Posted on 01/01/2005 7:47:36 AM PST by Theodore R.
Religion in the Classroom By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. — 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 they have increased their share to nearly 1 in 5 private schools in the country.
Last 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.
Glen Schultz heads the Baptists' LifeWay curriculum program for church-based schools and home schoolers.
"It hits everything, when you realize the reality of life is (that) life was created by God and the entire universe is his creation," Schultz said. "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."
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," said the Rev. Larry Reagan of Dresden, who wrote the measure. "I didn't want the resolution to be portrayed as attacking public education."
But the Rev. Mike Boyd of Knoxville, outgoing president of the 1 million-member Tennessee Baptist Convention, worried about the divisiveness of the issue. And the Rev. Grover Westover of Whiteville, chairman of the resolutions committee, said, "It was not wise, is all I am saying."
He said 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."
Very well stated!
Thank you for your candor...I've been less courteous to you than you've been toward me. I apologize.
I will, if you'll bear with me, answer your question as to what will happen to groups "other than" Christians who want to inject their philosophies into this Christian nation.
The answer is found in the Book of Acts, chapter 5, verses 38 and 39.
It's the reply of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law in Jesus' day, to the Jewish Counsel who were worried about the spread of Christianity.
The verses read:(paraphrasing for clarity)
And now I say unto you, (the Jewish Counsel), refrain from these men,(the Christians) and let them alone: for if this work be of men, it will come to nought.
But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it: lest ye be found to fight even against God.
I submit this for your appraisal.
"They do and have for a very long time."
Understandable, and true. My point to this, however, is that if this type of promotion of pulling away from Public Education is going to be offered as alternatives, private Christian schools need to be affordable to those who really do need it, and some curricula would be great for those who can homeschool.
Currently most Religon based private schools are financially unobtainable, especially for one income families. There are financial aid cases each school in our area offer, but my children will graduate before making the acceptance list.
Personally, I am a homeschooling Mother of 3. That is why I can base my opinion that not everyone is capable of homeschooling. It's hard work, we've sacrificed financially, and it can become BEYOND stressful at some times.
I would certainly love the assistance of the Church, as my school expenses come straight out of our pockets, with no tax break of any kind, and we still have to pay for the PS's failing school system.
"A circule is not an ellispe!" Memorial Crackpot Placemarker
"Government takes your money and teaches your kids what to think regardless of what the parents want is evil. No matter what is taught."
If the schools could get back to the basics, and leave the parenting to parents, we'd all benefit.
Will that happen? No way.
Want to see the PTA's recent involvement with the PS's and Homosexuality? Talk about teaching kids what to think....
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/72004a.asp
Damn well said...
"Homeschooling is not an option for everyone."
Unfortuately that's true...
Any number of parents have been subjected to a public school education and aren't qualified, (even if they were motivated), to teach anyone anything...
My complaint is that I hear too many stories of the public school being forbidden from acknowledging the place of God in our Western culture and laws. And the apparent banishment of the discussion of right and wrong and absolute standards.
The only message left is 'do your thing'. It has only been in the last few years that I've come to realize this philosophy directly leads to 'right makes right'.
-- Joe
P.S. The acceptance of homosexuality and callous disregard for the health risks of any kind of promiscuity are aother good reasons to be wary of public schools
No. LOL! I was just responding to what someone else said about their kid never setting foot in a public school. LOL!
Amen brother.
Really?
Happy New Year to you as well! :-)
For a time, all the "Christian" schools were really created so the little white children wouldn't have to go to school with the little black children.
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