New Australian Curriculum Bans References to Birth of Jesus in Textbooks

Australia’s new school curriculum will swap all “BC” and “AD” textbook references with the more politically correct “BCE” (Before Common Era) and “CE” (Common Era) terms, a decision that is prompting anger from many Christians.

But Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen called removing references to the birth of Jesus Christ an “intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history.”

“It is absurd because the coming of Christ remains the center point of dating and because the phrase ‘common era’ is meaningless and misleading,” Jensen told the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

BCE and CE gained favor during the late 20th century to emphasize sensitivity to non-Christians who might object to “Before Christ” or the implicit “Our Lord” reference to Jesus in “Anno Domini,” although both terms are still widely used and recognized.

In the U.S., the use of BCE and CE is growing, although guidelines or restrictions about using the terms in public education have largely been left to the local level.

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