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."
I'm not familiar with the SBC but I don't doubt that could have motivated some folks back then.
I don't know that it was the SBC specifically. I'm just familiar with several "Christian" schools that came into being for that purpose.
in some cases school districts are even pushing for the Christian idea of Creationism to be taught along-side evolution. If it's going to happen, now is the time.
Democrat LA and AR (temporarily under unpopular Republican governors) passed such laws in 1980 and 1981, but the Supreme Court struck them down as a violation of the "constitutional principle of separation of church and state" in the 1987 case Edwards v. Aguillard.
Sorry you misread me, and I apologize if I gave the wrong impression. I was distinguishing between the three groups: Fundamental Christian, all other religions,
and the wealthy kids going to POSH schools. I have friends and neighbors who also have sacrificed in their budgets to make sure their kids went to parochial school...which, while a huge strain for them, does not classify as a posh school for the wealthy. Wealthy folks spend a minimum of $25,000 per year just for tuition; room and board adds up to another $25,000.
I certainly agree with you there! I would charge that kind of social problem on the shoulders of the parents...not the teachers or the school. If Mom/Dad (assuming the kid has one of each) ignore the media content their offspring
is absorbing, the rest of society eventually pays the price when their Twerp exposes his interpretation of that media. IMO the boy is acting out his EMINEM fantasy.
I confess ignorance of the content of THE HOURS; I don't attend the movies, and our Greatkids see only Pg13 MOVIES as yet. MTV, BET, and daytime soap operas, which I also
skip, are bad enough for me.
I am not even all that strict really. No gay stuff and no naked people. But you'd be shocked at how difficult it is to find a movie without those things these days.
That was an excellent response.
Thank you.
We have eyes RA. Most of us know what you meant and I agree with you. I ignore those who seek to pick a fight where none exists in order to advance their narrow agenda.
Protestant Christians need never ever apologize or feel intimidated by the actions of Medieval Catholics. That is in part why Protestants exist, they PROTEST the Catholic depraved behaviours of the past.
My vehemence is in defense of other peoples right to liberty and freedom of religion.
How dare you suggest you would not give your life to defend those principles.
How dare you compromise your "faith" and be anything less than fully passionate for Christ.
Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first great Commandment." -- Mathew 22:37-38
Too many people claim to be Christian but do not follow that simple Commandment.
If you think other religions can lead you to salvation then you are no Christian. You are a fool for the deceiver.
There is no compromising for Christ. He is the Way.
It is because we are Christian that "peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." -- Patrick Henry
The US Constitution was written by men who practically make George W Bush look like a Godless heathen.
You do not sound like a believer. You dare question the validity and passion of your own faith because of the depravity of catholics in the past?
You are under the spell of the secular, anti-christian deceivers.
Thank you so much!!!
Homeschooling might not be a panacea but considering how public schools are breaking down seems that many who can not afford private schooling are turning to homeschooling as a solution.
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. he said the following about religion in the classroom.
"I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion."Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.
"Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohamed inculcated upon our youth than to see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.
"But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament.
"It is not my prupose to hint at the arguements which establish the truth of the Christian revelation.
"My only business is to declare that all its doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society and the safety and well-being of civil government.
"A Christian cannot fail of being republican...for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy...
"A Christian cannot fail of being useful to the republic, for his religion teaches him that no man 'liveth to himself'.
"And lastly a Christian cannot fail of being wholly inoffensive, for his religion teaches him in all things to do to others what he would wish, in like circumstances, they should do to him." -- Dr. Benjamin Rush, Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786.
His ideas were once upon a time employed in US schools. The Bible was the cornerstone of all education.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton were all founded to teach Christian principles. The first President of Princeton said "Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ."
Today schools have implemented the very thing that Dr. Rush feared, Godless secularism. The worst possible approach. We are suffering greatly for it. It must change.
We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
The thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.
Some of the posted headlines are totally ineffective, I agree, but we are supposed to post the exact headline to make duplicate posts less likely. I added the part in brackets to touch on the theme of the article.
And how would you distinguish that situation from what we have today?
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