4/26/2006

Resolution for SBC Annual Meeting Urges Action on Call for an Exit Strategy from Public Schools
and Asks That Particular Attention be Given to Needs of Orphans, Single Parents, and the Disadvantaged Leading SBC Grassroots Activist, Dr. Rick Scarborough, and Dr. Voddie Baucham Strongly Endorse Resolution

COLUMBIA, SC, April 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- At the 2005 SBC Annual Meeting the messengers adopted a resolution urging churches and parents to investigate their public schools to determine, among other things, whether they are endangering children in their care by collaborating with homosexual activists. Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, weighed in on the controversy stating that “We have no reason to believe that next year will not bring even more urgent concerns related to public education” and declaring that it is time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools. http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2005-06-17

Roger Moran, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee and a leader in the Missouri Baptist Convention, and Dr. Bruce N. Shortt, co-sponsor of the 2004 and 2005 Christian Education Resolutions and author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, have submitted a resolution for consideration at the 2006 SBC Annual Meeting urging churches to heed Dr. Mohler’s call to develop an exit strategy from the public schools that will give particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged. The resolution also urges the agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention to assist churches as they develop their exit strategies and commends Christians working in government schools.

Dr. Rick Scarborough, Founder of Vision America, the leading Southern Baptist grassroots activist, and author of the recently released Liberalism Kills Kids, strongly endorses the resolution and sees an urgent need for the SBC to plan an exit strategy: “Public Schools have long ceased to be a positive reinforcer of traditional values. In fact, they are not even neutral on many crucial issues which are important to people of faith. Unfortunately, public education has been hijacked by people who reject Biblical teachings on man's origin, the proper role of sex and the acceptability of homosexuality. These are non- compromising issues for Christians.”

Dr. Scarborough also believes strongly that the messengers at the 2006 Annual meeting should have an opportunity to vote on the resolution: “Education in the public sector now aggressively undermines Biblical values. Our children deserve better and Southern Baptists should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about this.”

Roger Moran notes that the worldview promoted by the government’s schools is far from “neutral” and commends Dr. Mohler for his wisdom and courage:

“The last two decades have established beyond doubt that America’s public school system is the “golden calf” of the religious left. Religious and secular Left organizations like the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, The Interfaith Alliance, the ACLU and the National Education Association have created a unified voice in support of the current course of public education. These far-left organizations understood with absolute clarity that if their version of “separation of church and state” could be implemented by the courts, they could universally prevent the views and values of a conservative Biblical worldview from competing in the public schools with the secular worldview of America’s religious / political far-left.

But not only are the public schools the golden calf of the religious left, they have also become their Trojan Horse, playing a major role in infiltrating and destroying the faith of those we have been commanded to train up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Dr. Al Mohler’s call for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools was not only wise, but courageous, for multitudes of our own people still don’t see the inherent dangers. The time has come for the debate to begin.”

Dr. Voddie Baucham endorses the resolution because he knows from personal experience how the government school monopoly fails millions of children every day: “I know what its like to be a poor kid trapped in underperforming schools. Being raised by a single mother in the inner city, 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. The SBC needs to have a comprehensive plan to create a new system of Baptist education open to everyone, and that plan needs to take a clear stand on behalf of kids who find themselves in the same predicament I was in. If we stand together on this we can be true to article XII of the BF&M and use education as a missional outreach in Urban America. If we don’t, we will continue to tell poor kids in failing schools that we don’t care that their future is being stolen from them.”

Dr. Shortt argues that this is an issue that must be faced squarely: “The government’s schools haven’t merely failed; they are destroying our children spiritually and morally. Academically, the public school system is as dead as Elvis. Unfortunately, many Christian pastors and leaders still try to evade the cold, hard facts by talking about ‘school reform’ and ‘salt and light.’ Well, we’ve tried that strategy for forty years and more, and, after trillions of dollars of reform, anyone who takes a serious look at the consequences of our government school habit can see that the Church has been hemorrhaging children for more than a generation and that the public schools are stuck on stupid morally and academically. If you approve of a school system that is indoctrinating children with cultural Marxism and dogmatic Darwinism, devoting increasing time and resources to instructing children in the colorful folkways of homosexuality, and preparing them for a future as hewers of wood and drawers of water, by all means continue talking about ‘reform’ and children as missionaries. Responsible Christians, however, will plan so that no child is left behind.”

E. Ray Moore, Jr, USAR Ret CH(Lt.Col.) founder and Director of Exodus Mandate commented: "The recovery of belief in the authority of Holy Scripture by the Southern Baptists in recent decades has inevitably led many of them also to the threshold of discovering K-12 Christian schooling and home schooling as a Biblical means for the discipling the next generation of Christian youth. Exodus Mandate hopes and prays that the SBC continues its long march to the promised land of K-12 Christian education. As goes the SBC so goes the larger Church in the USA and, as goes the Church, so goes the nation.”

This year’s SBC Annual Meeting will be held June 13- 14 at Greensboro, North Carolina. Additional information, including the text of the resolution, can be found at www.exodusmandate.org .