Scripture...ethics?

In an article in the Daily Telegraph, John Dickson made the remark: "Well conducted SRE programs reflect this balance perfectly. It is available but voluntary, and ethics classes offer an excellent alternative."

Ethics is an outcome of religious instruction (one hopes); a result of the underlying beliefs of the particular instruction. Just 'teaching' ethics as though it's the primary objective without a structural rationale can end up as arbitrary, tyrannical, or oppressive...without an overarching structure, it could produce the tyranny of the masses, rather than something that results from an external reference point.