New Proposal Urges SBC to Move on a Public School Exit Strategy

by Rusty Pugh and Jenni Parker
April 26, 2006

(AgapePress) - - Two years after a similar measure was blocked, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) activists are again urging the denomination to remove its children from public schools.

The resolution calling for an "exit strategy" from public schools is co-sponsored by Texas lawyer Bruce Shortt and SBC Executive Committee member Roger Moran. The proposal asserts that recent federal court rulings have favored public schools "indoctrinating children with dogmatic Darwinism" and have limited parents' rights regarding what their children are taught, including what schools teach them on matters of sexuality.

Shortt recently spoke with the Associated Press about the resolution, saying he feels it is past time for Southern Baptists to start developing a plan for pulling their young people out of a public education system that keeps going from bad to worse. "As Christians, we are called to give our children a Christian education, not just some of the time but all of the time," he noted, "and the public schools have become, increasingly over the years, more and more antagonistic to Christianity."

Shortt believes it is naïve for Christians to think of their children as missionaries in public schools. "The schools are aggressively developing bad character," he told AP. "Contrary to what a lot of the more 'Pollyanna-ish' parts of our leadership would think, our children are not evangelizing in the schools; the schools are evangelizing them out of Christianity."

Shortt and Moran announced their resolution after 56 pastors and church leaders urged Southern Baptists in a letter last week "to speak positively about public education." The two Christian education advocates plan to submit their proposal for a possible vote by the SBC at its Annual Meeting in North Carolina this June.

A number of Southern Baptist leaders have voiced support for the Shortt-Moran measure. Dr. Rick Scarborough, Founder of Vision America and a leading SBC grassroots activist is among those who strongly endorse the resolution and see it as urgently needed, as is evangelist and Bible teacher Dr. Voddie Baucham.

According to a Christian Newswire report, Scarborough contends that public schools have long ceased to serve as a positive reinforcer of traditional values and today "are not even neutral on many crucial issues which are important to people of faith." He says public education has unfortunately been "hijacked by people who reject Biblical teachings on man's origin, the proper role of sex, and the acceptability of homosexuality."

The Vision America spokesman feels strongly that messengers at the 2006 Annual Meeting should get the chance to weigh in on the issue of removing their kids from an educational system that undermines Christian values. "Our children deserve better," he says, "and Southern Baptists should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about this."

And Dr. Voddie Baucham, another outspoken proponent of an exodus from public schools, says he endorses the Shortt-Moran resolution in part because he knows "what it's like to be a poor kid trapped in underperforming schools." As a child being raised by a single parent in the inner city, he says, "I had no choice but to accept the inferior education my schools offered -- not to mention the drugs, sex, and violence that were all part of the package."

Government schools have not only failed children academically, the evangelist points out, but they are also "destroying our children spiritually and morally." That is why he maintains that the SBC must come up with a comprehensive plan to create a new system of Baptist education that is open to everyone.

Such a plan, Baucham insists, "needs to take a clear stand on behalf of kids who find themselves in the same predicament I was in." If SBC members will stand together, he asserts, the church can provide a high-quality, Christian alternative to the public schools but can also "use education as a missional outreach in Urban America."

Moran and Shortt's 2006 resolution addresses a number of the concerns echoed by other Southern Baptist leaders, including the issues of inclusion that Baucham raises. While the proposal calls on the denomination to move on divesting Southern Baptist children from government schools, it also urges SBC agencies to assist churches as they develop workable public school exit strategies and to give particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged.