Southern Baptists Prove Their Vigilance
in
Education Through Resolution Debate
Roger
Moran of Winfield, MO, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)
Executive Committee as well as the Research Director of the Missouri Baptist
Laymen’s Association, said now that Southern Baptists have rejected a
resolution calling on them to take their children out of public schools, the
real debate has begun. “Does sending our
children to Caesar’s schools help or hinder kingdom growth?” Moran wondered.
When
it became apparent that the Resolutions Committee at the annual meeting of the
SBC on June 16th would not back the controversial proposal of T.C. Pinckney of
Alexandria, Va., and Bruce Shortt of Spring, Texas,
Moran worked behind the scenes to get Pinckney, a retired Air Force General and
former SBC Second Vice President, to soften the language of his resolution on
withdrawal from public schools. Pinckney then stepped to a microphone to
introduce a compromise calling for Southern Baptists to give their children “a
thoroughly Christian education.” Despite Pinckney's attempt to soften the
language of his resolution, the amendment was overwhelmingly defeated.
“The
amendment to the resolution was dealt with as if it was the original
resolution,” Moran said. “It wasn’t. It was very watered down.”
Moran told members of the Resolutions Committee, with whom he has close working relationships, that he was “deeply grieved” by the defeat of the amendment. Moran, a home school father of eight, said the SBC is like a type of King David rejecting a message from a type of the prophet Nathan -- in this case, General Pinckney.
“All
of biblical Christianity is about that difficult work of making disciples,”
Moran said. “It is heart-wrenching. It is heart-breaking. Sometimes we rejoice,
but it is difficult. What happened out there on the floor of the convention to
me was a difficult thing. Southern Baptists, for whatever reason, were willing
to quench a resolution that I think came from someone who is like an Old Testament prophet, who told us
something that is clearly true. So where do we go from here? We continue to
build a foundation. We will start laying the foundation of why this is as much
a part of the pursuit of holiness as all these other things. We preach against
gambling. We preach against movies that go against what Christ died for. We
preach against music that trivializes sin. We preach against all these things,
and we should also be preaching in favor of the training of our children
systematically in an educational institution or system that is honoring to
Christ.”
SBC
President Jack Graham, whose term ended at the annual meeting, spoke for the
majority of Southern Baptists who opposed the original Pinckney-Shortt resolution by stating, “Southern Baptists are
concerned about the direction of some public schools, but on the other hand
many of our best people -- administrators, teachers, coaches -- are Southern
Baptists working within the public school system all around America.”
Calvin
Wittman, Resolutions Committee Chairman, told
messengers the convention had passed 11 resolutions on education in the last 19
years, supporting public, private and home schooling. David Tolliver, president of the Missouri Baptist Convention and
pastor of Pisgah Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs, agreed with Wittman stating, “I believe all three have their place
[and] I am supportive of all three. The horror stories about public schools
have simply not been my experience.” Tolliver
went on to say, “Parents are responsible for the education of their children.
If parents choose a public school, and if those same parents stay involved in
the educational process to the point where they will correct any bad influence
that is being exerted, children will come out with a Christian worldview. I
would agree that the system is not holy and not pure, but that doesn’t mean
that I’m going to abandon it. I’m going to work to make it better.”
Moran
said that not only is the system unholy and impure, moral relativism is all
that can be taught in ‘godless’ public schools. “I don’t understand the
thinking that says that we need to continue to support and to keep our kids in
the government public schools,” he said. “It’s illogical.”
Tolliver
disagreed. “My experience tells me that is not true,”
he said. “My children were not indoctrinated against God when they were in
public school. How does that square up with the fact that for at least two
years, my wife
Moran agrees with Glen Schultz, director of LifeWay Christian School Resources, who casts the ongoing debate as one of biblical education vs. secular education. “As people of The Book, Southern Baptists should not be afraid to look at Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17 and Luke 20:25. Our government schools are forbidden by the laws of Caesar to train our children in the ways of the Lord. It’s illegal,” Moran said.
Moran
continued, “For four years now in Missouri, we have been preaching on the issue
of holiness. We know that there is only one thing that will empower kingdom
growth, and that is when the people of God decide that they’re going to pursue
with passion that pathway of holiness in purity, obedience and faithfulness.
There seems to be this serious disconnect in Southern Baptist life between what
we say we believe and the lives we live. This [the floor debate and vote on the
Pinckney/Shortt amendment] was a great testimony to
that disconnect. For some reason, we don’t see it. We have been blinded to the
truth that God has called us to train our children. We don’t send them off as
missionaries prior to salvation, and that’s what we have in a lot of our little
kids.”
Tolliver
emphasized that all Southern Baptists reserve the right to train their children
to be godly by means of the public school system. He added that this highly
publicized debate should not be viewed as something that is driving a wedge
between conservatives. On the contrary, he said all Southern Baptists now
have the opportunity to grow spiritually in a very important area -- even
as their leaders respectfully disagree. “It’s a healthy debate,” Tolliver
said. “If we talk about it in the future, that’s OK. I wouldn’t want to put
it to rest. We do need to be vigilant about what’s going on in our children’s
education.”
Allen Palmeri is a
staff writer for The Pathway
newspaper which is the official newspaper of the