Oz Schools Ditch "BC" And "AD"

Calling it an act of "cultural cleansing," some Christian activists are furious that Australia's schools have decided to drop the abbreviations "BC" and "AD" from textbooks. Via the Christian Institute:

The curriculum will replace BC (Before Christ) with BCE (Before Common Era). And AD (Anno Domini – which means ‘in the year of our Lord’) will be replaced with CE (Common Era). But Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, has branded the move as an “intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history”. “It is absurd because the coming of Christ remains the centre point of dating and because the phrase ‘common era’ is meaningless and misleading,” he said. And Reverend Fred Nile, an MP in the New South Wales parliament, described the changes as “an absolute disgrace”.

Over the last several years the same change has been seen in a number of American textbooks and publications.