Southern Baptists Still Mulling Over Public Schools
The Raleigh News & Observer featured an article in its Lifestyles section entitled "Baptists turn from public schools." I really wish people would get the story straight. The Southern Baptist Convention is slow in turning on the public school issue. In fact, they're still quicker to vote on whether an elder can drink alcohol. In June of last year, USA Today reported...
However, according the News & Observer, some Southern Baptist leaders are more vocal of late because of what they see as the hostility of public education to organized religion:
1. See Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., God Gave Wine: What the Bible Says About Alcohol (Lincoln, CA: Oakdown, 2001).
2. See Rousas John Rushdoony, Intellectual Schizophrenia: Culture, Crisis and Education (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1961).
Southern Baptists won't back public school pulloutThere you have it. They'll make a decision on whether a church leader can drink a beer, but they won't even allow a vote on whether Southern Baptist children should attend a godless public school. This is what our Lord refers to as "gagging on a knat, and then swallowing a camel." It's the height of phariseeism.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention refused Wednesday to support a resolution urging the denomination to form a strategy for removing children from public schools in favor of home schooling or education at private schools.... Also Wednesday, the SBC unofficially barred members who drink alcohol from serving as trustees or members of any SBC entity. The ban, part of a larger anti-alcohol resolution that was easily approved by delegates, was proposed by Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. While stopping short of officially preventing drinkers from serving, it "urges" that no one be elected or appointed to SBC offices if they are "a user of alcohol."
However, according the News & Observer, some Southern Baptist leaders are more vocal of late because of what they see as the hostility of public education to organized religion:
"In the public schools, you don't just have neutrality, you have hostility toward organized religion," said Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest. "A lot of parents are fed up."This still amounts to "talk" right now. The pressure against the SBC speaking out against public education is daunting. This is due largely to the fact that so many Southern Baptist members work in the public education system:
Southern Baptist leaders are careful to reiterate that they have no desire to harm the public schools or offend its workers, many of whom are proud Southern Baptists.It's politics, folks--plain and simple. This is why I always sneer when I hear critics refer to Southern Baptists as "fundamentalists," i.e., stalwarts of Biblical teaching. If the Bible clearly condones the moderate use of alcohol[1], and yet you condemn it; and the Bible clearly instructs parents to provide their children with a Scriptural education[2], and you do nothing; then you are guilty of the most heinous of sins. You are "adding to" and "taking away" from the eternal Word of God that you claim to believe!
1. See Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., God Gave Wine: What the Bible Says About Alcohol (Lincoln, CA: Oakdown, 2001).
2. See Rousas John Rushdoony, Intellectual Schizophrenia: Culture, Crisis and Education (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1961).
