensures the prime minister is always a Shiite Muslim, the parliamentary speaker a Sunni Muslim, and the president a Kurd.
Young Iraqis may be the most eager to define themselves as Iraqis first. Preliminary data from the census showed 56% of the population was born after the 2003 American invasion that ousted a dictatorship. This cohort took the brunt of the 2013-2017 civil war fueled d by the Islamic State.
Civic ideals, not social stigmas, may now unite many Iraqis. A census based on equal dignity can reflect that.
The Christian Science Monitor Weekly / Week of February 24, 2025
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