Southern Baptist Battle for Christian Education Moves to the States

Pinckney-Shortt Christian Education Resolution Inspires Resolutions in at Least 10 Conventions Covering 15 States

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - When T.C. Pinckney, retired brigadier general and prominent Southern Baptist leader, and Bruce N. Shortt, a Houston, TX attorney and home school father of three children, first joined forces to ask the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to consider a resolution urging Southern Baptist parents to pull their children out of public schools and provide them with a Christian Education, they didn't foresee that their effort would inspire Baptist leaders in at least 10 conventions to introduce similar resolutions in the SBC's state and regional conventions this October and November.

The sponsors of the state Christian education resolutions see a pressing need for continuing the debate over Christian education that was begun by the Pinckney-Shortt resolution.

Roger Moran, a prominent Southern Baptist leader from Missouri and member of the SBC executive committee, calls for bold Christian leadership in education:

"One of the great tragedies of American Christianity has been the near universal failure of its leaders to boldly proclaim the inherent dangers lurking within America's government owned and controlled schools. As the educational philosophy of public schools increasingly mirrors the anti-Christian philosophy of our activist judges the time has come to proclaim with absolute clarity that "render unto Caesar" was never intended to include the hearts and minds of our children."

Pastor Larry Reagan, a leader in Christian education and the editor of the Concerned Tennessee Baptists' newsletter, also puts it bluntly:

"Increasingly pastors are concluding that the profound decline in standards in the public schools make them unfit places for Christian children. This is becoming a very hot issue among Baptists and other evangelical Christians. As pastors we need to step up to the challenge by making sure Christian Children receive a Christian education 24/7."

According to Wiley Drake, a well-known Southern California Baptist pastor and broadcaster:

"As Christians, we must rescue our children from public schools. They are being coerced and persecuted there. Frankly, speaking as a pastor who has observed the deterioration of public schools for many years, I would say that Christian parents who are putting their children in public schools today are endangering their children spiritually, emotionally, physically, and educationally. This debate is important because parents need to know how toxic public schools have become."

Like the Pinckney-Shortt resolution, the state Christian education resolutions typically cite multiple powerful reasons for the need to remove Southern Baptist children from public schools. Those reasons include such considerations as research results showing the negative effects of public schooling on the attitudes and beliefs of Christian children, the 2002 finding by the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life that 88 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church after the age of 18, and the fact that nearly 3,000 public middle and high schools have homosexual clubs and public schools are rapidly adopting curricula and policies teaching that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable.

The SBC state conventions have their meetings in late October and early November, and the sponsors of the state Christian education resolutions plan to have their resolutions debated at their state conventions.

The original Pinckney-Shortt resolution garnered significant national media attention, including articles in the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, The Washington Times and the Boston Globe, among many others.

Cal Thomas described the original Pinckney-Shortt resolution in a June 14, 2004, Op-Ed as "…what could be the most radical and most successful education reform proposal ever made."

Columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote May 9, 2004 in the Boston Globe, "I'm not a Southern Baptist or even a Christian - I'm a religious Jew - but I vote with Pinckney and Shortt. Parents who take their faith seriously ought to think twice before putting their kids' education in the hands of the state. If war is too important to be left to the generals, the shaping of children's minds and values is surely too important to be left to government educators."

The Pinckney-Shortt Christian Education Resolution also received powerful endorsements from the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the premier home school organization in the USA, and from Joel Belz, publisher and founder of WORLD Magazine, the largest evangelical news magazine in the USA.

Joel Belz stated in his June 5, 2004 WORLD Magazine editorial, "I speak fairly often around the country on behalf of Christian schools and homeschool groups. Wherever I go, I try to make just two points: Pick a school that tells the truth. And pick a school that works. It's a sad conclusion to draw, but more and more obvious, that public, state-sponsored education increasingly flunks both those simple tests. It lies to or at least misleads our children about the most important issues of life. And increasingly, it fails to prepare our children for the marketplace in which they are called on to work."

Additional information, including the text of a typical state resolution, can be found at www.exodusmandate.org and www.getthekidsout.org

CONTACT:

State and Regional Sponsor Contacts

Tennessee: Pastor Larry Reagan 731-225-2628, 731-364-6724

Missouri: Roger Moran 636-668-8055

South Carolina: Dr. Henry Jordan 864-226-4551

California: Pastor Wiley Drake 714-865-8132

Baptist Convention of New England (Conn., VT, ME, MA, RI, NH): Pastor Jonathan Black 401-849-0210

Illinois: Pastor Pat Pajak 217-877-5653

Florida: Dr. Robert Dreyfus 352-288-0090

Texas: Pastor Grady Arnold 713-305-0320

Virginia: T.C. Pinckney 703-780-1566

North Carolina: Pastor Creighton Lovelace 828-245-1057

General Contacts

T.C. Pinckney: 703-780-1566

Bruce Shortt: 832-483-8882

E. Ray Moore, Jr.: 803-714-1744

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Additional Media:

Townhall.com: "Giving Exodus a New Meaning" By Cal Thomas (6/14/04)
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/printct20040614.shtml

WORLD Magazine: "Public Divide: Southern Baptists are about to take up a crucial debate over Christian children and state schools" By Joel Belz and the Editors, (6/5/04) http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/06-05-04/opening_1.asp

Education Week: "Vote Sought on Public School 'Exodus'" By Mary Ann Zehr, (5/26/04) http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=38Baptist.h23

Wall Street Journal: "There's No Place Like Home - The Secular Case for Home-schooling" by Diana West, (5/21/04) http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110005109

Washington Times: "Southern Baptists Eye Exiting Public Schools"
By Julia Duin (5/12/04) http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040511-111759-5766r.htm

World Net Daily: "Baptist Activists: Pull kids out of school - Resolution urges members to reject government education" By Ron Strom (5/4/04) http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38322

Ron Strom, "Christian-education push goes to states Baptist resolutions urge members to pull kids from public schools", WorldNet Daily, September 28, 2004: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40649