The support text and the public syllabus: a case of integrity

My own religious studies texts have occasionally been criticised for being overly faith neutral, that is, for encouraging openness and literacy at the expense of providing some means by which the truth claims of various religions might be appraised or, more blatantly, be compared with those of Christianity (in its entirety or through one of its species). This criticism was made most vocal some years ago at a workshop held for Year 12 teachers of the NSW HSC Studies of Religion subject. On sharing the results of my own research into conversion patterns among the Hindu-inspired sect, Brahma Kurnaris (as an instance of the 'new spiritualities' section ofthe syllabus), I was taken to task for being too equable in my treatment of these people's testimonies. It was alleged that this was the problem with many of my texts and that, as such, they were more likely to be the cause of confusion than education among high school students. After some discussion, it seemed the real concern related to the teachers' dilemma about their role as Studies of Religion tutors, and especially the extent to which this entailed arbitration on their part of 'true' religious claims (coinciding with those espoused by their school's ethos) and others. Their concern was not that I was failing to provide amply analytical tools, but, more blatantly, that I was not illustrating the undesirability of conversion to a marginal if not illicit faith, and especially when it was away from Christianity (which was invariably the case).