Ethics and religious culture

Ethics and religious culture (Éthique et culture religieuse) is a course taught in all elementary and high schools in Quebec. It replaces the abolished subject of religion in public schools and is compulsory in all schools: private as well as public. The aim of the subject is to adopt a descriptive approach to the religious heritage of Quebec. The program's twin paramount principles are Recognition of Others and Pursuit of the Common Good. It is also claimed that the course will promote a “culture of dialogue” among students.

The project was adopted under the liberal government of Jean Charest, and has garnered some controversy. The first year this course has been taught is 2008-2009. It is compulsory for all students in primary and secondary schools.

Controversy

The course has been opposed by three main groups:

1. secularists from the Mouvement laïque québécois because the curriculum tends, for them, to be too respectful of all religions and may influence children;
2. French nationalists who accuse the program to be a kind of Multiculturalism 101; (See this Action Nationale article.)
3. and a coalition of parents drawn from different denominations (the Coalition pour la liberté en éducation) which condemn the course for different reasons: they see it as relativistic, contrary to their faith.

Many condemned the fact that the State is imposing a vision of morals and religion (or lack thereof), while in a democratic society this is the purview of parents.

Court cases

Two legal challenges have been launched against the compulsory nature of this course.

A court case against the ERC curriculum was heard from the 11th to the 15th of May, 2009 in Quebec’s Superior Court in Drummondville. Two Catholic parents are challenging the school’s refusal of an exemption for both their first grader and their sixteen-year-old who is in last year of high school. They are arguing that the course’s contents puts their children’s faith at risk by being premature, relativistic, polytheistic and teaching ethics detached from the parents' moral framework. This will most likely be a test case for Quebec parents.

A private Catholic high school, Loyola High School in Montreal, also launched a court challenge. Loyola High is challenging the fact that the Department of Education has not allowed it to teach what it deems an equivalent ethics and religion course better fitting the Catholic outlook of the school. It is alleged that the Department has done so despite provisions in the law that would allow such an equivalent course.

Surveys

Several polls have shown the Quebec population to be polarized around this course. While 45% oppose the course, in October 2008, 72% wanted parents to be able to choose the moral and religious training their children will get at school: the new ERC course or a traditional denominational religion course. In May 2009, the proportion of Quebecers wanting this choice had risen to 76%.

Jewish community response

On May 28, 2009, the Canadian Jewish News ran a bilingual full page advertisement (p. 17) announcing the formation of a grassroots organization that calls itself the Council on Jewish Education in Quebec, which "represents a response of Orthodox Judaism to the Ethics and Religious Culture program." The grassroots organization commends and congratulates the Quebec government for championing the cause of universal friendship among human beings, and to that effect describes the Quebec government as completely righteous, honourable and praiseworthy. The organization further applauds the Quebec government on its landmark achievement of identifying "Recognition of Others" and "Pursuit of the Common Good" as values that should be pedagogically communicated to all citizens in a meaningful manner, thereby filling a vacuum that has long existed in human thought worldwide. At the same time, the grassroots organization posits that Orthodox Jews are required according to Torah law to limit their study of theology to the theology of the Torah, as underscored by the ecclesiastic rulings of Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Moshe Feinstein, Norman Lamm, Avigdor Nebenzahl and Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, and that therefore the correct way to formulate the Ethics and Religious Culture program is to feature the Noahide Code as its curriculum, seeing as the Noahide Code is the universal religion for all human beings (other than Jews) that is revealed by the Torah. The identical full page advertisement appeared for the second week in a row in the Canadian Jewish News of June 4, 2009 (p. 19). On the very same day (June 4), the "Hade'ah Vihaddibur" online Orthodox Jewish weekly neawspaper reported a comparable sentiment expressed by the Israeli halakhic decisor Yosef Shalom Eliashiv. Consistent with this response, the Montreal Gazette, in an op/ed published on June 6, 2009 (p. B6), noted that Quebec Jewish school curricula are exclusively loyal to the theology of the Torah.

On July 28, 2009, a similar advertisement appeared in the Montreal Gazette (p. A11) inviting all Montrealers to a lecture entitled "Insights of Halakhah on the Ethics and Religious Culture Program: The Noble Quest to Harmonize Humanity". A further advertisement appeared on August 21, 2009 in the Montreal Gazette (p. A3), announcing guidelines of Orthodox Judaism to the Ethics and Religious Culture program, as follows:

"1. CJEQ congratulates the honourable and righteous government of Quebec for its continuous achievements in promoting a sparkling system of education that ennobles and enables society with the highest of values.

2. CJEQ praises the honourable and righteous government of Quebec for its excellent work in formulating standards for Moral and Religious Education that aim to spread tolerance, friendship, peace and harmony among all human beings of all backgrounds and cultures through the newly developed ERC. The twin paramount goals envisaged by the tour de force ERC, viz., Recognition of Others and Pursuit of the Common Good, are most laudable and represent landmark achievements in world history, worthy of celebration. It is the duty of all Jewish schools to champion these beautiful ERC goals that the honourable and righteous government of Quebec has superbly established. These beautiful ERC goals are indeed authentic Torah values, as per the Talmud in Sanhedrin 37a and many other places.

3. Torah law requires Jews to epistemologically recognize the prophecy of Moses as absolute eternal truth, which cannot be contradicted by any other prophet. Therefore, when a Jewish school class studies a belief that is incompatible with the prophecy of Moses (e.g. atheism), the Jewish teacher is obligated to identify the incompatible belief as being false. For Jews, torah law prohibits neutrality under such circumstances. This is the accepted standard of Orthodox Jewish education worldwide, in all constitutional liberal democracies where religious freedom is cherished. Therefore, in order for the ERC to be ready for implementation in Jewish schools, the ERC must first be slightly modified to allow Jewish teachers the liberty to pass a value judgment on the beliefs being studied. As an alternate solution, the ERC could be slightly reformulated to exclusively survey the Noahide Code (the universal religion of human friendship, spiritual excellence and ethical monotheism, prescribed by the prophecy of Moses, for non-Jews, as per the Talmud in Sanhedrin 56b), whereupon it would become permitted. and indeed a great mitzvah, for all Jewish schools to immediately implement the ERC.

4. Assuredly, the honourable and righteous Quebec government is to be gratefully praised and blessed for generously subsidizing Jewish schools. At the same time, there is no duty under the Noahide Code requiring the Quebec government to continue to do so in the future. Jews are permitted by Torah law to earn their own livelihoods and thereby support their own schools (Talmud, Berakhot 35b).

Moreover, it is a wonderful mitzvah for Jews to philanthropically support the charities of non-Jews (Talmud, Gittin 61a), which Jews have always generously fulfilled since time immemorial, thereby sanctifying the Name of Heaven. Thus, Jewish schools are expected to follow paragraph 3 above, irrespective of financial considerations. This is itself a marvelous sanctification of the Name of Heaven."

This latest advertisement, in turn, prompted a news article in the Canadian Jewish News of Sept. 3 (p. 8), which noted that the Council on Jewish Education in Quebec represents the consensus of two hundred Quebec rabbis and further operates with the endorsement of J. David Bleich and Norman Lamm. Yet another advertisement appeared in the Montreal Gazette of September 25, 2009 (p. A12), inviting the public to a disquistion the next day (the Sabbath prior to Yom Kippur) on the subject "Why Torah law requires that the Ethics and Religious Culture Program - a most noble, impressive and praiseworthy tour de force curriculum, worthy of universal celebration and emulation - must first be slightly modified for Quebec Jewish schools".

A new full-page advertisement appeared in the Canadian Jewish News of Dec. 12 (p. 27), as follows:

"The Council on Jewish Education in Quebec (CJEQ) is currently sanctifying the Name of Heaven by disseminating throughout Quebec society the values of Judaism as they pertain to education. [See our success story covered in the CJN (Sept. 3, p. 8), as well as our halakhic ruling regarding the Ethics and Religious Culture program, published in the Montreal Gazette (Aug. 21, p. A3).]

CJEQ is therefore pleased to hereby continue its proud tradition of serving the public by announcing the guidelines of Halakhah on the question of medical euthanasia. This topic of medical euthanasia - which has been cogently raised by the College of Physicians in Quebec and by the distinguished federal Member of Parliament, the Honourable Francine Lalonde - is of interest to CJEQ, because one of the halakhic expectations of a Jewish pedagogue is that he/she teach his/her disciples in advance the lessons of Torah law vis-a-vis treatment of the dangerously ill. [This didactic duty is established by the Mishnah Berurah to Shulchan Arukh Orach Chaim no. 328, se'if katan no. 6 and by the Arukh Hashulchan to Shulchan Arukh Orach Chaim no. 328, se'if katan no. 1.] Accordingly, CJEQ issues the following declaration:

(1) We congratulate the College of Physicians, and all its members, for the innumerable lifesaving contributions they have rendered and continue to render on a quotidian basis. Torah law (Shulchan Arukh Yoreh De'ah 336:1) recognizes the practice of healthcare as a most noble activity, and thus all healthcare practitioners are righteous heroes, who deserve and will receive eternal reward.

(2) We congratulate the Honourable Francine Lalonde for her sparkling leadership of the people of Quebec and the people of Canada, and for her sagaciously championing the needs of society with great vision and righteousness. We praise the Honourable MP for sensitizing the public to the very serious problems that our healthcare system faces regarding terminal and chronic-care patients who suffer intractable pain -physical and/or emotional - as well as for creatively and courageously investigating innovative approaches to effectively deal with such challenges, in a manner which is inspiring to all humanity.

(3) We recognize that the Noahide Code - which is the divine law that universally applies to all human beings - is the ultimate source of legitimacy to all systems of government, since one of the precepts of the Noahide Code is a mitzvah to establish a system of civil law and order (meaning government). Every citizen must obey government, for this is a mitzvah, i.e. the sacrosanct Will of the Creator as revealed through the Noahide Code. It is precisely this provision of the Noahide Code which renders all the acts of our federal, provincial and municipal legislatures meaningful. Whether by intentional design, by unconscious incorporation or by lingusitic coincidence, this fundamental Torah truth is reflected in Canada's very own constitution which submits that "Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of G-d and the rule of law".

(4) We recognize that, as demonstrated by Rabbi J. David Bleich on pp. 61-129 of his Bioethical Dilemmas vol. I (Hoboken, 1998) and pp. 163-197 as well as 239-275 of his Bioethical Dilemmas vol. II (Southfield, 2006), the Noahide Code declares that G-d is the Owner of all human life, and that G-d has commanded every human being to live, to the effect that (a) suicide, (b) consensual homicide, and (c) even passive abstinence from eating/drinking long enough to cause one's own death [or refraining from giving food or drink to someone else long enough for the latter's death to result] are all categorically prohibited for any and every human being. Thus, under no circumstances can euthanasia be countenanced. Rather, the vexing problem of terminal and chronic patients suffering intolerably - while difficult (and perhaps even impossible) to humanly solve - is best managed according to the Noahide Code through the aggressive practice of palliative care coupled with a diligent effort to keep the patient alive. This "heroic means" therapeutic approach is consistent with the talmudic maxim: "Be bold as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and heroic as a lion to fulfill the Will of thy Father in Heaven" (Tractate Avot, ch. 5). Accordingly, CJEQ recommends that the guidelines enunciated by Rabbi Bleich be incorporated into the Honourable MP's legislation governing treatment of terminally and chronically ill patients. CJEQ further proposes that - to whatever extent is deemed by government to be economically and ecologically feasible - Quebec society continue to dedicate its resources to enhancing the practice of healthcare (such as by continuing to build more hospitals and improve the labour conditions of its healthcare workers) so that Rabbi Bleich's guidelines can be implemented in good conscience and serve as a source of blessing to all humanity."

Sources

• Official curriculum
• Summary of the court challenges
• Rebuilding Babel in Quebec
• Quebec's new creepy curriculum
• Ethics and Religion generates debate