A trial to introduce ethics classes as an alternative to religious education in NSW schools has been surrounded by controversy.

A leading ethicist has hit back at criticism of the NSW trial into the teaching of ethics, describing the attack led by Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen as "false and distorted". In an open letter published in Southern Cross magazine, Jensen described the program as a threat to the historical tradition of religious education in public schools and an attempt "to remove all trace of religion from public life". Simon Longstaff, executive director of the St James Ethics Centre, which proposed the pilot to government, has fiercely defended the legitimacy of the trial, hitting back at the "false...