The St James Centre has been trialling, successfully from what little I’ve heard, ethics classes in schools as an alternative to religious education (RE) classes. Why RE is being taught in PUBLIC schools is beyond me, but that’s not the main point. The point is the religious don’t want these ethics classes. Why? Heaven forbid (TIC) that children will be taught ethics, but that doesn’t seem to be the main problem the religious have with the program, as pointed out in this article on smh.com.au
THE Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has privately lobbied the Premier, Kristina Keneally, against the permanent introduction of secular ethics classes in public schools, saying they would jeopardise the future of religious education. (emphasis mine)
Or should that last word be indoctrination? 🙂
Why is the Archbishop worried? Probably because he knows that old adage “give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man” and is worried he and his cronies won’t be able to continue to brainwash young children into specific religious dogmas.
I have no major problem with comparative religion being taught in schools in a social science type class. Where children are taught the histories and beliefs of all religions as concepts not as truths. Where they can be taught issues related to freedom of religion and freedom from religion, as well as the separation of church and state; among other religious issues that impact everyone on a secular nature.
from Jason via email:
The Christian rent-a-crowd have been busy inundating NSW MLC Penny Sharpe’s inbox, pleading with the government to kill the St James Centre NSW ethics classes so they won’t compete with scripture classes. (from Penny’s twitter timeline http://twitter.com/PennySharpemlc/status/12190784832 )
We need to let Penny know that there is support in the community for the ethics classes in NSW. Please consider sending her a personalised message of support on why you think this is an important initiative.
You can contact her by email: http://pennysharpe.com/contact
Or you can tweet her @PennySharpemlc (please use twitter hashtag #nswethics )
Or send her a message on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pennysharpemlc
Government at all levels needs to know that many people approve of the ethics classes being taught as an alternative to the RE classes. Senior clergy should not be allowed to sway the decision making process as they have a very obvious bias toward being allowed to indoctrinate young children into their specific religion. Please contact Penny and other parliamentarians (particularly your local MP) and let them know that you want alternatives to RE classes and that the ethics classes should be taught in all schools. Don’t let the religious rent-a-crowd hijack another excellent program, a program which can only be a good thing for children to learn,
Media coverage of the issue and related issues (thanks again to Jason and others)
http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/media-releases/ethics-classes-not-attack-religion
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s2871823.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/top-cop-leads-god-squad-20100411-s0wp.html
http://twitter.com/PennySharpemlc (Penny’s twitter timeline)
There are some amazing, and a little scary, stories from parents particularly in the comments on the first link.
I don’t have, and never had, children in school but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to discuss this issue and help stop the religious having undue influence over young and impressionable minds.
update 26 July 2010
Here are a few more links for all things SRE, RI (RE), NSCP and Ethics Classes .
http://www.highcourtchallenge.com/index.html
http://www.stopthenscp.org/religioninpolitics.htm
http://www.backintheact.com/index.html
http://campaign.specialethicseducation.com.au/index.php
http://www.australiansecularlobby.com/
Note that Queensland has slightly different laws when it comes to Religious Instruction (RI) (sometime wrongly labelled as ‘Religious Education’ (RE)) compared to NSW and it’s Special Religious Education (SRE). From what I gather the National Schools Chaplaincy Program (NSCP) is above and beyond RI and SRE?
Religious Education – it should be taught by religious people in religious places (NOT public schools, or any other public or government institution) to people who want to learn it, not to people who have no choice (ie. children who are ‘forced’ to attend).
Oz Atheist's Weblog 
I think we can aslo turn the focus back on SRE classes. What are the aims and outcomes of these classes? To instill morals and ethics in children and or to introduce children to a particular brand of monotheism?
How successful are these classes at either of these?
There is an article on Eureka Street by Neil Ormerod that gives some insight (I’m not sure how accurate)into the Anglican and RC theological perspectives on the ethics classes.
It’s worth trying to get a handle on where they are coming from in terms of their internal (theological) discourse; because the Anglicans, at least, don’t seem to make much sense in their justifications in the external media. If we can expose their real reasons for opposing the trial, then it will make their public justifications look even shakier.
Welcome Brian, and thanks for the heads up about the Eureka Street article.
1. “Ultimately the aim of SRE is evangelism, to provide children with knowledge of God and the offer of salvation in Christ.” – # 41 and # 45
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/news/ozanalysis/mixed_agendas_behind_ethic_classes_need_untangling/#15080
2.” ‘Unless we make significant changes, we will be a small, wealthy, irrelevant cult within 20 years’. He [Jensen] then corrected himself: ’10 years!’ (‘And not so wealthy’ – which got a laugh.)
Hard to disagree with him isn’t it? Depending how you do that maths, we have at best – what – 1.5% of people in church with us? Yes, the other denominations add to that a little, but most (including us) are static or declining. # 7
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/ministry/evangelism/12_hard_truths_c09_taught_me/#15079