Public school resolutions again in the fore as SBC annual meeting nears

HOUSTON–For the second straight year, resolutions critical of public schools have been submitted to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolutions Committee, perhaps setting the stage for another debate among messengers at this year’s annual meeting.

In one resolution, two Texans are asking SBC churches to remove children from public schools that affirm homosexual practice. A second resolution–submitted by two pastors from Texas and Tennessee–all but asks Southern Baptists to remove their children from public schools.

Both resolutions commend Christians who serve in public education.

Two Houston-area men, Voddie Baucham and Bruce Shortt, submitted a resolution in May asking SBC churches to determine if their area schools are promoting homosexuality as an “acceptable ‘lifestyle'” and if so, to urge parents to remove their children from that district’s schools.

In an interview with Florida Baptist Witness, SBC president Bobby Welch gave partial support to the prospective anti-public schools resolution.

“My opinion is that we likely need a resolution stating all the things we’re concerned about, but my view is we would be best served by a resolution that falls short of calling for all Christians to be removed from public schools,” the pastor of First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach said.

Baucham is a Christian apologist and frequent speaker at Baptist meetings, and Shortt is an attorney who last year co-authored a much-publicized resolution calling for Baptists to pull their children from public schools. That resolution was not favorably considered by the Resolutions Committee, and messengers declined to approve an amendment from the floor to approve a truncated version of the resolution.

The Baucham-Shortt resolution cites homosexual or diversity clubs and curricula or programs that affirm homosexual practice as ways schools affirm homosexuality.

The resolution also calls on churches to “provide or generously support” Christian schools, homeschooling, and “alternative models for providing Christian education such as University Model Schools and Christian One-Room Schoolhouses, giving particular regard to the needs of children from low-income and single-parent families.”

Baucham, a homeschooling father, told the Southern Baptist TEXAN that he initiated the resolution and invited Shortt to join him in submitting it to the SBC Resolutions Committee after investigating what he calls a “Trojan-horse” approach by homosexual activists to enlist gay clubs, “diversity” clubs and anti-bullying campaigns in public schools. Baucham said he is offended as an African-American that homosexual advocates have successfully attached their agenda to the diversity initiatives of large teachers’ unions such as the National Education Association.

In response to critics’ claims that the resolution fails to take account of Christians’ responsibility to reform the culture, Baucham responded, “If we think pulling our kids out of schools where this is going on is somehow not being salt and light, then we are ripping the Scriptures completely out of context. We’re not sending 10- and 11-year-old kids to the mission fields. Our children are to be formed and shaped and educated with a biblical worldview before we send them out. “

“We’re losing our kids,” Baucham said. “Between 75-88 percent of kids, depending on the study, are not involved in church by their sophomore year in college.”

Baucham said it is conceivable that some parents, especially single parents, have no option but public schools.   “I was raised by that woman,” Baucham said.

“That’s why we’re calling for our churches to provide affordable alternatives.”

The resolution also laments the reduced average lifespan of homosexuals and chronic health problems many of them face, Baucham said.

Grady Arnold, executive director of GetTheKidsOut.org and formerly pastor of Forestwood Baptist Church in New Caney, and David Scarbrough, an education minister from Tennessee, said their resolution is “radical” not because it calls for a public-school exodus but because it calls on Southern Baptists to warn their peers about the “toxic spiritual nature of the government school system,” a new release distributed May 31 stated.

The Arnold-Scarbrough resolution applauds “courageous teachers in government schools who disregard the law and bring their Christian faith into the classroom.”

It also calls “all churches to lovingly warn all of their members concerning the toxic spiritual nature of the government school system, and warn their members concerning the dangers of having a child’s values, morals and ideals shaped by a secular institution. It encourages “all churches to become aggressive and pro-active in starting Christian schools and encouraging homeschooling, and provide their children with Christian alternatives to government education.”

“Southern Baptists have been playing the ‘ostrich with its head in the sand’ routine long enough,” Arnold said. “The time is way overdue that we acknowledge the devastating effects public school is having on the faith of our children.”

The SBC Resolutions Committee will begin deliberating on submitted resolutions later this week. The committee is charged with deciding which resolutions it will bring before messengers during the convention June 21-22 in Nashville.