Last year the NSW Government announced a trial of ethics-based educational classes for students who opt out of attending ‘Scripture classes.’ The NSW Council of Churches at the time expressed a number of reservations about the proposal.
This week, Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen expressed similar concerns, noting that schools already teach ethics, so such a course is redundant; that it should properly be called secular philosophy rather than ethics; and that it reneges on promises made by governments since the 1880s that other lessons would not be taught in the time set aside for religious education.
Time set aside for Scripture lessons in state schools is time well invested, and it is not unreasonable to fear that these new ethics classes will eventually take the place of religious instruction in state schools.
A secular society is not necessarily one devoid of religious traditions, or faith-based ethics.
Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 18 April 2010.
