Category: ethics


Fresh call to scrap ethics classes

Filed under: education, ethics, NSW Council of Churches, NSW politics — Leave a comment
July 29, 2011

The NSW government’s ethics classes are again in the news, with the Council of Churches urging Premier Barry O’Farrell to repeal the legislation that led to the establishment of ethics classes in NSW state schools.

The current arrangement was imposed by the Labor Party in the dying days of the Keneally Government, with Education Minister Verity Firth appearing to regard it as a personal crusade.

Last year, the Opposition, led by Mr O’Farrell, opposed the introduction of ethics classes, then promised that if elected it would move to ensure that the classes did not clash with Special Religious Education classes. Mr O’Farrell later reversed this policy, but made it clear to a gathering of church leaders in February, prior to the March 26 election, that the sole reason for this back flip was that he would not control the Upper House when elected to govern.

Council of Churches President Richard Quadrio has now made a fresh call to Mr O’Farrell to scrap the program.  But it would seem that the ethical horse has now bolted.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 31 July 2011.

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Ethics classes no threat to SRE, say churches

Filed under: church & state, education, ethics — Leave a comment
July 29, 2011

For two years debate has raged over the merits of introducing secular ethics classes in NSW state schools, in competition to the established special religious education, or scripture classes. Ethics classes are now running in about 120 primary schools, with limited uptake by students and a shortage of teachers.

Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile, fearing this might be the beginning of the end for SRE in NSW, has threatened to block key legislation in the Upper House if the O’Farrell Government does not consider repealing the laws governing ethics classes.

But on Thursday, it was revealed the Anglican Church has reversed its opposition to ethics classes. Dr Bryan Cowling from the Anglican Education Commission says they are no threat to SRE, and the ethics curriculum is “good educational stuff.”

The Catholic Church agrees, with a spokesperson saying, “The implementation of ethics classes in a limited number of school communities has had little effect on the teaching of SRE.” Time will tell if the ethics classes survive longterm. We can only hope the churches are not giving up on SRE.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 24 July 2011.

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Turning baby girls into boys in India

Filed under: ethics, gender, medicine, sexuality — Leave a comment
July 29, 2011

We’ve all heard how there’s an unusually high ratio of boys to girls in India and China – due largely to a preference for boys which leads many parents to abort girl babies, a national tragedy in both countries.

Now some Indian parents have gone a step further, and baby girls are being “converted” into boys, by the hundreds every year, through a surgical process known as masculinising genitoplasty. Doctors say strict procedures are followed to determine the sex of the newborn, and if it is a girl, male hormones are introduced, and male external organs are crafted from female tissue.

There are huge problems with this development. The surgery may have profound longterm psychological effects on the patient; the patient will be infertile and the surgery irreversible; there is no system to monitor the claims of unscrupulous surgeons; and newborn babies cannot give their consent to this life-changing operation.

The Indian government must adequately regulate the practice of gender reassignment, and the medical community must act in the interests of patients.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 10 July 2011.

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Online resources for Christian ethics

Filed under: ethics, public theology, social justice — Leave a comment
July 27, 2011

This is a selective list of online resources for ethics and public theology.  Listing here does not imply endorsement of organisations or content.  There are many more, with new ones appearing almost every week. 

If you find other helpful links, or if links below are inactive, please contact ethics@morling.edu.au

All links were active on 27 July 2011.  This page will be updated periodically.

 

AUSTRALIA — CHRISTIAN

Australian Centre for Christianity & Culture – http://www.csu.edu.au/special/accc

Australian Christian Lobby – http://www.acl.org.au

Australian Family Association – http://www.family.org.au

Baptist Social Issues (Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT) – http://baptistsocialissues.com

Centre for Christian Living (Sydney Anglican) – http://www.ccl.moore.edu.au

Centre for Public Christianity – http://www.publicchristianity.org

Church & Nation Committee (Presbyterian Church of Victoria) – http://candn.pcvic.org.au

CultureWatch (Bill Muehlenberg blog) – http://www.billmuehlenberg.com

Edmund Rice Centre (Catholic) – http://www.erc.org.au

Ethos Centre for Christianity & Society (evangelical) – http://www.ea.org.au/Ethos.aspx

Eureka Street (Catholic) – http://www.eurekastreet.com.au

Family Voice Australia (formerly Festival of Light) – http://www.fava.org.au

Gordon Moyes (issues factsheets) – http://www.gordonmoyes.com/parliament/factsheets

iDigress (Rod Benson blog) – http://rodbenson.com

Lutheran Church of Australia Social & Bioethical Questions – http://www.lca.org.au/action/lifeissues/csbq

Micah Challenge Australia – http://www.micahchallenge.org.au

NSW Council of Churches – http://www.nswchurches.org/content/issues.aspx

Plunkett Centre for Ethics (Catholic) – http://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/research/our_research/research_centres_-and-_institutes/plunkett_centre_for_ethics/

Religion & Ethics Australia (news links) – http://twitter.com/reaustralia

Salt Shakers (Peter Stokes) – http://saltshakers.org.au

Salvation Army (Australia) Positional Statements & Guidelines – http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us_65047/about-the-salvation-army/positional-statements–and–guidelines.html?s=1744586070

Seventh-Day Adventist Church (Australia) Perspectives on Social Issues – http://adventist.org.au/about_adventists/perspectives_on_social_issues

Social Issues Executive (Sydney Anglican) – http://www.sie.org.au

Southern Cross Bioethics Institute (Catholic) – http://www.bioethics.org.au

Uniting Justice (Uniting Church in Australia) – http://www.unitingjustice.org.au

Yarra Institute for Religion & Social Policy – http://www.yarrainstitute.org.au

 

AUSTRALIA — OTHER

ABC Religion & Ethics – http://www.abc.net.au/religion

ABC The Drum – http://www.abc.net.au/news/thedrum

Australia Institute – https://www.tai.org.au

Australian Policy Online – http://www.apo.org.au

Catalyst – http://www.catalyst.org.au

Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics – http://www.cappe.edu.au

Centre for Independent Studies – http://www.cis.org.au

Centre for Policy Development – http://cpd.org.au

Institute of Public Affairs – http://www.ipa.org.au

Per Capita – http://www.percapita.org.au

St James Ethics Centre – http://www.ethics.org.au

 

INTERNATIONAL

Baylor University Center for Christian Ethics (Baptist) – http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics

Cambridge Papers (Jubilee Centre, UK) – http://www.jubilee-centre.org/resources.php?catID=1

Center for Applied Christian Ethics (Wheaton College, USA) – http://www.wheaton.edu/CACE

Centre for Social Justice (UK) – http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk

Centre for Theology & Public Issues (University of Edinburgh) – http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/divinity/research/centres/theology-public-issues

Christian Ethics Reading Room (Tyndale Seminary, Canada) – http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/ethics

Ethics Daily (Baptist, USA) – http://www.ethicsdaily.com

Ethics Resource Center (USA) – http://www.ethics.org/resources

European Ethics Network – http://www.ethical-perspectives.be/

Joint Public Issues Team (Baptist, Methodist & Reformed Churches, UK) – http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk

Jubilee Centre (UK) – http://www.jubilee-centre.org

Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (UK) – http://www.klice.co.uk

Social & Political Issues (Baptist Union of Great Britain) – http://www.baptist.org.uk/social-and-political-issues.html

Theos (UK) – http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk

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Samuel K. Roberts on virtue theory

Filed under: Baptist World Alliance, Baptists, Christian ethics, ethics, virtue — 1 Comment
July 5, 2011

This afternoon, after lunch with fellow Australians Ken Manley, Frank Rees and David Parker, and foreign ring-ins Richard Pierard, Charles Curran and others, I attended the first of three meetings of the BWA Commission on Christian Ethics, chaired by Richard Wilson. There were 27 present (although three or four arrived quite late), and Samuel K. Roberts presented an academic paper titled, “But how does the Spirit work in moral action? A case for the utility of virtue theory.” Roberts is E. Hervey Evans Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

In his paper, Roberts commended the application of virtue theory as a primary way in which the work of the Holy Spirit comes into being in our lives (in his introductory remarks he said, joking, that he used virtue theory as a hammer to hit anything that looked like a nail). He referred to quotes by Basil of Caesarea and William Alston who indicated the direction in which Christian virtue theory might be marshalled, and noted the explicitly virtues-oriented work of Stanley Hauerwas and Alasdair McIntyre as examples of how “Protestant theological ethicists began to engage in a lively conversation about the promise of virtue ethics for giving us a full and robust account of the Christian moral life.” Central to Roberts’ argument was the view that “the chief good for the believer in Christian virtue theory is becoming a person whose disposition and actions are consistent with the will of God.”

But what of Baptist theologians/ethicists? Roberts went on to examine selected works of Francis Wayland (1796-1865), Billy Graham (b. 1918) and T.B. Maston (1897-1988), showing how each expressed their view of the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual Christian leading to virtuous/ethical/just living. He concluded that “Faithful response to God’s gift of sanctification constitutes in a very real sense the essence of the Christian life,” and that “virtue theory approaches [as illustrated in the writings of Wayland, Graham and Maston] just might be particularly useful as we seek to understand with great clarity our rich theological and ethical heritage.”

Roberts spoke for almost an hour, and his address was followed by a second hour of lively questions and comments. There was no formal responder to this paper. I had the impression that we could have gone on for another 30 minutes of fruitful discussion. I took notes on the responses, some of them quite illuminating and challenging, and may summarise them here later.  I might even say what I thought of the paper.

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