tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/religious-instruction-9089/articlesReligious Instruction – The Conversation2022-07-11T15:32:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850922022-07-11T15:32:08Z2022-07-11T15:32:08ZSome people treat Disney as sacred. Does that make it a religion?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470644/original/file-20220623-51658-q2jdih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5472%2C3656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many critique Disney adults as being victims of exploitation because Disney merchandise and trips to the parks come at a steep price.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Raoux)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/some-people-treat-disney-as-sacred--does-that-make-it-a-religion" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Disney has been making the headlines lately, but it hasn’t been about blockbusters. Recently, people have been up in arms over a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8911662/disney-apologizes-employee-interrupts-marriage-proposal-paris/">ruined Disney park proposal</a> and a couple who opted to have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/internet-loses-mind-couple-said-minnie-mickey-wedding-instead-food-rcna32228">Minnie and Mickey at their wedding instead of food</a>. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/11/1104056661/disney-adults">news articles</a> and social media users were quick to say that for some folks, Disney is a religion — citing <a href="https://www.routledge.com/God-in-the-Details-American-Religion-in-Popular-Culture/Mazur-McCarthy/p/book/9780415485371">mythologies, symbols, rituals, community</a> and regular expensive pilgrimages to the park as central reasons. </p>
<p>But just because many people treat Disney as sacred, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a religion. </p>
<p>Religion is an incredibly difficult thing to define, yet most people assume they already know what it means. You know it when you see it, right? The problem is, under this logic, anything and everything could be considered a religion. </p>
<p>Practically speaking, there’s nothing wrong with this. The world will not fall apart. But the problem for those of us studying religion is if everything’s a religion, then what are we really studying? </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Disney adults talk about being banned from dressing up at Disney parks.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-25243">my own work</a>, I study the ways in which people use popular culture to bring meaning to their life. More than ever before, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/unaffiliated-religious-nones/">people are identifying less and less with a religious tradition</a>. This leads some people to look for meaning and identity in the things they love most: like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1465620">baseball</a>, <a href="https://www.harrypottersacredtext.com/">books</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bending-not-breaking-an-avatar-the-last-airbender-podcast/id1486277624">television</a> and even <a href="https://www.beyoncemass.com/">Beyoncé</a>.</p>
<p>My goal here isn’t to argue against those who consider Disney their religion. But I want to challenge how words like religion are used so we can come to a better understanding of what it might mean to treat the Disney parks as sacred.</p>
<h2>Not just for kids</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bqx9">Religion is not a universal category</a>. It is a category that was <a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/1593">used by Christian colonialists</a> to determine who was similar to the colonists and who was not. And, by extension, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo13657764.html">who was human and who was not</a>. </p>
<p>I think it is possible to approach <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-are-disney-adult-fans-2021-8#what-are-disney-adults-1">Disney adults</a> with empathy and understanding without necessarily calling their relationship to Disney religion. </p>
<p>What’s more interesting is that Disney is being incorporated into important life events, and the ways in which it is <a href="https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/753369740/kraftland">meaningful to people</a>. </p>
<p>Disney products — movies, shows, etc. — like any product of popular culture, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctv1xxsd3">have always</a> reflected and contributed to whatever’s currently happening politically and religiously.</p>
<p>In response to the wedding and proposal controversies, religious studies scholar <a href="https://forward.com/news/505141/what-can-disney-adults-teach-us-about-religion-a-lot-according-to-this-professor/">Jodi Eichler-Levine</a> argued that “people tend to dismiss Disney” because it’s for kids and it’s fake. But, as she says, “even if the people in the costumes are fake, the emotions are real.” </p>
<p>What Eichler-Levine said reminds me of my Dad who, without fail, will cry every time he sees the Disney World fireworks show. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Happily Ever After fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Paying a hefty price</h2>
<p>Religious studies scholar Linda Woodhead <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2011.544192">argues that religion can be</a> understood in five ways: as culture, identity, relationship, practice and power. </p>
<p>Some people who love Disney incorporate it into important cultural events, while others wear paraphernalia as an expression of identity. Some people come to develop a close relationship to the brand through regular park attendance and by being a part of the Disney-loving community.</p>
<p>I think when people say Disney is a religion, they mean that some people treat Disney as sacred. French sociologist David Émile Durkheim <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41360/41360-h/41360-h.htm#Page_36">defines sacredness as</a> a category communities ascribe to certain things based on how they treat them.</p>
<p>Many critique Disney adults <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/disney-adults-tiktok-hated-internet-1370226/">as being victims of exploitation</a> because Disney merchandise and trips to the parks come at a steep price. Such critiques could also be applied to the history of exploitation in Christian traditions. </p>
<p>Before the Protestant Reformation, Catholic Church leaders asserted that in order to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/purgatory-Roman-Catholicism">avoid time in purgatory</a> after death, congregants <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/indulgence">needed to pay indulgences</a>. Doing so would cleanse them of their sins so they could bypass purgatory and secure a place for their soul in heaven — some religious leaders came to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther/The-indulgences-controversy">conclusion this was exploitative</a>.</p>
<p>But even today this sort of exploitation <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/1/15951874/prosperity-gospel-explained-why-joel-osteen-believes-prayer-can-make-you-rich-trump">is still happening</a>.</p>
<p>I see a big similarity between the previous example and Disney asking consumers to pay a hefty price to come to the parks in order to experience Disney’s magic with their own eyes, ears and yes, <a href="https://www.thedailymeal.com/travel/secrets-disney-parks-gallery/slide-18">even their nose</a>! Similarly, historic religious leaders made believers pay a hefty price to secure their place in paradise after death. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, under capitalism, people are going to be exploited every day. </p>
<p>Disney isn’t arguing that by spending money at their parks your soul will be saved. So by this logic, if some people treat Disney as sacred, is it a big deal?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah McKillop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People are increasingly identifying less with religious tradition and are looking for meaning and identity in the things they love most.Hannah McKillop, Doctoral Student in Religious Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1644022021-07-22T20:04:57Z2021-07-22T20:04:57ZUnis are killing the critical study of religion, and it will only make campuses more religious<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411594/original/file-20210716-25-f327re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=935%2C0%2C5062%2C3363&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunlight-falls-onto-slate-tiles-through-664593610">Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global developments in tertiary education suggest the critical scientific study of religion is endangered. One of the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-unis-consider-more-cuts-including-religion-and-theatre-20210505-p57p3n.html">departments slated for extinguishment</a> amid the pandemic-related upheavals was my own at the University of Sydney. This reflects a <a href="https://www.aarweb.org/AARMBR/About-AAR-/Board-of-Directors-/Board-Statements-/Academic-Study-of-Religion.aspx">trend</a> that has captured the academy in Australia and worldwide.</p>
<p>If we take South Australia as an example, over the past decade programs for the critical study of religion at the University of South Australia have been almost completely extinguished, while programs in theology, such as at Flinders, find their future assured. On the east coast, studies of religion programs at the universities of Queensland, Monash, Deakin and Newcastle have been wound back greatly, bled into “multidisciplinary” programs, or <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-unis-consider-more-cuts-including-religion-and-theatre-20210505-p57p3n.html">closed</a>. Departmental identities have been terminated. What isolated staff are left teach just a handful of electives. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-and-religion-tales-of-horror-and-hope-23245">Australian universities and religion: tales of horror and hope</a>
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<p>In the United States, <a href="https://justin-lane.medium.com/changes-in-religious-studies-departments-promoting-enrichment-or-entrenchment-c01acd52fd94">Boston and University of California Berkeley</a> have wound down or shut their programs, as has <a href="https://paulbraterman.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/sad-news-stirling-university-ends-religious-studies-courses/">Stirling</a> in the United Kingdom. A <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/04/15/catholic-religious-studies-intellectual-education-universities-239825">range of American colleges</a> are just not teaching religion critically any more.</p>
<h2>How do studies of religion and theology differ?</h2>
<p>Part of this move to kill the academic study of religion comes from ignorance of what it entails. It is generally accepted that an historian studies history because they want to know what really happened. In contrast, the general assumption is that if a scholar studies religion, then it can only be because they have motives that are only partly scholarly. This is untrue, but the long shadow of theology unhelpfully hangs over us. </p>
<p>Once theology was seen in the Western academy as the “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0953946819868092">queen of the sciences</a>”. The study of Christianity and its philosophies was considered the keystone of all other knowledge. </p>
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<img alt="view of King's College at the University of Cambridge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411596/original/file-20210716-1960-1m3chrq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The legacy of the time when theology was ‘queen of the sciences’ can clearly be seen in King’s College at the University of Cambridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cambridge-united-kingdom-15-november-2017-789134380">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This began to break down in the 18th century. Ideas that seemed resolutely Christian began to have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_comparative_mythology">Egyptian origins</a>, or show <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3140852?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">links to the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism</a>, or were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mystery-religion/Mystery-religions-and-Christianity">connected to the Roman cults</a> of Mithra or Isis.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-literate-in-myth-religion-and-theology-38283">Get literate in myth, religion and theology</a>
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<p>Theology was further removed from its queenly status when <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-science-figured-out-the-age-of-the-earth/">geologists showed us</a> the age of the planet was many millions rather than thousands of years old. Then, of course, came Charles Darwin’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-darwins-on-the-origin-of-species-96533">On the Origin of Species</a> in 1859. A few decades later <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-nietzsche-nihilism-and-reasons-to-be-cheerful-130378">Friedrich Nietzsche</a> finally <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/god-is-dead-god-remains-dead-and-we-have-killed-him-9780241472842">declared</a> God dead. </p>
<p>Yet Christian theology was deeply embedded in the university system. Despite a revolution in faith, the development of the secular state and rising adherence to atheism, theology still influences our understanding of how scholars study religion today. Partly this is because many age-old theology departments continue to survive in the academy. </p>
<p>Their primary aim is to make Christianity fit for purpose in modernity (and therefore to stem the flow of apostates and retain its power in the public sphere). This is not an ideal nor inclusive academic aim in our multicultural, multifaith world. These centres will continue to survive because of church and other external funding as much as by the force of tradition. </p>
<p>Additionally, the uneasy relationship between religion and secularism makes cutting the scholarly examination of religion the lazy go-to for management in their present <a href="https://theconversation.com/defunding-arts-degrees-is-the-latest-battle-in-a-40-year-culture-war-141689">war against humanities</a> education. They see it as not being <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-unis-are-far-behind-the-worlds-best-at-commercialising-research-here-are-3-ways-to-catch-up-159915">industry-focused</a> nor turning out <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">“job-ready” graduates</a>. </p>
<h2>Religion isn’t going away</h2>
<p>During the 20th century, the badly evidenced <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/abs/secularization-theory-and-religion/7C26EFDB037491E784038E6FF765DF15">“secularisation” theory</a> posited that religion would eventually die out as our states became more secular and scientific. This is clearly not happening – although it might seem to some that it is. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-should-rethink-secularism-to-deal-with-religious-diversity-43414">Universities should rethink secularism to deal with religious diversity</a>
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<p>Inside modern multifaith democracies, religions honour an unstated social contract by mostly keeping themselves away from our public spaces. This curated invisibility does not mean religions are ceasing to exist. It also means their influence on public policy can be much more discrete. Unless these influences and behaviours are critically examined by experts trained in religious literacy, they can go unseen. </p>
<p>Religions have shaped and will continue to shape our social, cultural and political structures. We have a Pentecostal prime minister, and faith-based lobby groups are constantly vying for our politicians’ ears. We have new religions constantly coming into being. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-pentecostalism-and-how-might-it-influence-scott-morrisons-politics-103530">Explainer: what is Pentecostalism, and how might it influence Scott Morrison's politics?</a>
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<p>And religions can, on rare occasions, threaten our security. Yet a careful examination of our suburbs will demonstrate the significant contributions a wide range of global religious communities make to social cohesion and community prosperity. The facts of these developments will go uncharted if theology is the only academic paradigm for examining the spirituality of our nation. </p>
<h2>What happens if we lose religious studies?</h2>
<p>The consequences of the closures of religious studies programs are clear: in a world that ceases to be <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/05/18/problems-come-colleges-sweeping-religion-under-rug-opinion">critically aware of religion</a>, religious authority is strengthened through an ignorance that can be shrouded in mysticism. If the only chance we have to study religion at the tertiary level is through a Christian, theological viewpoint, then Western universities are returned to shoring up the high status of one religious tradition over all others. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-a-safer-world-for-your-children-teach-them-about-diverse-religions-and-worldviews-113025">Want a safer world for your children? Teach them about diverse religions and worldviews</a>
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<p>While theology continues to focus strongly on the faith study of Christianity, at Sydney we find one of the last departments in Australia where the critical investigation of all religions still takes place. It is a necessary part of the academy and yet its closure is quite possible. </p>
<p>Abolishing what is left of the critical study of religion on our campuses will allow theology, biblical studies and other faith-focused fields to determine how our graduates examine religion. This will not be through the scholarly tools of science, sociology or history, but through close study of scripture and church philosophy. </p>
<p>University campuses more generally will be affected, too. Students and staff will become less critical of religious claims when they see no scholarly force with the religious literacy and confidence required to seriously question those claims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Studies in Religion - and so have some vested interest in keeping the critical study of religion alive.</span></em></p>The world today needs a critical understanding of religion, not a return to the historical tradition of universities dominated by faith-based study.Christopher Hartney, Lecturer of Religion, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1130252019-03-20T19:02:31Z2019-03-20T19:02:31ZWant a safer world for your children? Teach them about diverse religions and worldviews<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264555/original/file-20190319-28505-ne0b4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students are far more understanding of their religious peers if they attend classes about religious diversity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around 80% of secondary school students who had classes about diverse religions claim to have positive views of Muslims. This compares to around 70% who had not attended such classes.</p>
<p>Our national study of Australian <a href="http://sociology.cass.anu.edu.au/research/projects/australia-s-gen-zs">Generation Z teens</a> (those born around the mid-1990s to mid-2000s) showed teens who had been exposed to education about diverse religions and worldviews were more tolerant of religious minorities, including Muslims and Hindus, than those who hadn’t. </p>
<p>General religious education is distinct from religious instruction, which is taught by teachers or volunteers from religious communities. Religious instruction focuses on faith formation in a particular religion. </p>
<p>Teachers provide classes in diverse worldviews and religions, which include learning about major faith traditions and other worldviews, such as humanism and rationalism. </p>
<p>Such classes are often a distinct subject in Catholic and other religious schools in Australia. But government schools don’t typically provide opportunities to study diverse worldviews. They may provide limited content in some humanities subjects, such as history. </p>
<p>Teaching children about the diversity of cultures and viewpoints in their social environment may help counteract the religious prejudice seen in the media.</p>
<h2>Religious and worldview education</h2>
<p>Religion in schools, and particularly whether it should be taught in a secular context, is a controversial topic in Australia and <a href="http://nor.theewc.org/Content/Bibliotek/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education">internationally</a>. Debates persist about how content on religion should be included in curricula and whether education about diverse worldviews can play a role in social cohesion and preventing violent extremism. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/religion-should-be-taught-secularly-in-our-schools-30022">Religion should be taught secularly in our schools</a>
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<p>In the mid-2000s Australia’s public secular schools had few opportunities to provide teaching about diverse worldviews and general religious education. Victoria prohibited <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/51dea49770555ea6ca256da4001b90cd/575C47EA02890DA4CA25717000217213/%24FILE/06-024a.pdf">teaching about religion until 2006</a> but allowed volunteers to deliver special religious instruction in school hours until 2015. </p>
<p>Schools in New South Wales, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania still offer special religious instruction. NSW students can elect to do a <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-across-the-curriculum/religion-and-ethics/about-religion-and-ethics">secular ethics</a> option instead of a religious one. </p>
<p>The national <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum">Australian Curriculum</a> began to be developed in the 2000s. It now contains some limited content on diverse religions and worldviews. </p>
<p>Victoria’s 2015 iteration of the new curriculum included – for the first time – two dedicated sections on learning about worldviews and religions in <a href="http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/the-humanities/introduction/about-the-humanities">humanities</a> and <a href="http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/ethical-capability/introduction/learning-in-ethical-capability">ethical capability</a>. The emphasis is on Australia’s major faith traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Judaism and secular humanism and rationalism.</p>
<h2>The Generation Z study</h2>
<p>The Generation Z study ran between 2016 and 2018. To inform education policy, it aimed to investigate how teens make sense of the world and religious issues. The study explored teens’ views on religious, spiritual, non-religious, cultural and sexual diversity in 21st-century Australia. </p>
<p>The study comprised 11 focus groups in three states with almost 100 students in Years 9 and 10 (ages 15-16). It also included a nationally representative phone survey of 1,200 people aged 13-18, and 30 in-depth follow-up interviews with survey participants.</p>
<p>We have already <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-australian-teens-have-complex-views-on-religion-and-spirituality-103233">published the findings</a> that Australian teens fall into six spiritually types, including a range of non-religious, spiritual and religious young Australians. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-australian-teens-have-complex-views-on-religion-and-spirituality-103233">New research shows Australian teens have complex views on religion and spirituality</a>
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<p>Our findings also showed Gen Z teens are open to and accepting of religious diversity. More than 90% agreed having many different faiths in Australia makes it a better place to live. </p>
<p>But views toward religious minorities were mixed. We found 74% hold positive attitudes towards Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism; 21% hold moderate to neutral views; and 5% hold negative views. </p>
<p>Around 85% of teens think people of different faiths experience discrimination or abuse because of their religion. In focus groups, some students of minority faiths raised concerns about anti-Semitism and a relative lack of understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism, compared to the Abrahamic faiths in Australian society.</p>
<iframe title="Australians' (aged 13-18)&nbsp;viewsabout religious groups in Australia (% of type of education received)" aria-label="Long Table" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nIizH/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="359"></iframe>
<p>Our pre-survey focus groups also revealed Australian teens have moderate levels of religious literacy. While their knowledge is quite broad, it is relatively shallow. Many students could easily recognise a number of Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Yoga images, including of the Dalai Lama. But only one student from a state selective school knew what his actual title meant and why he was so significant to Tibetans.</p>
<p>In our survey, 56% of students attending government secondary schools and 42% of those attending independent private secondary schools said they hadn’t had any diverse religion education or instruction in religious traditions. By comparison, 81% of students in Catholic secondary schools had received both. </p>
<p>Our data suggest education about diverse religions is associated with reduced negative perceptions of religious minorities. Students who had received this type of education had the most positive views towards Australia’s religious minorities. Students who hadn’t were about twice as likely to hold negative or neutral views.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-classes-in-schools-must-adapt-to-fit-a-changing-australia-81484">Religious classes in schools must adapt to fit a changing Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This still holds when controlling for factors such as age, gender, school type, socio-economic status and religious identity.</p>
<p>Gen Z teens who have had education about diverse religions overwhelmingly thought it helped them understand other people’s religions (93%), that it helped make them more tolerant of other people’s religions (86%), and that it was important to study these (82%). </p>
<p>Of those who hadn’t participated in such programs, 69% wanted to learn more about the world’s religions, and 67% wanted more lessons on non-religious worldviews.</p>
<p>We recommend the Australian Curriculum includes more education about diverse religious and non-religious worldviews in state, religious and independent schools. This would increase religious literacy and promote inter-religious understanding and respect among Australia’s diverse religious and non-religious population.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113025/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Halafoff receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the projects: ARC DISCOVERY PROJECT: DP160102367. Australian Young People's Perspectives on Religions and Non-religious Worldviews. CIs: A/Prof Mary Louise Rasmussen (ANU) A/Prof Andrew Singleton (Deakin), Dr Anna Halafoff (Deakin), Prof Gary Bouma (Monash). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Singleton receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the projects: ARC DISCOVERY PROJECT: DP160102367. Australian Young People's Perspectives on Religions and Non-religious Worldviews. CIs: A/Prof Mary Louise Rasmussen (ANU) A/Prof Andrew Singleton (Deakin), Dr Anna Halafoff (Deakin), Prof Gary Bouma (Monash). ARC DISCOVERY PROJECT: DP170100563. Social Engagement in Spiritualism CIs: A/Prof Matt Tomlinson (ANU), A/Prof Andrew Singleton (Deakin</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary D Bouma receives funding from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Lou Rasmussen receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) DISCOVERY PROJECT: DP160102367. Australian Young People's Perspectives on Religions and Non-religious Worldviews. CIs: A/Prof Mary Louise Rasmussen (ANU) A/Prof Andrew Singleton (Deakin), Dr Anna Halafoff (Deakin), Prof Gary Bouma (Monash). </span></em></p>Australian society is made up of people from different backgrounds and faiths. Teaching school children about religious diversity and traditions makes them more tolerant of religious minorities.Anna Halafoff, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Deakin UniversityAndrew Singleton, Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Research, Deakin UniversityGary D Bouma, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Monash UniversityMary Lou Rasmussen, Professor, School of Sociology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/413902015-05-25T03:58:09Z2015-05-25T03:58:09ZLet’s talk about sex education: race and shame in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82693/original/image-20150522-32575-1r8c5v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A page from a 1934 sex education manual that, like many of its era, managed to be less about sex than about policing racial boundaries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">RPH West, Facts about Ourselves for Growing Boys and Girls (Public Health Department of the City of Johannesburg and the South African Red Cross Society, 1934). Wits Historical Papers, South African Institute of Race Relations Collection, AD 843 RJ/NA 18.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many ways for young people to learn about sex. In talks between parents and children, in the sharing of information between peers, in initiation schools and in ceremonies preceding marriage, young people have learned about sex and sexual reproduction. They also learn about how societies define appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviour. </p>
<p>The idea that sex education should be taught at school is fairly recent and is strongly connected to the increasingly important roles that <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/mass-education-and-the-limits-of-state-building-c.18701930-laurence-brockliss/?K=9780230273504">schools</a> play in moulding future citizens. Most sex education programmes in this space tended until quite recently to be fairly conservative. They taught children and young people that sex should only occur in monogamous, heterosexual marriage. </p>
<p>Debates about the need to make formal sexual education available to South African youth surfaced during the 1920s. This was a period of massive social change. The decade was marked by a series of strikes and protests as the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/liberation-struggle-south-africa/state-policies-and-social-protest-1924-1939">segregationist state</a> began to introduce legislation that marginalised black people socially, politically and economically.</p>
<p>It was also a period of rapid urbanisation and the growth of slums in which poor black and white South Africans lived cheek-by-jowl. Given the white government’s pre-occupation with race, this raised alarm bells because of the heightened opportunities for interracial sex.</p>
<p>It was against this backdrop that sex education became a political tool. Missionaries, public health officials and welfare activists used it to try and sculpt a new generation of respectable black African adults who would live meekly under white rule.</p>
<p>They also sought to teach white men and women about the significance of sex, reproduction and family to the stability of the South African state.</p>
<h2>The missionaries’ position</h2>
<p>In pre- and early colonial societies in southern African, sex education was woven into the processes that marked a person’s entry into adulthood. Boys and girls learned about sex, relationships and contraception through initiation rites. By the early 20th century, these rituals were sidelined as more young people left their rural homes and moved to cities. </p>
<p>Christian missionaries and ministers stepped into the gap. They wanted to provide sexual socialisation for young, urban black Africans. Sex education manuals formed a significant part of this strategy and most were published by missionary presses. These manuals sought to persuade young readers that sex was only legitimate after and within the confines of marriage.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82042/original/image-20150518-25400-sh5inm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sex education manuals of this era managed to talk very little about actual sexual intercourse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RPH West, Facts about Ourselves for Growing Boys and Girls (Public Health Department of the City of Johannesburg and the South African Red Cross Society, 1934). Wits Historical Papers, South African Institute of Race Relations Collection, AD 843 RJ/NA 18.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the Church of England’s most popular publications was called God, Love, and Marriage. The text, written by a Bloemfontein-based Anglican nun named Sister Enid, provided only rudimentary information about puberty. It devoted far more space to discussing what constituted respectable, sober adulthood. It and other manuals were directed towards the creation of a respectable, Christian urban black African middle class.</p>
<h2>Racial differences in sex ed</h2>
<p>Sex education manuals for middle class white children were very different. They sought to police racial boundaries in a society where interracial sex was increasingly illegal. The segregationist state passed the <a href="http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheidlaws/g/No21of50.htm">Immorality Act </a> in 1927, banning sex between different race groups. The apartheid state revised this legislation in 1950. It was only repealed in 1985.</p>
<p>In 1934 the Red Cross and Johannesburg Public Health Department published the slim illustrated manual Facts about Ourselves for Growing Boys and Girls. Its aim is, firstly, to explain human reproduction. This knowledge is framed so that readers are left in no doubt about the consequences of sex outside marriage. They are warned of “the most terrible diseases from which man has suffered” and reminded that children produced during pre- or extra marital sex are illegitimate.</p>
<p>In 16 pages, the manual devotes one paragraph to an account of sexual intercourse and suggests that it is wiser “to avoid undue interest in the sex organs.” Readers should, instead, “turn” their “thoughts elsewhere.”</p>
<p>That’s not to say the manual and others of its kind dismiss sex as entirely wrong. Facts about Ourselves says that as long as the sex in question involves a married couple, it is absolutely essential to the propagation of the “race”. This is the manual’s second purpose: persuading white youth that the security of white rule in South Africa is located in the family. </p>
<p>The author argues: “It is your duty to help your race to progress” by having children. One section describes how white youth should conduct themselves in the company of African men. Girls should take care not to wear clothing that would draw attention to their bodies and should never allow African men into their bedrooms: “The temptation to the native may be far more severe than is ever realised, and any wrong-doing on his part would be very terrible to a girl, while the law visits upon him a very dreadful punishment.” Indeed, legally, black men found guilty of having sex with white women were punished <a href="http://www.rebirth.co.za/apartheid_and_immorality2.htm">far more harshly</a> than the women.</p>
<h2>A changing curriculum</h2>
<p>The content of Facts about Ourselves may shock the contemporary reader but its argument that sex should occur only between married men and women of the same race endured. When <a href="http://jhm.sagepub.com/content/11/2/375.short">guidance classes</a> were introduced to white schools in 1967 and black schools in 1981 they included only a little sex education and were equally conservative. Since 1994, sex education has been part of a compulsory subject in all South African schools called Life Orientation. </p>
<p>Researchers argue that Life Orientation tends to emphasise abstinence as the only form of appropriate sexual behaviour outside of marriage. This <a href="http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Feature.showFeature&featureID=1041">strategy</a> has had little impact on reducing teenage pregnancy and rates of STDs internationally.</p>
<p>There does seem to be hope on the horizon, though. The <a href="http://www.dsd.gov.za/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=578&Itemid=39">National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Framework Strategy</a> was <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-02-24-birds-and-bees-how-the-government-might-finally-get-it-right-on-adolescent-sex/#.VVy716a27LY">approved</a> by South Africa’s Cabinet earlier this year. </p>
<p>It advocates comprehensive sex education and aims to provide all young people, regardless of sexual orientation with advice, information, and support. If this strategy is implemented, young South Africans will for the first time be taught sex education that emphasises tolerance, understanding and respect rather than a curriculum that serves to shame and to divide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Emily Duff receives funding from the National Research Foundation. She is a recipient of a Research Career Advancement Fellowship.</span></em></p>In South Africa’s segregated pre-apartheid state, even sex education was racialised. Christian missionaries had very different lessons for black and white children.Sarah Emily Duff, Researcher in Histories of Childhood, Medicine, and Sexuality, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/236082014-03-02T19:29:34Z2014-03-02T19:29:34ZExplainer: what the law says about Religious Instruction in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42429/original/xw8nyt8r-1393300473.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amid the constant debate about Religious Instruction in schools, what does the law say?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=132553313&size=huge&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5MzMyOTExMywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTMyNTUzMzEzIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDEzMjU1MzMxMyIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMzI1NTMzMTMvaHVnZS5qcGciLCJtIjoiMSIsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwiREloZzhEeTNnQWVkUnlveDBVU1BObHJkMDdBIl0%2Fshutterstock_132553313.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=fTbGfBO-W8baj04SsnpKLQ-1-8">www.shutterstock.com.au</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent weeks the issue of the religious content of Australian education has been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-11/curriculum-critic-wants-more-religion-to-be-taught-in-schools/5195410">hotly debated</a>. Last week <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/primary-school-principals-shut-down-religious-education-classes-20140216-32ty8.html#ixzz2uCcIg1D9">The Age</a> reported the latest development. Principals in several Victorian state schools had ceased to offer special religious instruction (SRI) in their schools. </p>
<p>The original article suggested that this was despite a legal requirement that SRI be provided. The article was later corrected, removing any reference to legal requirements. Instead, the article reported:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Current Education Department guidelines state that principals ‘must’ schedule the contentious ‘special religious instruction’ (SRI) classes in the school timetable when accredited and approved instructors are available…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>SRI is offered in government schools in every state and territory. The practice is not <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-expel-religious-extremism-from-schools-23368">uncontroversial</a>. It is therefore reasonable to ask: are schools required by law to offer SRI classes?</p>
<p>To answer this question, the nature of Australia’s education system needs some explaining. Education is a state issue. Each state and territory has its own laws governing the provision of both government and non-government education. </p>
<p>While the federal government contributes significant funding to education and is responsible for funding the <a href="http://highcourtchallenge.com/">controversial</a> National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program <a href="http://education.gov.au/national-school-chaplaincy-and-student-welfare-program">(NSCSWP)</a>, it does not have a say in the provision of SRI or in whether or not education in government schools is secular. The laws governing the religious content of education vary between jurisdictions. </p>
<p>Secular education is enshrined in the laws of most states and territories. For example, Victoria’s <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/ltobjst8.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/5650E00EA8F7A98ACA257C4D007F4CCB/$FILE/06-24aa045%20authorised.pdf">Education and Training Reform Act</a> provides that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>education in government schools must be secular and not promote any particular religious practice, denomination or sect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Legislation in the <a href="http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/2004-17/current/pdf/2004-17.pdf">Australian Capital Territory</a>, <a href="http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/act+8+1990+cd+0+N">New South Wales</a>, <a href="http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/tocview/index.w3p;cond=;doc_id=86%2B%2B1994%2BAT%40EN%2B20140225010000;histon=;prompt=;rec=;term=">Tasmania</a> and <a href="http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:24694P/$FILE/School%20Education%20Act%201999%20-%20%5B03-a0-02%5D.pdf?OpenElement">Western Australia</a> contains similar provisions. By contrast <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/E/EducGenPrA06.pdf">Queensland</a>, <a href="http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/EDUCATION%20ACT%201972/CURRENT/1972.154.UN.PDF">South Australia</a> and the <a href="http://notes.nt.gov.au/dcm/legislat/legislat.nsf/d989974724db65b1482561cf0017cbd2/977b0db7022de83169257bdd00163eb5/$FILE/ATTL6TBS.pdf/Repe002.pdf">Northern Territory</a> have no laws mandating secular education, although in practice education in government schools is secular.</p>
<p>Even in those states and territories where secular education is mandated this does not mean that religion is totally excluded. In addition to SRI classes, several state and territory laws specifically define “secular education” as including general religious education. For example, the New South Wales Education Act provides that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the words secular instruction are to be taken to include general religious education as distinct from dogmatic or polemical theology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Western Australia’s School Education Act even allows for prayers to be said at school events.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42437/original/j4n4gfxk-1393302191.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SRI has to be offered in schools in some states, but in no state are individual children forced to attend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=152909003&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5MzMzMDkyMSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTUyOTA5MDAzIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDE1MjkwOTAwMyIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xNTI5MDkwMDMvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJTdHUwMXRXRUE3elpKOFREV1Rrd3NnSDh5VkkiXQ%2Fshutterstock_152909003.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=redownload_standard&license=standard&src=mjCguQqhT38kkqlZLJuw8w-1-7">www.shutterstock.com.au</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So what about SRI? The law in all states and territories allows for SRI in government schools. In the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, school authorities may provide SRI but are not obliged to do so. Victoria’s Education and Training Reform Act provides that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Special religious instruction may be given in a government school in accordance with this section.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The important word is “may”: schools are permitted but not required to provide SRI classes. Many still choose to do so.</p>
<p>However, in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, the law requires that schools provide SRI classes. </p>
<p>New South Wales and South Australia have a bare legal requirement that schools provide for SRI. However, in the Australian Capital Territory schools are required to provide SRI only if parents at the school request the principal to do so. In Queensland the requirement is formulated differently. Queensland’s Education Act states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any minister of a religious denomination or society … shall be entitled during school hours to give to the students in attendance at a state school who are members of the denomination or society of which the person is a minister …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is the religious denominations that control whether or not SRI is provided in Queensland government schools. </p>
<p>It is important to note that even in those states and territories where the provision of SRI is mandatory, the attendance of individual students is not. All states and territories make provision for parents to withdraw their children from SRI classes. </p>
<p>The answer to the question of whether or not schools are legally obliged to provide SRI depends upon which state or territory you live in. Australia’s federal system means each jurisdiction can make up its own mind. The Age was correct to amend its article in relation to Victoria but if the article had been reporting on New South Wales then it would have been right the first time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23608/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In recent weeks the issue of the religious content of Australian education has been hotly debated. Last week The Age reported the latest development. Principals in several Victorian state schools had ceased…Renae Barker, Lectuer in Law , The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/233682014-02-23T19:27:14Z2014-02-23T19:27:14ZIt’s time to expel religious extremism from schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41894/original/s9rv64rf-1392773282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are government schools the place to proselytise?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian Rotolo/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some Victorian principals have <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/primary-school-principals-shut-down-religious-education-classes-20140216-32ty8.html">taken the decision</a> to axe religious instruction (RI) from their schools. Many believe this move is long-overdue and should be replicated nationwide. </p>
<p>Over the past few years, media reports of extremist teaching or proselytising include: a NSW RI instructor claiming to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/03/3129158.htm?site=Illawarra">“cure” homosexuals</a>; children in Queensland RI being taught that <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-students-taught-humans-coexisted-with-dinosaurs/story-e6freoof-1225899437968">humans and dinosaurs lived together</a>; and Victorian RI aimed at <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/school-religion-classes-probed-20110512-1ekr9.html">“making disciples”</a> because “without Jesus, our students are lost”.</p>
<p>My research has highlighted the divisive implications of RI curriculums that are racist, sexist, anti-science, age-inappropriate or somehow objectionable – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/state-students-fear-burning-in-hell-after-religious-instruction-author-says">even to church-going Christians</a>.
Little wonder that some educators are finally coming to terms with their obligation to act – in the interests of Australia’s children; in the interests of education.</p>
<p>Last month, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/25/extremist-religion-wars-tony-blair">ex-British prime minister Tony Blair noted that</a> religious extremism is “not innate. It is taught … sometimes in the formal education system”. If that is true, then skills to counter religious extremism can also be taught.</p>
<p>Religious extremists reject the idea of human equity. They prefer their religious worldview to democratic institutions, values and processes, and think one religion, theirs, is the best and only framework for society. </p>
<p>Many RI programs in Australia are evangelical and biblically literal. These programs position a narrow, extremist view of Christianity as the superior way to live and believe.</p>
<p>Marion Maddox’s new book, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/religion-and-ethics-report-religious-schools/5254072">Taking God to School</a>, highlights the potential for RI programs to become part of a wider Pentecostal quest “to create a totalitarian fundamentalist Christian society in Australia” where schools are “training ground(s) for the army of Jesus”. </p>
<p>Most Australians assume we have a secular education system; one where religious extremism does not affect our children. This is naïve. Extremism can emerge from religious radicalisation or scriptural literalism in many contexts. It is not limited to the madrassas of Afghanistan or Indonesia, but is found in schools in suburban Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.</p>
<p>My book, <a href="http://www.brill.com/products/book/religion-secular-education">Religion in Secular Education</a>, documents how Australia has a policy blind spot regarding RI in state schools. No state education agency effectively oversees what is taught, or by whom. Teachers are not required to be present in RI classes in most schools in Australia.</p>
<p>Instead, RI volunteers are vetted by their own religious organisations. They usually have no formal teacher training. This policy mechanism creates an accountability loophole that enables extremists to target young children. </p>
<p>Adding a volunteer-led <a href="http://www.primaryethics.com.au/outsidensw.html">‘ethics’ option</a>, where the providers promise to “never advocate for the removal of RI”, <a href="http://religionsinschool.com/2013/02/13/why-is-ethics-as-a-complement-to-scripture-a-problem-one-more-time/">legitimises</a> the presence and power of the extremists.</p>
<p>Many parents are dissatisfied with current RI policies and also with the lack of response to their concerns from Education Departments. Government agencies do not deal with complaints about inappropriate teaching, lack of alternatives or discrimination against those who opt out. In <a href="https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/curriculum/schools/spec_religious/implementation_1_PD20020074.shtml?query=religious+education">NSW policy</a>, complaints are directed back to the RI provider. </p>
<p>Media reports from <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/mother-rails-against-religion-in-schools-20120706-21me0.html">Queensland</a>, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/04/12/3188943.htm">New South Wales</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/parents-to-appeal-ruling-that-religion-classes-dont-discriminate-against-the-non-religious/story-fn59nlz9-1226516934419#mm-premium">Victoria</a> show how state education agencies are not equipped to deal with the policy challenge. Alarm bells should be ringing all over the country.</p>
<p>But assumptions that children learn harmless stories, about “Jesus”, “forgiveness”, and <a href="http://www.accessministries.org.au/access-news/amen-to-religious-education-the-case-for-sri">the Good Samaritan</a>, appear to assuage any concerns. Politicians, teacher union representatives and parents appear to have been lulled into a 1950s response: “it can’t do any harm”. Meanwhile, extremist religious teaching and preaching, in segregated settings, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ67Wf7pdIc">divides</a>
multifaith and no-faith communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is religious edcation to blame for extremist views?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-129948341/stock-photo-black-leather-bible-cover-written-with-golden-letters-on-red-fabric.html?src=pd-same_artist-129948368-GdQnY3uXRDFwSSw8jbtxeg-2">Bible from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We should not underestimate the damage that can come from religious division and indoctrination. In Australia, recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/australias-judeo-christian-heritage-doesnt-exist">national curriculum debates</a>, court cases (<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/high-court-rules-school-chaplains-program-unconstitutional/4082204">federal</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/appeal-denied-on-religion-classes-20130225-2f246.html">state</a>) and government programs that finance Christian evangelism (<a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government-considers-plan-for-schools-to-use-funding-for-chaplains-instead-of-education/story-fnihsrf2-1226753817259">chaplaincy</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/state-to-increase-funds-for-christian-classes-20110407-1d698.html">state-funded Christian RI</a> for example) do not augur well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-11/curriculum-critic-wants-more-religion-to-be-taught-in-schools/5195410">Comments by Kevin Donnelly</a>, an appointed reviewer of the national curriculum, suggest that Christianity’s privileges in education should continue. Donnelly’s <a href="http://www.edstandards.com.au/index.php?education_standards_institute=102&archive=267">Education Standards Institute</a> does not want “Christianity … treated as one religion among many, alongside Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam”.</p>
<p>Defending privilege paves the way for the extremists. Perhaps Australia just isn’t ready to recognise its own, home-grown religious extremism. Or are the educators waking?</p>
<p>Embedded in Australian <a href="http://www.asio.gov.au/img/files/Part-1.pdf">government</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/brandiss-warning-to-violent-extremists/story-fn59niix-1226762848186#">media reports</a> about security and countering religious radicalism is the restrictive idea that extremism emerges in “Muslim communities” with disaffected youth. The implication is that religious extremism is only associated with people of “Middle Eastern appearance”. </p>
<p>Soporific denial is easy. Deep self-examination is more demanding. Whether we recognise it or not, whether we develop policies to address it or not, Christian religious extremism can be a security risk, a risk to the nature of our pluralist democracy and our hard-won liberal freedoms.</p>
<p>Aggressive, highly funded and secretive, the incursion of extreme religious evangelism in Australian schools – public, private and “Christian independent” – should give us pause for thought. For example, the Victorian Department of Education <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/22/victorian-schools-warned-following-complaints-about-religious-education">recently found</a> the children’s evangelical organisation, OAC Ministries, operating “outside departmental policy”. It was not authorised to be in the schools. </p>
<p>OAC is an international organisation dedicated to <a href="http://www.oac.org.au/">“proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus”</a>, especially to “those outside the church”.
In 2013 I was approached by parents who were disturbed OAC ministries had removed children from school grounds for religious programs, claiming parental consent under a “blanket excursion permission form”. Some parents, and even principals, were unaware of the nature of these excursions and would not have provided informed consent. It was a serious breach of child security. </p>
<p>Australian society, and the wider world, is no longer focused on a singular, Christian world view. It’s time to expel unprofessional, segregated and unaccountable RI in state schools. The RI time-slot could be better spent.</p>
<p>To adequately equip our children, we ought to provide them with a comprehensive understanding of different religions and non-religious world views and ethical systems. We ought to teach them how to navigate the real world – which is diverse, religious and non-religious – and how to identify and be careful of extremist views of any kind. Religious extremism can be a dangerous thing, no matter which way it is pointing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Byrne is an advisor to ACARA on religion and on the curriculum capabilities of intercultural understanding and ethical behaviours.</span></em></p>Some Victorian principals have taken the decision to axe religious instruction (RI) from their schools. Many believe this move is long-overdue and should be replicated nationwide. Over the past few years…Cathy Byrne, Sociology Tutor, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.