Southern Baptists Address Schools, Blogging, and Baptizing
by Allie Martin
June 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - On the second and final day of its annual business meeting, leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) refused to support a resolution that would have called for an exodus of Baptist youngsters from public schools.
The proposed resolution, which had been offered by a Missouri businessman and a Texas author and attorney, asked the denomination to develop an "exit strategy" for pulling Baptist children out of public schools in favor of home schools or private Christian schools. The "exit strategy" -- an idea introduced to the SBC by the same two men two years ago -- is favored by Southern Baptists who are concerned about how classrooms and districts are handling subjects such as homosexuality and "intelligent design."
During the debate on the resolution, Rev. Jeff Young, a pastor from Ravenna, Texas, said he supports Baptist teachers -- but would rather they teach in Christian than public schools. "It is much more reasonable to offer them a chance in private Christian schools, organized and funded by Southern Baptists, to teach children their subject matter and to teach them to know the Lord at the same time," he shared.
But Randy Tschetter, a deacon from Lynchburg, Virginia, said as a public school teacher, he opposes a Southern Baptist exodus from public schools. "Please, don't desert those of us who have been called to be in the public school education [system]," he pleaded.
And that is the direction the denomination's "messengers," as delegates to the annual meeting are called, chose to go. Instead, they approved a resolution urging members to "engage the culture of our public school systems" by exerting "godly influence" in public schools, including standing for election on local school boards. They also approved a resolution urging public school districts to accommodate parents and churches wishing to provide off-campus biblical instruction during the school day.
Roger Moran, the Missouri Baptist who introduced the "exit strategy" resolution along with Bruce Shortt of Texas, remained optimistic despite his proposal's defeat. He says he views passage of the two resolutions as "a good start" and as "just one more sign we're moving in the right direction."
Moran says the denomination is starting to realize there is problem with the public school system. "If truth matters ultimately in what filters down to the Sunday school, it should matter in the public school or whatever school we have our children in," he says. "It's the flip side of the same coin. And we are now seeing, slowly but surely, a reconnecting of our rhetoric -- what we say we believe -- with the lives that we are trying to live."
Last year the SBC approved an education-related resolution that urged church members and congregations to "investigate diligently" the curriculum, textbooks, and programs in their local public schools to determine the extent to which they had been influenced by homosexual advocacy groups.
'Baptist Blogging'
In one of the more high-profile decisions coming out of this year's SBC gathering, Rev. Frank Page of South Carolina was elected as the denomination's new president. An Internet craze is being credited with helping Page's election.
News of the vote spread quickly on Internet "blogs," which are personal web pages where people can read and post information and reply to comments. Ben Cole, a Texas pastor who monitors Southern Baptist blogs, says blogging has changed the conversation of Southern Baptist life.
"It hasn't necessarily promoted candidates or personalities or particular perspectives as much as it has changed the conversation to one of open cooperation and to one of calling Southern Baptists to express the clear boundaries of our cooperation within our Convention and without -- and to push [those boundaries] no further," he explains.
Those blogs, says Cole, give many people the chance to air their concerns and differences of opinion in a Christian and civil manner. "I think there is a lot of anger -- and not ungodly anger, but anger or a sense of exclusion from the system -- and a sense that while we have affirmed the authority of God's Word, we've not applied it very well when it comes to some areas of ethical oversight in our denomination," the blog-monitor says.
Overall bloggers favored Page and touted his church's monetary support of the denomination's Cooperative Program, the main mission-sending program for the denomination.
'Baptist Baptizing'
The final session of the annual business meeting featured a challenge to messengers to put controversies behind them and get serious about the Great Commission. In his closing sermon, outgoing SBC president Bobby Welch said controversy over the Cooperative Program and other issues must not be allowed to distract messengers.
"Do you think if we spent less time on these websites that we'd be able to spend more time witnessing? Do you think if we spent less time blogging, we might have more time to do some baptizing?" he asked.
Then he cautioned his listeners. "Now, don't you get happy and say, 'Aw, get 'em, Brother Bobby! After them bloggin' boys!' while you run around with that wireless telephone up in your ear all day long like a pacifier," he said. "Do you think if we'd spend less time with those wireless telephones and more time on the street, we wouldn't win more people to Jesus?"
Preaching from sixth chapter of John, where Christ fed 5,000 people with a young boy's meal of five loaves and two fish, Welch encouraged messengers to use what God has given them to carry out the Great Commission and to do it with a spirit of unity.
"The crowd can always do more than one. One's good, but the crowd can do more. A few's good, but the crowd can do more. That's why we're to go into all the world," Welch said. "That's why it's not the will of God that any should perish but that all come to repentance."
During last year's meeting, Dr. Welch challenged Southern Baptists to baptize one million people in a year. He said that goal is still possible three months from the deadline.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
