THERE GO THE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS AGAIN

A resolution supporters hope will make it to the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting next month calls for the millions of members of the nation's largest Protestant denomination to remove their kids from public schools.

Sponsored by T.C. Pinckney, a retired brigadier general who has been active in SBC leadership for several years, and Bruce N. Shortt, an attorney who holds advanced degrees from both Harvard and Stanford and home-schools his children (ed.: and I also assume is the Bruce N. Shortt who majored in philosophy at Amherst, '74), the resolution asks "all officers and members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the churches associated with it to remove their children from the government schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education, for the glory of God, the good of Christ's church, and the strength of their own commitment to Jesus."

From the resolution: Whereas, the government schools are by their own confession humanistic and secular in their instruction, the education offered by the government schools is officially Godless, and

Whereas, the government schools are adopting curricula and policies teaching that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable, and

Whereas, homosexual organizations are present as approved student "clubs" in thousands of government schools and are spreading rapidly, and Whereas, the Bible says, children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior (Ps. 127:3-5), we must understand that children are weapons (arrows) to be aimed for the greatest impact in the kingdom of God. Just as it would be foolish for the warrior to give his arrows to his enemies, it is foolish for Christians to give their children to be trained in schools run by the enemies of God, and

Whereas, training to be a faithful witness should be a vital part of a Christian child's education, and

Whereas, hundreds of thousands of parents who are members of churches associated with the Southern Baptist Convention send their children to the government schools, and

Whereas, the children of those parents are receiving a Godless, anti-Christian education, and

Whereas, the millions of children in government schools spend 7 hours a day, 180 days a year being taught that God is irrelevant to every area of life, and

Whereas, many Christian children in government schools are converted to an anti-Christian worldview rather than evangelizing their schoolmates, and

Whereas, the Nehemiah Institute has discovered through its extensive surveys of student attitudes and beliefs that acceptance of a secular humanist worldview by Christian children attending government schools has increased dramatically over the last fifteen years, and

Whereas, the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported to the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that 88 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return; and

Whereas, it is anti-intellectual to artificially divorce God from his creation, and many excellent curricula are available that demonstrate the beauty and working of God throughout His creation, and experience has proven the superior intellectual accomplishments of children educated in such curricula, and

Whereas, the Bible teaches that the companion of fools will be destroyed (Pr.13:20), and that people are prone to be deceived into thinking that evil company will not corrupt them (1Cor.15:33), it is incumbent upon ministers of the gospel to warn God's people that their children are being corrupted by spending half of their waking hours instructed by teachers who are required by law to inculcate a Godless education...

Wow. The language here is way harsh. Whatever happened to Christ's teaching that we are to be "in the world but not of it?" I was taught IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST BIBLE LESSONS, and believe, that this meant that Christians are not to withdraw from the world, in which case we would have no influence on it or opportunity to bear witness to Christ's teachings, but that we are to hold ourselves apart from corruption. In other words, I may hear dirty words at the office, but I am not to repeat them. I may be given an immoral order from my commander in Iraq, but I am not to obey it. Christ doesn't instruct us to seek employment from Christian-only businesses or to avoid military service.

And there's more to this story. The move is part of a larger campaign to support "separation of SCHOOL and state." The Alliance for the Separation of School and State is running an Internet-based "Proclamation for the Separation of School and State", whose signers include Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza; Prof. Thomas Szasz, author of "The Myth of Mental Illness;" 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto; home school leader Mary Pride; Cato Institute President Edward Crane; Conservative Caucus founder Howard Phillips; Minority Leader of the Colorado State Senate, John K. Andrews, Jr.; and religious leaders Dr. Tim LaHaye, author of the popular "Left Behind" series; Dr. D. James Kennedy, Brig. Gen T.C. Pinckney, USAF ret., 2nd VP of the Southern Baptist Convention, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and the late Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Here's how the proclamation reads: "I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education."

Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, urged California parents to withdraw their children from the state's public schools in 2002. When Dr. Laura said on her April 9 broadcast, "I stand with Dr. James Dobson: Take your kids out of public schools," she went even beyond Dr. Dobson, who had limited his comments to California. On the same day, popular Christian talk show host Marlon Maddoux also gave his support to Dr. Dobson.

More to come...