Turning up the heatmap

In some states of Australia the Education Department have two streams of religious education in public schools.  General Religious Education is a broad curriculum covering the basics of religious belief around the world.  It is effectively a comparative religions courses mostly delivered by qualified teachers in an unbiased  secular manner.  Then there is Special Religious Education, which was designed as an opportunity for various religious faith to enter the classroom and tell students about their particular beliefs without preaching, proselytising, or evangelising.

Unfortunately, many in the religious community see this as a golden opportunity to capture new converts – and they are often driven by the central doctrines of their faith.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”Jesus, Matthew 28:19-20

A major provider of Special Religious Education (SRI) in Victoria is ACCESS Ministries, whose published mission statement once read:

“ACCESS ministries leads the Church in its mission to reach students and school communities in Victoria and beyond with the transforming love of God and His Son Jesus Christ.”ACCESS Ministries

And videos on their Youtube channel stated:

“Our goal is to reach children and young people with the transforming love of God and his son, Jesus.”ACCESS Ministries

Interestingly, ACCESS Ministries have since disabled embedding of this video on other web pages, so you will have to visit their channel to see the footage.

However, after a backlash from the community who were outraged that overtly evangelical Christians were teaching their kids that Jesus was the only way to attain paradise in the afterlife ACCESS altered their published mission statement.  Now their mission statement simply reads:

“Transforming the lives of young people and their communities” - ACCESS Ministries

Although, not surprisingly, their statement of belief is still dripping with religion:

“ACCESS ministries is an ecumenical body committed to the basic doctrines of the Christian faith drawn from the Old and New Testament Scriptures. It is committed to the three ecumenical creeds (Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed) and takes into account the faith statements and traditions of its nominating churches.”ACCESS Ministries

The guys over at Fairness in Religions in School have been busy surveying Victorian schools to determine which faiths in our multicultural society are represented in our public schools.  The results can be seen on Google Maps and highlights some of the issues inherent in the SRI program. It is immediately obvious that Christian faiths have the lion’s share to the East of Melbourne, while a smaller pocket to the West have not implemented an SRI program at all.

I will not delve into the demographics or socio-economic implications this map may imply – it is sufficient to point out that the enormously wide range of available religions do not seem to be fairly represented.  In a free secular society students and families should peruse their own religious faith without government institutions pushing one class of religious faith over another.

If we are to allow Special Religious Education within the walls of the public school system, then stricter controls must be placed on its delivery and the range of faiths must be significantly increased.  Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Scientologists, Hindus. Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Lutherans, Quakers, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and secular humanists (who could be argued to have a view on religious matters) should all get a turn at the blackboard.  At this is merely a small sample of the buffet of religious belief.

Kids are smart.  They will find the truth.

Tagged with: Access Ministries, FIRIS, SRI

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