Posted on 12/03/2004 1:06:08 AM PST by nickcarraway
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Frustration with public education seems to be growing among the nation's Southern Baptists, with supporters of Christian schools and home schooling arguing that if God is absent from the classroom then their children should leave, too.
``What has happened is not so much that the Christians are leaving the public schools as that the public schools have left the Christians,'' advocate Ed Gamble said.
Gamble is executive director of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, an Orlando, Fla.-based group that supports the more than 600 Southern Baptist schools created in the past eight years.
``As the public schools have become increasingly secular and increasingly intolerant of things Christian, people who are openly Christian have said, 'I guess they are not part of our team anymore,''' Gamble said.
The number of conservative Christian schools grew by nearly 11 percent between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002, to 5,527, according to the U.S. Department of Education's latest statistics.
At that rate, Christian schools are growing faster than private schools as a whole, and have increased their share to nearly 1 in 5 private schools in the country.
Earlier this year, a resolution proposed at the national meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention -- which guides the nation's largest Protestant denomination -- urged parents to withdraw their children from ``officially Godless'' ``government schools'' in favor of religious education.
While the measure was rejected, interest in faith-based schools has continued to spread among Baptists at the state level, particularly in Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, South Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, California and New England, according to Exodus Mandate, a Columbia, S.C., group that promotes private, Christian and home-school education.
A recent resolution promoting Christian schooling easily passed the Missouri Baptist Convention but was quashed in committee at the Tennessee Baptist Convention meeting in Sevierville last month.
The Missouri resolution talked about the ``inherent dangers of secular educational philosophies that now permeates America's public education system'' and affirmed ``the importance of systematically training ourselves and our children in the ways of authentic, biblical Christianity.''
``What we are saying is that God has given us some very specific commands that we are to train our children in the ways of the Lord, not in the ways of the world,'' said the Rev. Roger Moran, of Troy, Mo., the resolution's author and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee.
That means teaching creationism over evolution, that life begins at conception, and that homosexuality is immoral, as is sex outside of marriage. But it is more.
``It hits everything, when you realize the reality of life is (that) life was created by God and the entire universe is his creation. Therefore, everything has meaning and reflection on his nature, whether it is math or history or science. Two plus two equals four because God created them that way,'' said Glen Schultz, who heads the Baptists' LifeWay curriculum program for church-based schools and homeschoolers.
The Tennessee resolution came one step short of asking Baptist parents to pull their children from public schools.
``I wanted to be positive in promoting Christian education. I didn't want the resolution to be portrayed as attacking public education,'' said the Rev. Larry Reagan, of Dresden, who wrote the measure.
But the Rev. Mike Boyd of Knoxville, outgoing president of the 1 million-member Tennessee Baptist Convention, worried about the divisiveness of the issue.
``It was not wise, is all I am saying,'' added the Rev. Grover Westover, of Whiteville, chairman of the resolutions committee.
Reagan's resolution would have promoted more ``Kingdom education'' schools following LifeWay's lead. Schultz said the program has reached some 150 churches since 1996.
``We encourage our members to pray for this ministry and we encourage the promotion of an adequate system of Christian schools,'' Reagan said.
Boyd agreed there were ``some serious issues in the public schools'' to resolve but said the focus should be on supporting the teachers working in them, including many Baptists, and parents.
``Historically, Baptists have been pretty staunch supporters of the public school system, and they still are,'' said Gamble, who was not surprised to see the convention resolutions fail.
``But this is a bottom-up movement, as it is a bottom-up denomination. This is not a movement that is being led so much by pastors as it is being led by moms and dads who are frustrated.''
``And some day, I don't know how long it will be, most of the kids will be educated in Southern Baptist schools or in their homes.''
There ya go!
Don't run: FIGHT!!!!
You can't win against logic like that.
Give it up, while you still have your sanity.
Mandate was what was happening with the "RESOLUTION". I read between the lines.
Are you REALLY an atheist; or could you be an agnostic instead?
Okay, your right, because you all seem to be misreading my point. I hope you all pray hard about this. I hope you all understand it should not be forced upon people who may not be capable of doing this type of education. I am not going to say homeschooling is the greatest and everyone should do it, that it absolutely insane. It is HARD WORK.
I have served in the military, I have worked for quite a few years in the work force, but none of that was ever working hard in comparison to homeschooling. Of course, the reward is the results, which makes it worthwhile for me and my children.
Now if the Baptists push for vouchers for school of choice, I will back them 100%. But I just cannot get behind the idea that homeschooling should be pushed by the Church, instead of a parent's calling.
And I guess, I will let you all go on saying that it's okay for yet another group to dictate what is deemed acceptable and correct for everyone.
There are no mandates mentioned in the article. The SBC doesn't mandate to me how to educate my children. Never has and never will.
Learn to read what is ON the lines.
You're spending too much time "between the lines".
I do not want to be lumped in with a crowd that has been given orders.
There you go again. What "orders"?
My children were in a Baptist school and the Pastor told the congregation that if anyone took one cent from the government because their children were in church school they would be asked to remove their children from the school.
That was 25 years ago and it was an individual Minister not the SBC.
I have read that article three times and can only say that it is a positive statement by the SBC.
They are advising parents to get their children out of the Godless public schools. (That's a good thing)
They aren't "dictating", "ordering" or "mandating" anything to anybody.
You have read all of those things into it.
The SBC does not have evil intent and they are not wrong to believe that parents should choose alternatives to public schools if at all possible.
From the positive statements you have made in your posts I think that you and the SBC are pretty much in agreement about how and what values children should learn. Don't be so hard on them.
That's a wise pastor. We homeschool and it has always been my feeling that accepting any tax credits would open the door that much wider.
Yes, you are right. I may be too hard on them. I love my Baptist teachings, and incorporate it into my daily education.
I suppose I have become cynical over the years. I believe the intentions are well meant, I just want people to know that they need not feel guilty if they cannot provide this lifestyle for their children, AS LONG AS they stay on top of what is happening in the PS's.
Thank you for pointing out what may have been my own errors of judgement in my posts.
May God bless you in your efforts.
Take a look at this quote:
James Esseks, litigation director for the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that "The schools have great latitude in what they want to teach, including what's in training programs, and the training is now part of the school curriculum. Parents don't get to say I don't want you to teach evolution or this, that or whatever else. If parents don't like it they can homeschool, they can go to a private school, they can go to a religious school."
from here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1292443/posts
Clearly, there is an atmosphere of hostility toward anything or anyone representing Christian or religious moral values within the public school setting.
One of the things that most are not thinking about when home schooling is mention is that you and the child don't have to be at home to be schooled. The church can have classes for home schoolers and have qualified teachers to teach. Just like Sunday school in church with different aged students in different rooms, so can you have everyday school at the same church.
That's really a difficult question to answer. I often say that I'm a soft atheist. Meaning that I don't claim to have all the answers, I don't. I don't claim to understand the origins of the universe, the origins of life, and plenty of other things. Yet, I still call myself an atheist.
However, I avoid the term agnostic, because it gives the impression to christians (in particular) that I admit the possibility that their religion might turn out to be true. I don't. The personofied, anthropormorphized religions with their plethora of god-men possessed of human emotion and foilables are all false.
I want to be so clear on that, that I would never call myself an agnostic. I hope that clears things up.
Tax Credits are not necessary, releasing people from paying taxes for services they do not subscribe to would be enough.
Tax Credits mean you have to pay a thief on the promise of a refund, minus the costs of counting your money of course.
Mandatory education taxes are unfair.
Clarification is needed here, I think.
Keep in mind that this is the Southern Baptist Convention we're talking about. This proposal would not be a mandate or inforceable in any way to any churchmember.
Southern Baptist Churches are independent entities, and are not governed by the convention. It is a confederation, and each church is free to do whatever they want to do. (Although in the very rare instances that a SB church has moved to beliefs completely opposite from core Baptist beliefs, they have been "invited to leave")
Fletcher J
Were these friends you refer to educated in public schools?
Educated in Public Schools, as I was. But we all moved on to complete college.
And I do understand your point.
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