Southern Baptists vow 'godly influence' on public schools

June 15, 2006

By ADELLE M. BANKS
c. 2006 Religion News Service

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Southern Baptists overwhelmingly passed a resolution Thursday (June 14) that calls on churches to exert "godly influence" upon the nation's public schools, sidestepping a proposal that called for an "exit strategy" from the schools.

"We realized that we simply cannot abandon the public schools," Tommy French, chairman of the resolutions committee and pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., said at a news conference after the resolution was adopted.

He cited single mothers who cannot afford private schools and homes with two working parents who cannot home-school their children.

"We cannot withdraw from the world, so we encourage people not to withdraw but rather to engage the schools," he said.

Delegates, or messengers, from the 16.2 million-member denomination ended their two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The adopted resolution affirmed the "hundreds of thousands of Christian men and women who teach in our public schools" and urged Southern Baptist churches to encourage members to run for local school boards. It also stated that "public schools continue to adopt and implement curricula and policies teaching that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable."

Southern Baptists also adopted a resolution that called on school boards to accommodate parents who want their children to attend off-campus biblical education during the school day.

In recent years, proposed resolutions with stronger, more critical language about public schools failed to gain traction at previous conventions. A proposal introduced this year encouraged Southern Baptist agencies to "assist churches in the development of exit strategies from the government schools" but was sidestepped by delegates. A pastoral letter developed by the Baptist Center for Ethics countered that proposal by urging "a halt to the demonization of public schools."

Bruce Shortt, a Texas attorney and home-schooling father who co-authored this year's proposed resolution, said he doesn't think joining school boards are the answer.

"Running for the school board would have been a really effective thing to do in 1906, but it's irrelevant in 2006," he said. "School boards have very little power anymore."

He found the resolution on off-campus biblical instruction more positive and "a partial-exit strategy.

"They're calling on school districts to accommodate churches and parents in removing their children from school during school hours to give them Bible training," he said.

But he said his proposal, co-authored by SBC Executive Committee member Roger Moran of Missouri, never had the intent of encouraging the removal of Christian teachers from public schools.

"We think we should be sending our adults in, but we need to get our kids out," he said.