By Rod Benson With the federal election behind us, it’s time to focus on public issues closer to home. Two issues that will exercise the hearts and minds of NSW citizens in the next few weeks are the matter of adoption by same sex couples (I’ll have more to say about that next week), and [...]
Archive for the ‘ethics’ Category
Ethics classes as a weapon
Posted: September 8, 2010 by rodbenson in NSW politics, education, ethics0
David Hill on ethics classes
Posted: September 8, 2010 by rodbenson in NSW politics, education, ethicsBy Rod Benson On Tuesday former ABC managing director and spokesman for the lobby group Parents4Ethics David Hill launched a spirited attack against the churches for their concern at the erosion of the Special Religious Education program in state schools by the introduction of ethics classes. Mr Hill quoted Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen who [...]
The truth about ethics classes
Posted: September 8, 2010 by rodbenson in NSW politics, education, ethicsBy Rod Benson In November last year, when the ethics class trial was discussed in principle, with limited information available, the NSW Council of Churches took a wait-and-see approach to their usefulness. Now that the trial is coming to an end, both on the record and anecdotal evidence indicates that entrenched anti-religious sentiment, and not [...]
The Westminster Declaration
Posted: May 7, 2010 by rodbenson in ethics, human rights, politics and faith, religious freedomBy Rod Benson The Catholic Church has its papal encyclicals, and Protestants – especially the evangelicals among them – have their declarations. “Westminster 2010” is a declaration of Christian beliefs about life, marriage and conscience, written by Christian leaders in the United Kingdom, seeking to encourage debate in the lead-up to last Thursday’s British general [...]
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 [...]
