It is difficult to see how anyone could object to the teaching of ethics in schools. Everyone could benefit from a better understanding of ethics after all.
However, the recent emerging brawl in NSW over the teaching of ethics in public schools is making for some interesting bedfellows as the Atheist Foundation and the Sydney Anglican diocese trade blows over the proposal by the St James Ethics Centre.
The Centre is proposing that students who do not sign up for scripture classes in the public school system should be offered ethics courses as an attractive alternative to 'twiddling their fingers' while scripture classes take place.
One of the ironies of the fight is that the Centre itself was originally established by the Anglican parish of St James, King Street, Sydney. This is one of the few tolerated 'non-evangelical' Anglican parishes in a diocese otherwise dominated by the evangelical approach of the Jensens.
Still the Centre is now less formally related to the parish and has moved towards a greater independence from any particular religion. Nonetheless their website home page prominently features a quote from St Augustine.
And they can now count the Atheist Foundation as an ally in their efforts to promote ethics education in schools. The Foundation argues that one can be ethical without religious faith and that secular values 'can be appreciated regardless of one's religion or lack thereof'.
The concerns of the Anglican diocese seem to move in two directions. The first is that the ethics programs might attract students away from existing scripture classes and diminish their effectiveness. This looks more like a matter of turf wars, of seeking to maintain numbers and so justify their continuance.
However the more substantive issue is the Anglicans' concerns over a 'secular' ethics displacing traditional Judeao-Christian ethics based on the Bible. Secularism is raising its ugly head!
This is perhaps less an issue for Catholics who have always claimed a basis for ethics in 'natural law', not just the Bible. But for evangelical Christians solely dependent on the scriptures for their ethical demands, the claim of a secular ethics based on reason alone is more problematic.
Indeed the Catholic Church has been much less vocal on the issue, perhaps for this reason. The Catholic tradition has always seen its ethical precepts as based on reason, with scripture assisting us because of the 'darkening of the intellect' caused